Robert Ehrlich

Robert Leroy Ehrlich, Jr. (born November 25, 1957) is an American politician and the 60^th and current Governor of Maryland. A Republican, he became governor on January 15, 2003 after defeating Democratic opponent Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a member of the Kennedy family, 51%–48% in the 2002 elections. Prior to serving as governor, Ehrlich was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland's 2^nd Congressional district and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

Early life, career, and family

Ehrlich was born in the small community of Arbutus, Maryland located southwest of Baltimore and was raised in a conservative Lutheran environment. After attending the Gilman School in Baltimore, he received degrees from Princeton University (1979), where he was the captain of the football team, and Wake Forest University Law School (1982). After he obtained his degrees, Ehrlich went to work for the Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver law firm of Baltimore. In November 1986, Ehrlich won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing parts of Baltimore County from 1987 to 1995.

Ehrlich married his wife Kendel in 1993. They have two sons, Drew Robert Ehrlich and Joshua Taylor Ehrlich.

Congress

In 1993, 2^nd district Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley announced she would be vacating her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ehrlich decided to pursue the seat and announced his candidacy in November of the same year.

Ehrlich won the seat by a substantial margin, making himself one of the few leading Republican figures in the heavily Democratic state. During his term, he introduced legislation aimed at helping disabled people maintain employment, and supported harsher gun violence penalties.

While in Congress, Ehrlich served on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committees, where he further served on the subcommittees on health, telecommunications and the Internet, and environment and hazardous materials; the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus, where he served as cochairman; and the Congressional Steel Caucus. Ehrlich has been an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush ever since Bush's election in 2000, and he has supported several Bush initiatives, including the No Child Left Behind Act and the recent tax cuts.

2002 Gubernatorial Election

In 2002, Governor Parris Glendening's (D) second term was coming to a conclusion. While Glendening had been reelected by a substantial margin in 1998, the final years of his term were plagued by a personal marital crisis, and a large state budget deficit. The rural areas of Maryland—largely Republican—had long criticized Glendening for what they perceived as overzealous environmental regulations as well as ignoring their budgetary needs (bridges, highways, etc.).

On March 15, 2002, Ehrlich announced his candidacy for the governorship. He attacked Glendening's record and his Democratic opposition, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and, if elected, promised to increase school funding, balance the budget, and to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

During the election, Townsend was criticized for her choice of running mate; she picked retired Admiral Charles Larson, a novice politician who had switched parties only a few weeks before. The Townsend campaign was also hurt by the unpopularity of Governor Parris Glendening, who had implemented a redistricting proposal that was overturned by Maryland's highest court. Townsend's popularity continued to fall when it was reported that much of her campaign money was given by out-of-state donors; Ehrlich remained quiet while the Lt. Governor's poll numbers declined.

Even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican governor in almost 40 years, Ehrlich won the race, becoming only the sixth Republican governor in state history, and the first since Spiro T. Agnew in 1967. Ehrlich won by 51.55% of the vote to Townsend's 47.68% and Libertarian Spear Lancaster's .68%.

Governor of Maryland

Governor Ehrlich speaking at the HealthierUS summit in late April 2004.

Ehrlich has styled "fiscal responsibility, education, health and the environment, public safety, and commerce" as the "Five Pillars" of his administration.

Ehrlich's stated policy opposes sales and income tax increases. However, critics have derided the state-wide surcharge on water and septic services imposed by the Chesepeake Bay Restoration Act, as a "flush tax." [1]. Maryland's budget has been balanced every year during his tenure, and the state forecasts a $1 billion surplus for the 2005 fiscal year. The $1.8 billion state budget deficit left by the previous administration has been eradicated during Ehrlich's tenure. The unemployment rate has dropped slightly during this time, from 4.5% in 2003 to 4.1% in 2005, with a net increase of 76,000 jobs. [2].

Ehrlich has endorsed the Thornton Plan, which was passed by the Legislature in 2002 and named after Dr. Alvin Thornton. In part, this plan would grant extra money to poorer school systems and those in areas with a higher cost of living. [3] Despite his endorsement, Ehrlich's proposed budgets have never included funding for the Thorton Plan. He has previously made such funding contingent on passage of his unsuccessful proposals to legalize slot-machine gambling. [4].

Ehrlich established a position in his cabinet based on providing affordable benefits to those who cannot afford them. In 2006, he vetoed the "Fair Share Health Care Bill," which required businesses with more that 10,000 employees in the state to either spend 8% of payroll on employee health care, or pay that amount to a state health program for the poor. [5]On Wednesday July 7, 2006, the Maryland law was overturned in federal court by U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz who ruled that the law would "hurt Wal-Mart by imposing the administrative burden of tracking benefits in Maryland differently than in other states." He opposed President Bush's 2006 approval for a U.A.E. firm to take control of six U.S. port operations, including those at the Port of Baltimore. [6]. (See Dubai Ports World controversy).

In 2004, Ehrlich effectively ended the moratorium on executions that was instituted by his predecessor in May 2002. (See capital punishment in Maryland.) He is a member of the National Governors Association, the Southern Governors' Association, and the Republican Governors Association.

