Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley cited a scene from a 1935 Marx Brothers film today in making the case that his administration had acted boldly to take responsibility for the state's fiscal challenges.

Speaking to a gathering of the Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce, O'Malley (D)compared Maryland's past practices to a scence from "A Night at the Opera" in which a character played by Groucho Marx is given an inflated dinner bill by a waiter.

"This is an outrage!" the Marx character says, handing the bill to a woman at the table. "If I were you, I wouldn't pay it!"

For too long, O'Malley said, Maryland leaders had been "like Groucho Marx at the dinner table," passing along the state's fiscal challenges without really addressing them.

O'Malley credited his administration with tackling a $1.7 billion structural deficit though a combination of spending cuts and tax increases -- the latter of which have generated far more media attention.

"It was hard, and it was painful," O'Malley told the luncehon crowd, gathered in Ritchie Coliseum on the campus of the University of Maryland at College Park.

O'Malley said the effort had allowed the state to preserve its AAA bond rating and continue investing in priorities such as education and public safety. The governor devoted the balance of his speech to talking about progress made in those and other areas, including minority contracting.

Among those in the audience was former Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), O'Malley's Democratic primary rival for governor in 2006. Duncan is now an administrator at the university.

"It's good to see you again," O'Malley said, acknowledging Dunan's presence.

An executive with Baltimore Gas and Electric told members of the Maryland Public Service Commission today that electricity prices are rising due to global market forces and reregulating the industry would serve to worsen the problem.

The comments came at a public hearing by the commission on its December report that said that seven years after deregulation, state intervention is now needed to prevent further price increases and future electricity shortages. The commission will be finalizing the report over coming months.

Among the report's recommendations was a suggestion that regulators order utility companies to buy power through long-term contracts to provide price stability.

William Pino, a BG&E official, told the commission his company opposes long-term contracts, suggesting they are a gamble that decouples prices from market forces.

Representatives of Maryland's Office of the People's Counsel, which advocates for residential ratepayers, as well as the American Association for Retired People, argued long term contracts could be one part of a strategy to provide customers the best, least volatile prices.

AARP official Barbara R. Alexander urged the commission to move quickly to define new powers it will use to guide the industry, noting it has been two years since the Maryland General Assembly empowered the commission to move towards reregulation.

As it turns out, voter participation in yesterday's special election in Montgomery County Council District 4 was even lower than the Board of Elections first calculated late last night.

Instead of close to 11 percent, turnout was actually 8.56 percent or 8,896 votes cast of the 104,000 registered voters.

Democrat Don Praisner, the widower of council member Marilyn Praisner, defeated Republican Mark D. Fennel with 66 percent of the vote.

Neil Greenberger, the council spokesman, said today that Praisner's swearing in ceremony would take place sometime between May 23 and June 10, when the council returns from a two-week recess.

Democrat Don Praisner has won a low-turnout special election to serve out the term of his late wife, Marilyn, on the Montgomery County Council.

Praisner defeated Republican Mark D. Fennel with 66 percent of the vote in the eastern county's District 4, where Democrats hold a more than two to one edge in registration.

Marilyn Praisner died in February following heart surgery, after serving 17 years on the council. Don Praisner, a retired CIA analyst, campaigned to protect his wife's legacy as a fiscal watchdog and an advocate for slowing down development.

Praisner will not take office until after the council is scheduled to vote on the county budget for fiscal 2009, according to Council President Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty). The specific date for him to be sworn in has not yet been set.

In the Democratic primary last month, Praisner defeated School Board President Nancy Navarro (Northeastern County) with 44 percent of the vote in a four-way race. Navarro raised more than three times as much money as Praisner, and had the backing of a long list of labor, business and development interests.

But Praisner had the advantage of his wife's deep ties to the district that includes parts or all of Aspen Hill, Burtonsville, Colesville, Derwood, Olney, Silver Spring, Wheaton and White Oak. He was endorsed by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and four council members who were often allied with his wife on growth issues. Praisner, 75, has said he will not run for reelection in 2010.

Fennel, 42, pledged to hold the line on property taxes by sticking to Montgomery's charter limit as the county struggles to close an underlying budget gap between revenues and spending. He was the GOP's nominee in 2006, and had hoped to capture support from voters already frustrated by rising costs, such as state taxes and Metro fares.

Voter turnout was light Tuesday, with about 11 percent participation.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said today that he would likely make an announcement early next month about whether he will seek re-election in 2010.

Miller (D-Calvert), who has presided over his chamber for more than two decades, the longest stint in Maryland history, is hosting a fundraiser in Baltimore on June 4.

The Post reported last week the speculation among Senate colleagues and associates that Miller would use the event to announce that he is abandoning previously announced retirement plans.

Addressing reporters this morning, Miller, 65, did not explicitly say what his announcement would be and said he is weighing many factors. All those he named, however, seem to suggest he will run for a 10th term in the Senate.

