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Baltimore small-business owner Gladys Wade Bragg said it does not matter who is governor and what he promises to do for small businesses. In the end, it won't mean anything to her bottom line.

"There may be some programs for funding for small businesses, but I don't need funding — I need more customers," said Bragg, owner of Specialty Marketing and Printing in Baltimore.

"It's not better under any of them," she said. "It doesn't matter to me who is in office."

That may come as bitter news to the major gubernatorial candidates, who are anxiously crisscrossing the state, touting all they will do for Bragg and her small-business counterparts if voters elect them in November.

This week, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) toured a Frederick bioscience company. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. sat down with a group of Republican business owners in Hagerstown, while his GOP primary opponent, Brian Murphy, points out that he is the only small-business owner in the race.

The candidates are talking about — and to — small businesses so often that one might think they were campaigning to lead a small-business association rather than the state of Maryland.

Politicians who proclaim that small businesses "are the backbone of the economy" are just using buzzwords to get elected, said Robert F. Waltz, president of N.E. "Bob" Waltz Plumbing & Heating in Frederick.

"Actions speak better than words," Waltz said.

Government is actually making things more difficult for small businesses by not easing regulations and taxes, a trend Waltz said he does not see changing anytime soon.

"A growing government is a growing threat to small business," he said. "Government is not the crutch — people need to rely on themselves. They need room to succeed and room to fail."

Even though Brian Wetcher said he believes some politicians when they say small businesses are the foundation of the U.S. economy, he has a hard time reconciling that with their actions "when big businesses [were] bailed out."

"Sometimes it seems like it doesn't matter who's in charge," said Wetcher, founder and president of WetchCo Signs in Frederick, which has one full-time and one-part time employee.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Wetcher said.

Mary Jane Tabler said she doesn't think politicians understand that running a small business is a "24-7" operation.

"It seems like they don't appreciate how hard small-business owners work and the people they hire," said Tabler, owner of Thomas Scott Salon and Spa in Frederick, which has 68 employees. "I just wish we could get someone in office who understands small business."

While small-business owners might not love politicians, politicians sure love small business, said Todd E. Eberly, an assistant professor of political science at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

"Everybody likes [small businesses], to put it bluntly," Eberly said. "Big businesses have this connotation of being impersonal and faceless. But everybody loves small businesses because everyone knows someone who runs a small business."

Small-business owners generally have been a reliable Republican voting bloc since the 1970s, when the GOP convinced them that Democratic support of environmental protection and unionization hurt their bottom lines, he said.

"What Democrats are trying to tap into is for small businesses that want to do the right thing of providing health insurance to employees. They're saying [that] through reforms we can make it easier through subsidies for employees and exchanges where employees can purchase insurance without going through the employers," Eberly said. "They're trying to make the point that regulation and government can help small businesses and instinctively it's a harder case to make."

Charles R. Owen, president of the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce, said politicians from all sides are declaring themselves the friend of small business.

"Small businesses are a political football in every election," Owen said. "Both sides are talking about it, but when the election is over, where does it go?"

Kathleen T. Snyder, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, said it is good that politicians are discussing how they can help small businesses.

"Small businesses generally feel, ‘Wow, someone is finally paying attention to us,'" Snyder said.

Staff Writer Chris Huntemann contributed to this report.