PostPartisan - Martin O'Malley: the Democrats' rising star?

O'Malley, who won by 14 percentage points statewide, ran up his numbers in large part thanks to suburban Montgomery and Prince George's counties. He won more than three-quarters of roughly 470,000 votes cast in those two jurisdictions combined, including nearly 89 percent in Prince George's, his biggest margin anywhere in the state. His combined margin of victory in the two counties, about 262,000 votes, exceeded his overall statewide margin of 234,000 votes. In other words, without Montgomery and Prince George's, and Mr. O'Malley would have lost the election. (The City of Baltimore also chipped in, giving Mr. O'Malley, the former mayor, a cushion of 100,000 more votes than Mr. Ehrlich received.)