Among them: His wife is not opposed to his running again. "She indicates it's my decision," Miller said. "She's not adverse to it."

Also: Many, many constitutents have asked him to reconsider his decision. According to Miller, they're saying things like: "We're not sure what the future is going to bring." House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has suggested he run again as well, Miller said.

Moreover, as Senate president, he is uniquely positioned to raise money for other Senate Democrats, and that is more challenging with uncertainty about his future, Miller said.

So stay tuned on June 4. "I'll probably be making an announcement at that time," Miller said.

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson, a Democratic convention delegate pledged to support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, told Washington Post reporter Rosalind S. Helderman yesterday that he thinks Sen. Barack Obama has "in a real sense" won the Democratic nomination and that he now plans to support Obama at the August convention. This is Johnson's second change of heart in the race. He initially allowed himself to be listed as a supporter by the Obama campaign in December, then switched to Clinton in February. Here is Helderman's story.

What do you think about Johnson's argument? Should Clinton's Maryland delegates switch to Obama, in the interests of party unity?

Coming up this week in Maryland politics:

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

A special election will be held Tuesday in County Council District 4 for the seat left vacant by the death of Marilyn Praisner. Praisner's husband, Democrat Don Praisner, a retired CIA analyst, faces Republican Mark D. Fennel, a marketing analyst. The polls in the eastern county district are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. District 4 includes all or parts of Aspen Hill, Burtonsville, Calverton, Cloverly, Colesville, Derwood, Fairland, Olney, Sandy Spring, Silver Spring, Spencerville, Wheaton and White Oak.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

O'Malley will deliver the keynote address at the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce Annual Governor's Luncheon on Wednesday. It will take place at 12:45 p.m., University of Maryland Ritchie Coliseum, Room 1100, College Park.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert), and House Speaker Michael Busch (D-Anne Arundel) will hold a bill signing ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Miller Senate Building West in Annapolis.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) joined Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson (D) and other local leaders at an Upper Marlboro home last night for a fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidate Donna Edwards.

Jack Johnson and Donna Edwards at her political fundraiser in Upper Marlboro. (By Hamil Harris -- The Washington Post)

While Edwards was once a political outsider, her defeat of U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn (D) in the Democratic primary in February turned her into the party standard-bearer as she approaches a June 17 special election. She faces Republican Peter James in that election, called when Wynn decided to resign from his seat.

"I think that it is really important that we all recognize that it is time to move forward," Edwards said last night. "We have a lot on our plate and we can do that separately. We all have to come together to move forward."

In addition to mending political fences, the fundraiser was also an opportunity for leaders from the county's African community to gauge their progress. Many talked about the excitement generated by Sen Barack Obama's candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Edwards is an Obama supporter.

The event was hosted by Alamezie Ojiako, a Nigerian born economist and his wife Ngozi. (By Hamil Harris -- The Washington Post)

"It doesn't matter when your boat arrived in America, we are all here now in the same boat. We are all African people in America," said Alamezie Ojiaku, a Nigerian-born economist who has a business in Largo. "The Obama thing is a near miracle because this is someone who is here from Africa and now he is running for President and is accepted by blacks and whites That is wonderful."

Ngozi Ojiaku, who along with her husband hosted the event, said Obama's campaign is the dream that "Martin Luther King and others have fought for. This reminds us that we all can live that dream. All of King's efforts have not gone in vain."

Michael Ron Worthy, a county lawyer who organized the fundraiser, said, "This shows that Africans and African Americans can do things together. For Congressman Conyers to come out here and be welcomed by the county executive in an African home is historic."

Conyers, an Obama supporter, said the race is all but over for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)

"Statistically, it is all over. In delegates and votes and states and campaign finances, Barack Obama, you can't even touch him," said Conyers. "The thing for us now is try to heal and realize that we have to go out and be united as Democrats because the only way the opposition can win is if they divide us."

Johnson, who endorsed Clinton, said it is a time for Democrats to unite. "We have an unbelievable race in the fall and we have to bridge our differences," he said.

-- Hamil R. Harris

Montgomery County election officials were reprogramming voting machines yesterday after failing to include the party affiliation of candidates on the ballot in Tuesday's special election in County Council District 4.

Two candidates - Republican Mark D. Fennel, a marketing analyst, and Democrat Don Praisner, a retired CIA analyst - are competing to fill the seat left open by the death of Praisner's wife, Marilyn, who represented the eastern county for 17 years.

Board of Elections director Margaret Jurgensen said officials learned of the mistake yesterday and had decided to manually type in the candidates' party affiliations on about 5,000 provisional ballots.

The board also is sending letters to the district's roughly 100,000 registered voters to alert them to the error on their sample ballots and remind them of the May 13 election.

Jurgensen said there could be a silver lining in the mistake. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of attention to this election," she said. "Anything we do will probably help improve turnout."