Senior O'Malley aide joins reelection team

The latest sign that Maryland's race for governor is under way in earnest: Rick Abbruzzese is moving out of his corner office on the second floor of the State House.

"Effective tomorrow, I will be leaving state government to begin working on the governor's re-election campaign," O'Malley's communications director told his "friends and colleagues" in a posting Thursday on the governor's blog.

Abbruzzese's employment with O'Malley (D) stretches back to the governor's days as mayor of Baltimore. During O'Malley's 2006 campaign against then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), Abbruzzese served as press secretary.

Up until this point, O'Malley campaign manager Tom Russell had been handling media chores for the rematch against Ehrlich.

"Over the next six months you will no doubt hear things (good and bad) about 'the Governor's record' in the media," Abbruzzese told his government colleagues on the blog. :But I would submit to you that it is not his record alone, but your record."