The first reference to the Oreo incident came five days later in an article in The Sun in which [Paul Schurick], then a spokesman for the Ehrlich campaign, said [Kathleen Kennedy Townsend] supporters distributed the cookies in the audience. He also said the crowd booed Ehrlich's family - a detail that was reported on debate night - and scratched the paint on Ehrlich supporters' cars with their keys.

Three weeks later, Washington Post writer George F. Will wrote in his column that "some in the audience had distributed Oreo cookies." That day, while campaigning at a Jewish day school in Pikesville, Ehrlich told the audience that Townsend supporters threw the cookies at Steele.

Most of the accounts in the past few weeks have described Steele being "pelted" by Oreos. Ehrlich said on WBAL radio that his father was hit in the head by one of the cookies. Schurick also said Ehrlich's father was hit. Schurick would not make Robert L. Ehrlich Sr. available for an interview yesterday.