O'Malley and Brown became the first gubernatorial ticket in Maryland history to receive more than one million votes.

[3][4] While Ehrlich won a clear majority of Maryland's counties, he lost in the area between Baltimore and Washington, which accounts for more than 90% of the state's population.

In his first term as governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley had made accomplishments, including raising total state tax collections by 14%.

Through his strenuous lobbying, he also implemented on a statewide level, Maryland StateStat One, the same CitiStat system he used to manage the city of Baltimore as mayor.

One off his first actions as governor was to close the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup, a notoriously violent maximum-security prison.

O'Malley again chose incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown as his running mate.

These include Terrapin basketball standout and Memphis Grizzlies NBA draft pick Greivis Vásquez and his former lieutenant governor who was then the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

He was also supported by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"[30] To that end, the Republicans placed thousands of Election Day robocalls to Democratic voters, telling them that O'Malley had won, although in fact the polls were still open for some two more hours.