BALTIMORE – Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley declared a gubernatorial victory last night as results poured in from Democratic strongholds, including Prince George’s County, claiming he had returned Democrats to full control in Annapolis.

Just blocks away, on the mayor’s home turf, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich refused to concede a loss and told supporters that state residents would not know for days who the true winner was. Although he avoided rejecting media outlets’ projections he had been defeated, he told supporters to hold out hopes that victory could lie in the almost 200,000 absentee votes.

Back at the O’Malley camp, however, victory was on the lips of thousands of supporters who cheered wildly and expressed elation that the mayor had apparently harnessed the state’s historically left-leaning voters and tilted the state back to its blue roots.

“We have proved great things are not accomplished by power, they’re accomplished by perseverance,” O’Malley told supporters in a speech.

As of 2:38 this morning, O’Malley led by five percentage points with 93 percent of precincts reporting, and was poised to take the lead by almost 100,000 votes. That means Ehrlich would need to prevail in the more than half of the absentee ballots – a difficult feat if the uncounted ballots follow statewide trends.

As O’Malley supporters statewide breathed a collective sigh of relief, Montgomery City resident Bonnie Gordon, 63, acknowledged that as statewide polls narrowed, many supporters grew nervous.

“We were nail-biting the last three days of the campaign when the polls kept saying they were getting close,” said Gordon, a campaign worker who spent the day manning phones, monitoring voting precincts and handing out literature.

The Democrats’ massive get-out-the-vote effort also appeared successful for O’Malley, as strong turnout numbers came in earlier than many predicted. Efforts continued through the night as volunteers phoned houses and knocked on doors to take people to polling places, campaign staff said.

“We were fairly confident,” said Douglas Gansler, who was elected last night as state Attorney General. “Our message was getting around across the state. We felt we would come through.”

When Gansler was told Ehrlich was refusing to concede until the almost 200,000 electoral votes were counted, he shook his head. “He has the right to do that,” he said.

In his acceptance speech about midnight, O’Malley repeatedly mentioned the importance of collaboration among parties and races, vaguely alluding to Ehrlich’s sometimes combative style when dealing with the Democratic-controlled legislature.

“We are going to listen to different point of view in a Maryland where compromise is not a dirty word,” O’Malley said. “We progress as a people not on the weakness but on the strength of our neighbors.”

O’Malley trademarked his campaigning with promises to “make government work,” and a slew of similar catch phrases he took advantage of once again in his acceptance speech.

During their speeches, both Del. Anthony Brown, O’Malley’s running mate, and O’Malley himself promised to provide affordable health care, improve public safety and education, clean the Chesapeake Bay and ensure affordable tuition.

O’Malley has tagged affordable higher education, health care insurance for small businesses and a housing trust fund as key issues in his campaign platform.

“I think both candidates have run a very image-oriented campaign,” said Paul Herrnson, a government and politics professor and director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship. “They haven’t been really hard-driven policy campaigns.”

Most students interviewed outside on-campus polling places yesterday did not cite specific policies as reasons for voting, but said they did research campaign platforms in order to cast an informed vote.

Shira Stern, a junior psychology major, said she read about all the candidates Monday night to prepare herself for a vote.

“After looking into the issues, I was able to decide that I wanted to vote for Ehrlich and Sen. Cardin,” she said.

Terra Lederhouse, a graduate student in marine science, said, “I voted for O’Malley and Ben Cardin because I don’t like Ehrlich for environmental and tuition reasons.”

Others, like Daniel Messeca, a sophomore finance major, said the debates were key to helping them decide their votes.

“I voted for Ehrlich and Steele,” Messeca said. “In the debates, Steele seemed more in control and knew more about local issues. I want a powerful person representing me.”

Sean McTague, a junior government and politics major cited one major reason for voting for O’Malley: “I don’t think Ehrlich spent enough on college education,” he said.

Reporters Kaitlyn Seith and Lindsey Frank contributed to this report. Contact Sara Murray at murraydbk@gmail.com.