In the final days of the race for governor, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey is counting on the passion of her supporters -- and a heightened last-minute television ad campaign -- to overcome her well-financed Democratic opponent, Parris N. Glendening.
Unlike Mr. Glendening -- who plans on spending a total of $6
million in his gubernatorial bid, $2.5 million of it in the eight-week general election campaign -- Mrs. Sauerbrey is limited to spending just under $1 million in the general election because she has accepted public financing.
That puts her at a distinct dis- advantage for buying expensive television advertising time, which in the past 20 years has come to be viewed as a must for the successful candidate.
Mr. Glendening, who has already raised a record amount for a Maryland political candidate, has outspent Mrs. Sauerbrey for media by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, $1,035,000 to $540,000, according to campaign finance reports filed Oct. 28.
Yet polls show that Mrs. Sauerbrey, the Maryland House minority leader from Baltimore County, is neck and neck with Mr. Glendening, the Prince George's County executive. This in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-to-1, and where a Republican has not been sent to the second floor of the State House in 28 years.
So how does a Republican with a conservative platform win Tuesday's election?
"Foot soldiers," Mrs. Sauerbrey replied yesterday.
"What we won the primary with was having a very strong grass-roots campaign around the state, and it's only gotten bigger and better," she said.
Even Democrats acknowledge that her campaign has cultivated voters who are so gripped by her message -- shrinking government and cutting personal income taxes by 24 percent over four years -- that they are sure to turn out to vote for her.
"We can't compete on the money," Mrs. Sauerbrey said. "He's trying to win with a media blitz, but I think we can overcome it with the activists out in the trenches."
Mrs. Sauerbrey also is relying on so-called free media -- &r; newspaper, radio and television interviews -- to get her message out. And she's benefiting from pro-gun, anti-abortion and other conservative groups that are working on her behalf.
The campaign does not discount the importance of advertising.
"We bought more [radio and television advertising] for the last week of the campaign than we had for any previous week," said Carol L. Hirschburg, director of communications for Mrs. Sauerbrey's campaign. "We're spending roughly $300,000 for radio and television in the Baltimore, Washington, Hagerstown and Salisbury markets."
That, said Ms. Hirschburg, will all but wipe out Mrs. Sauerbrey's campaign balance, except for "a reserve, just to make sure we cover our ending expenses, phone bills and things of that nature."
The campaign's advertising effort is being augmented on radio with spots paid for by an independent group backing her, Friends of Sauerbrey, a conservative, pro-business political action committee that until Tuesday had been known as Citizens to Save Maryland.
The group earlier had tried to launch a small anti-Glendening television ad campaign but was stymied in its efforts when stations refused to air the spots. It was successful yesterday in getting 60-second radio spots with a similar theme -- Prince George's increased crime rate during Mr. Glendening's 12 years as county executive -- onto the air in Baltimore and Washington.
Lisa G. Renshaw, the Baltimore-area parking lot owner who chairs the PAC, said yesterday that the group has raised about $140,000 to supplement the Sauerbrey campaign's efforts. About $50,000 of that will be used for the radio ads.
Ms. Renshaw also said the group on Wednesday began mailing out 200,000 pieces of literature criticizing Mr. Glendening to "likely voters in Montgomery County."
In opting to accept public financing for her campaign, Mrs. Sauerbrey agreed to limit her spending to $997,800. But under the law, independent expenditure campaigns such as Ms. Renshaw's can raise and spend any amount, provided their activities are not coordinated with the Sauerbrey campaign.
But the Glendening campaign suggests that there appears to be some coordination between the independent groups and the Sauerbrey campaign -- which the Republicans repeatedly have denied.
"They are making numerous attempts to circumvent the spending limits," said David Seldin, spokesman for the Glendening campaign. "Clearly all of these so-called 'independent expenditure campaigns' are staffed and funded by people with long-standing ties to Sauerbrey, and many of the local GOP party organizations are distributing what is essentially Sauerbrey literature."
Mr. Seldin pointed out that Mrs. Sauerbrey is getting help from groups such as the National Rifle Association, which has sent out at least three mailings supporting her for her opposition to gun control.
Another group, United Sportsmen for Sauerbrey, has raised more than $20,000 in part by sponsoring a $5-a-ticket raffle in which the prizes are a semiautomatic pistol, a pair of expensive shotguns and four cases of 12-gauge shotgun shells.