Controversy

Veto of the "Wal-Mart" Health Care Bill

In January, 2006, the Maryland Legislature passed the controversial "Fair Share Health Care Bill", over Ehrlich's also-controversial veto. The bill attracted national attention because it made Maryland the first state to require very large corporations to either spend 8% of their payroll on employee health care, or pay that amount to a state health-care fund. It became known as the "Wal-Mart Bill" because while it nominally applied to any corporation with more than 10,000 workers, in practice Wal-Mart was the only employer which met that threshold that did not already pay at least 8% of their payroll on employee health care. [7][8] Critics of the international discount chain claim that Wal-Mart's low wages force employees and their dependents to rely on state healthcare assistance. (See Wal-Mart Employee and Labor Relations).

Supporters of the bill claimed that this veto showed Ehrlich, whose official biography describes him as "unapologetically pro-business," had sided with "big corporate interests rather than Maryland's working families." [9] For his part, Ehrlich called the bill the "first step toward government-run health care" by "anti-jobs lawmakers." He claimed that it would hurt low and middle-income consumers and was unfair to Wal-Mart. [10].

O'Malley Rumors and the "MD4Bush" Incident

See Also MD4Bush IncidentIn early 2005 Ehrlich fired an aide, Joseph Steffen, for spreading false rumors of marital infidelity about Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley on the Internet. O'Malley, a Democrat, is running for governor in 2006. The discussions in which Steffen posted the rumors were initiated by an anonymous user going by the name "MD4Bush," later revealed to be Maryland Democratic Party official Ryan O'Doherty. O'Malley and his wife had a highly publicized press conference to deny the rumors and accuse Republicans of dirty politics. [11]

Alleged Partisan Firing of State Employees

NIH Director Elias Zerhouni talks with Ehrlich following a speech by President George W. Bush in Bethesda, Maryland.

Steffen's role in the Ehrlich Administration later became the subject of a legislative investigation into hiring practices by the Administration. After leaving the administration, Steffen claimed that he had been "a political hit man in the Ehrlich administration," responsible for identifying career state employees to be fired and replaced with Ehrlich allies. [12] In September 2005 newly released e-mails showed that an aide in Ehrlich's appointments office personally authorized the dismissal of a mid-level state engineer, Vincent J. Gardina. Gardinia, a Democrat, was an at-will employee of the Baltimore County Council who had worked for five months on dredging projects at the Maryland Environmental Service. Gardina, who earned $55,000 a year, had received a favorable work evaluation just weeks before being terminated. However, documents located on Gardina's state computer, released by the Governor's Counsel in September 2005, revealed that he was utilizing state time and resources to complete County Council and campaign work.

After being dismissed, Gardina sued the governor, alleging that he was fired because of his political affiliation. The State settled the suit for $100,000 before trial.

To date, the special investigative committee has found no illegal instances of firing, but is working on producing future guidelines to avoid similar questions in the future.

Slot machines

In light of Maryland's budget deficit and Ehrlich's staunch opposition to raising taxes, he has pursued slot machines as a means for raising revenue for the state. Ehrlich initially met with little success on the issue, and the House of Delegates continually voted down legislation. In early 2005, however, both the House of Delegates and the State Senate passed different sets of legislation allowing slot machines. Both bills varied too much for compromise, however, and died at the end of the legislative session.

Ehrlich cited his reasons for needing slot machines in Maryland by examining the surrounding states of West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania, all of which have slot machines legalized. He claims that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to those states that could be kept in Maryland. Furthermore, most of the money that was expected to be generated from the slot machines was earmarked towards education, although often the state reduces education funding from the amount it would have spent by the amount the lottery brings in, cancelling the lottery's purported goal [13]. Much of the remaining funds were intended to support the state horse racing industry and retain the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course.

State House speaker Michael E. Busch (D) has steadfastly opposed slot machines in Maryland and has regularly clashed with State Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (D). These actions divided both chambers of the Assembly as well as the Maryland Democratic party. Busch permitted passage of a bill allowing 9,500 slot machines.[14]

Following the failure of the slots initiative, Ehrlich predicted that no further slots bills would be passed during the next legislative session, and that the issue will remain under the table until after the 2006 gubernatorial election. [15] Some legislators tried to call a special session of the General Assembly to address slot machines. A referendum has also been discussed.

Bob Ehrlich also previously accepted campaign contributions from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, also a contributor to former House Majority whip Tom DeLay. Ambramoff recently pleaded guilty to conspircay, mail fraud, and tax evasion. He is a proponent of casinos and pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from his 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos. [16] After significant pressure from the media in the wake of Abramoff's multiple indictments, Ehrlich ultimately returned the disputed campaign funds.

Issues with the Baltimore Sun

Ehrlich was criticized for responding to critical articles in the Baltimore Sun by blacklisting the authors. The articles which incurred Ehrlich's ire criticized him for holding a fund-raising event at a golf club that had never admitted an African-American in its 127-year history. [17] A Sun columnist, Michael Olesker, advised Ehrlich to learn a lesson from Groucho Marx[18]. An editorial in the Sun implied that Ehrlich was using Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who is African-American, for political purposes, and accused them both of endorsing the club's policy[19].

Ehrlich responded by banning all Maryland government employees from speaking with two Sun journalists. The Sun sued to overturn the ban, but lost when Judge William D. Quarles Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found that the Sun had demanded "special access beyond what is granted to the general public, and that the governor was within the law to deny that special access to two writers because he did not like what they wrote about him." [20][21] The Sun unsuccessfully appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2006.

2006 gubernatorial election

For more information, see Maryland gubernatorial election, 2006.

Election history