Slots advocates in Maryland have been buoyed by a new internal poll showing 63 percent of likely voters supporting November's referendum, with 34 percent saying they would vote against it and only 3 percent undecided.

The results are summarized in a June 3 memorandum from pollster Frederick S. Yang to the ballot-issue committee, For Maryland For Our Future, which is leading the charge to legalize up to 15,000 slot machines in the state.

The findings by the GarinHartYang Research Group are more rosy for slots proponents than those from an independent poll released in January by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies. That poll found 54 percent of regular voters saying they would vote for slots, 38 percent saying they would vote against legalizing the machines and 8 percent undecided.

Laslo V. Boyd, a partner with Gonzales, said several factors could explain the different results, including polling methodology and an economy that has deteriorated since January. Slots supporters are pitching revenue from the machines as a means to balance the state budget.

Boyd said he "wouldn't rule out the possibility things have changed" but cautioned against reading too much into poll results this far from the November election. In several other states, support for gambling initiatives has deteriorated in the past as the vote approached.

Yang's memo says that the low number of undecideds suggests "an electorate that essentially has made up its mind of this high-profile issue."

According to his poll, support for slots is nearly identical in the Washington and Baltimore media markets, among white and black voters and among Democrats and Republicans.

The poll of 803 likely Maryland voters was conducted between May 19 and 21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, according to Yang's memo.

The frigid relationship between Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos recently thawed long enough for the two men to share a meal in Baltimore's Little Italy.

O'Malley and Angelos were brought together for dinner at Boccaccio this month by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), O'Malley confirmed last week.

"It was a very cordial and casual conversation," Miller said, when later asked about the gathering. "It was about moving forward in the future. None of the problems of the past were brought up."

The shared enmity dates to the early days of O'Malley's tenure in Baltimore, when the young mayor and Angelos, a wealthy trial lawyer and member of the city's old guard, sparred over development and other issues.

O'Malley irked Angelos later by saying he could support a new baseball club in Washington while Angelos was fighting the idea.

Though a prolific donor to Democrats nationally, Angelos cozied up to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation, whom O'Malley defeated in November 2006.

It remains to be seen whether the dinner signals a new direction in the personal and political relationships between the governor and Angelos, who declined to comment through a representative.

"The governor was happy to accept the invitation," said O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese. "It was a very forward-looking dinner."

Former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) is shown perched casually on the edge of his State House desk, on which three pieces of legislation passed during his tenure are resting. Former first lady Kendel Ehrlich is depicted on a staircase of the governor's mansion, in a striking green dress, with pictures of the couple's two boys hanging behind her on the wall.

The official state portraits of both Ehrlichs were formally unveiled tonight in a ceremony that drew hundreds of supporters and dignitaries to the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis.

"We're extremely honored to become part of the history of this great state," Kendel Ehrlich told the crowd, which included Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who in 2006 defeated Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation.

O'Malley was greeted with a smattering of polite applause when introduced during the ceremony.

The event marked a departure from past portrait unveilings, which have been separate, smaller affairs for former governors and their first ladies.

Ehrlich deflected questions from reporters about whether he is interested in a rematch with O'Malley in 2010, saying "tonight is really about the past."

The bills depicted on Ehrlich's desk expanded charter schools in Maryland, established a Cabinet-level department of disabilities, and provided new funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup.

Ehrlich's portrait was painted by Will Wilson, a friend from grade school who now lives in San Francisco. Kendel Ehrlich's portrait was painted by Moe Hanson of Annapolis.

Serving as master of ceremonies at the event was Edward T. Norris, who served as police commissioner during Martin O'Malley's early years as mayor of Baltimore before being lured away by Ehrlich in late 2002 to become state police superintendent. Past tensions between O'Malley and Norris, who now hosts a radio show in Baltimore, went unmentioned.

The FBI investigation of Sen. Ulysses Currie has sparked a war of words between leaders of Maryland's political parties, with Republicans saying the Prince George's lawmaker is part of "a culture of corruption" in Annapolis and Democrats defending his integrity.

Following last week's raid of Currie's home and the headquarters of a grocery chain for whom he has consulted, Maryland GOP Chairman James Pelura called on Currie to step down, at least temporarily, as chairman of the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

"The people of Maryland place their trust and faith in honest government, but unfortunately, the question is not whether we will discover another corrupt, Democratic legislator, but when?" Pelura said in a statement.

In a statement issued yesterday, Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Michael Cryor said that Currie had earned "bipartisan respect and praise for his integrity and fairness."

"We would be wise to reserve judgment on any man or woman with such a track record until all the facts are in and the scrutiny has run its course," Cryor said, accusing Republicans of using "a smear tactic to score political points."

Currie has not disclosed his consulting activities for Shoppers Food and Pharmacy in ethics filings.

Prosecutors yesterday issued a wide-ranging subpoena, seeking documents and computer files from his office and that of his committee.

Summer has yet to arrive, but the rhetoric over November's referendum on legalizing slots in Maryland is already heating up.

Yesterday the ballot issue committee supporting slots put out a press release claiming the ballot issue committee opposing slots "endorses higher taxes" and "also proposes cutting essential public services."

What evidence is there for this?

For Maryland For Our Future, the pro-slots group, cited a story on the Web site of WMDT, a TV station on the Eastern Shore, that covered a rally last week by Maryland United To Stop Slots.

The story said that while Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has said slots revenue is needed to avoid tax increases and spending cuts, Hilary Spence, the treasurer of the anti-slots group, said this of slots revenue: "It's really a tax on the poor, and I think people need to tighten their belts or unfortunately raise taxes."

Spence, reached yesterday, said she had no recollection of making the comments. But, she said, even if she had said them in some context, she was not advocating tax increases or cutting essential services. "Certainly that's not what we're advocating at all," she said. "It's too bad people take any kind of words and run with it in a direction like this to suit their purpose."

For its part, Spence's group yesterday trumpeted two defections by local business groups from the recent endorsement of the referendum by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

On Friday, the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce voted to remain neutral on the issue. And on Thursday, the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce came out against the referendum, with Mark Leiner, its president, calling slots "a scourge."

"Opposition to slots from Frederick County and Ocean City is part of the larger, state-wide movement against slots casinos in Maryland," Scott Arceneaux, a senior adviser to Marylanders United To Stop Slots, said in a release put out by his group.