When Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. picked Mary D. Kane as his running mate June 30, the former governor added a Catholic to the Republican ticket.
The selection means that three of the four major candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are Catholic. Democratic Gov. Martin J. O’Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown are also Catholic.
Kane, the daughter of Irish immigrants, grew up in Wilmington, Del. She graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg in 1984 and The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.
She has been active at Our Lady of Mercy in Potomac, where she was elected to the parish council. Kane, who served in the Ehrlich administration as secretary of state, has also sat on the board of the Mater Dei School in Bethesda and has been involved in the John Carroll Society and the National Alumni Council of Mount St. Mary’s University.
O’Malley, who was raised in Bethesda and Rockville, attended Our Lady of Lourdes School in Bethesda, Gonzaga College High School in Washington and The Catholic University of America. While a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi in Baltimore, he served on the Baltimore City Council before being elected mayor of Baltimore in 1999 and governor in 2006.
Brown, a parishioner of St. Joseph in Largo, was born in Huntington, N.Y. The Harvard-educated attorney served in the U.S. Army and spent time in Iraq. He is a former member of the House of Delegates and was elected lieutenant governor in 2006. Brown received a Bicentennial Medal from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2008.
The Catholic Review will provide extensive coverage of the candidates and their positions on the issues in the coming weeks.