With a radio ad borrowed from the 1998 governor's race, Maryland Democrats last week began painting Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as a stooge for national gambling interests, saying his campaign is financed by the casinos that hope to "fill our state with 10,000 slot machines."
 
  But the political charge ignores what has emerged as a strategic shift among those seeking to bring slot machines to Maryland. Advocates for slots, consisting mostly of local horse-racing enthusiasts, are practicing a time-honored gambling tradition -- they are hedging their bets.
 
  A review of $124,462 in campaign checks written by gaming advocates since 1999 shows that donations of nearly equal amounts, about $20,000 each, have been sent to Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and to Ehrlich.
 
  "In this one, you have to bet on both horses," said Mike Pons, a breeder who heads the Thoroughbred Breeders and Horsemens Political Action Committee. "Ehrlich may be the one supporting our cause, but Kathleen has clearly been the front-runner, so we'd be fools not to be kind to her as well."
 
  Advocates have donated the vast remainder of their funds to incumbent state lawmakers, many of whom have expressed keen interest in passing legislation to legalize slot machines.
 
  This year's giving trend stands in sharp contrast to the approach that gaming interests took four years ago, when they helped bankroll the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey in hopes of bringing widespread casino operations to Maryland.
 
  The gambit backfired. When Sauerbrey lost, Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) invoked a policy in keeping with his campaign slogan: "No slots, no casinos, no exceptions."
 
  But now, as Glendening's departure approaches, those who stand to gain the most from legalized slots are plotting a far more cautious approach. Advocates say they will not team up with the nation's mega-casinos this time, seeking instead to couch their quest as a small-scale effort to save Maryland's storied horse tracks.
 
  "They have said all along that this money would not be filtered through Las Vegas or Atlantic City," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's), a supporter of expanded gaming.
 
  Legislative leaders appear to be unified behind that effort and say the declining economy is driving their interest. With state revenue estimates showing a $1 billion shortfall for fiscal 2003, slots would present an enticing new source of income.
 
  That is especially true, says House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany), because a steady number of Maryland residents are already playing the slots at horse tracks in Delaware and West Virginia and could soon be doing so in Pennsylvania.
 
  "While we're talking about balancing budgets and paying for schools and roads and health care, more and more people are asking me why we're allowing $500 million to bleed out of our pockets" to neighboring states, Taylor said.
 
  This strong legislative support has gaming advocates convinced that although Townsend opposes slots, they need not fear a Townsend administration.
 
  Gambling supporters say that so long as they stay neutral in this year's race and avoid enraging her the way they did Glendening, they can seek slots through the legislature and hope that Townsend would not intervene.
 
  Their most likely path, advocates say, is to seek a constitutional amendment to legalize slot machines. That would require strong support from the legislature, and passage by voters, but would erase the governor from the equation, because a governor cannot veto a constitutional amendment.
 
  Both supporters and foes say they believe this approach is viable, noting that recent statewide polls, for the first time, showed that a majority of Marylanders favor slots, so long as the proceeds fund educational initiatives. An August poll conducted by The Washington Post found that 58 percent of Prince George's County residents would support such an initiative, and 38 percent would oppose it.
 
  Such results concern gambling foes, who say they worry that the gaming industry campaign will not end at the horse track gates. "What I see is a foot in the door," said James Browning, director of Common Cause/Maryland. "It's a slippery slope from slots at the tracks to casinos on the Chesapeake."
 
  Indeed, while national casinos have shown practically no interest in the governor's race, casino executives have made no secret of their interest in coming to Maryland.
 
  "If gaming is liberalized in Maryland, or in any state, we want to be a part of it," said Gary Loveman, president of Harrah's Entertainment Inc., one of the nation's largest casino operators. "There's tremendous pent-up demand. It's a little like the end of Prohibition."
 
  Townsend backers believe other national groups will enter the gubernatorial fray by donating in the final days of the campaign, when it is too late for campaign reports to reveal their presence.
 
  "Kathleen believes that if gambling were to get into our racetracks, it would spread throughout our state," said Kate Phillips, her spokeswoman. "We want to stop it from ever coming into Maryland."
 
  Members of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the group that spent $20,000 to launch the radio ads targeting Ehrlich, said the public should equate slots and casinos.
 
  But members of Maryland's horse set -- a group that includes breeders, trainers, track owners, hay farmers and the owners of 800 horse farms across the state -- say they have no interest in seeing slots expand beyond the tracks.
 
  Their goal is to enrich the industry by using a cut of the proceeds from slots to increase purses and, in turn, lure stronger horses to the races.
 
  Frank Stronach, the Canadian auto parts magnate who recently agreed to purchase a controlling share of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, said slots do not figure into his plan to revitalize racing across the United States.
 
  But when asked whether he would bring them to his tracks if they became legal, he replied: "Of course we would."
 
  In fact, executives from Stronach's company, Magna Entertainment Corp., have dined in recent weeks with Miller and Taylor, and did so earlier with Ehrlich and Townsend. Stronach said he expects to donate to several political campaigns. "But we will give to everyone, in equal proportions," he said.