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By Stephen T. Dennis
From Gazette.net
November 23, 2004
Personality, politics preclude strong-arm tactics, Ehrlich says
ANNAPOLIS -- It's the oldest game in Annapolis. Hardball. And it's a
game Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. says he does not want to play.
Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D) lit into the governor at
last week's Board of Public Works meeting for his failure to get
slot machines approved, telling him that he needs to reach a deal on
medical malpractice.
"That might mean busting some of their heads in. It might mean
making some threats," Schaefer said.
Schaefer said the governor should employ the "Mandel theory" of
persuasion by calling Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens
(D) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch and holding road projects,
school projects and other aid hostage until Busch relents on slots.
"Busch can't do this to you again this year," Schaefer said. "You
can't let Busch call the shots."
Ehrlich (R) also should play hardball with Senate President Thomas
V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach and seek to
block his plan to remove a senator who supports tort reform from the
Judicial Proceedings Committee, Schaefer said.
"You can't have that," he said.
But a day after the meeting, Ehrlich rejected Schaefer's advice to
take a hard line, arguing that it does not fit his personality and
would hurt him politically.
"Every governor has his individual style, clearly," Ehrlich said,
adding that he does play hardball on occasion. "When we do it, we do
it much more quietly and much more selectively."
Ehrlich said comparing his situation to those of Democratic
governors who preceded him is "apples and oranges."
"William Donald Schaefer knew he would be re-elected from the day he
took office" because he was part of the "monopoly party," Ehrlich
said. He does not have that luxury as a minority party governor.
"We have less chits to play, less arrows in the quiver and a much
more partisan atmosphere," he said. "Part of this is the Democrats
reacting to someone else in the sandbox."
Changing now and making threats would hurt him politically, Ehrlich
said.
"I think one of the reasons that people respond to me and we are
successful in the polls is because I don't play games," he said.
"People would smell it, because they would think I had changed, and
I would have changed. You can't act outside your personality."
Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis slammed Schaefer's advice.
"It would be foolish for the governor to hold hostage projects in
Anne Arundel County and then expect them to reward him in 2006,"
Busch said, noting that Ehrlich won 65 percent of the county's vote
in 2002. "The first thing his opponent is going to say in Anne
Arundel County is the governor held your county hostage. ... Those
draconian days are gone."
Former Gov. Marvin Mandel (D), who attended the Board of Public
Works meeting, told The Gazette later that every new governor goes
through the same process.
"You have to learn how to use the office and the power that's in the
office to benefit the state. It takes a while," Mandel said.
But Ehrlich's job is tougher, he said.
"I think that he's trying to do the best he can under adverse
conditions," Mandel said. "I was a Democratic governor with a
Democratic legislature. He is a Republican governor with a
Democratic legislature."
One thorn in the side of both Schaefer and Ehrlich was not buying
Schaefer's appraisal of Ehrlich as too nice.
Del. Peter V.R. Franchot, who may seek to unseat Schaefer in 2006,
said Ehrlich's troubles are the result of "incompetence, not a lack
of meanness."
Franchot (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park noted that even one of
Ehrlich's staunchest advocates, MedChi, questioned his resolve on
medical malpractice last week.
"Ultimately the governor, you would conclude, doesn't care whether
his programs pass, he just wants to be able to blame Democrats and
replace them with Republicans," Franchot said.
Schaefer, meanwhile, did not just knock Ehrlich for playing softball
with the legislature. He also criticized him for being too nice to
General Motors when the automaker announced the closure of its
Baltimore van manufacturing plant on Tuesday.
"You should have given them a swift kick in the you-know-where," he
told Ehrlich. "They played on the fact that you are a nice man. ...
He conned you the way I can con you. ... I blame you for not having
a plan."
Ehrlich said his administration had tried everything to keep the
plant alive, but said that in the end, all the sweeteners were not
enough.
"Everybody's angry, frustrated and not happy," he said, adding that
his administration would try to help the workers who lose their jobs
and reuse the property.
Schaefer also tried to play a little hardball himself, warning
Ehrlich not to cut health care again.
"It's impossible for you to go any further without really hurting
people," Schaefer said.
He said cryptically that he could find a lot of money for the
governor, but only if the money goes to health care. "If it's not
going to go to health care, I can't find the money and you can't
either."
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