Ehrlich in Awkward Spot on Rates

"The expectation is that the chief executive of the state would step up and take a leadership role," Busch said. "To date, he's offered no legislation and no clear direction to either chamber."

The General Assembly is vulnerable to criticism, as well, because the Democrat-controlled body approved electricity deregulation in 1999, setting in motion the process that led to the huge rate increases.

Last week, the House moved forward with legislation to gain leverage in slowing down the rate increases by appointing an independent counsel to investigate Constellation's planned merger with a Florida power company. The measure probably will move to the Senate this week.

Constellation has, in turn, offered to use a portion of the savings from the merger to reduce the shock of rate increases.

"This is a crisis situation," Miller said. "The governor needs to be hands-on."

Ehrlich's chief of staff, Chip DiPaula Jr., said the governor's strategy is deliberate. The administration is running through "many scenarios" and is ready at a moment's notice to work with lawmakers. But DiPaula said the governor is not going to get out ahead of legislators before they know what they want to do.

"It comes at a price in the short term," DiPaula said, "but is worth it to develop the appropriate solution."

When the governor has gotten out in front of lawmakers, on issues such as slot machine gambling and medical malpractice, it has brought losses for the Republican administration and strained relations with legislative leaders.

"If it's a Republican initiative, it's difficult from the start," Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus (Somerset) said. "They bang him for not leading, and then they kill them and say, 'You haven't done anything.' It's the ironic, unfair nature of politics."

In this case, if Democrats ignore the governor's wishes, Ehrlich could always go it alone when the legislature adjourns in two weeks. He could negotiate a deal with Constellation, and the Public Service Commission could authorize a revised program to gradually increase rates, DiPaula said.

Democrats have criticized the commission, with four of five members appointed by Ehrlich, as too lenient on the utilities. When e-mails surfaced this month showing frequent, and what Democrats said was inappropriate, contact between the state's chief utility regulator and Pepco's lobbyist, the governor defended his appointees as being in keeping with his pro-business philosophy.

The administration, in turn, has cast the General Assembly as the "people who created the problem," reminding reporters that Miller was one of the leading proponents for passing electric deregulation in 1999. Moving to a free market was supposed to result in lower bills, but the competition has not materialized.

Ehrlich's press aides also handed out a timeline last week to show that the utilities commission has been preparing legislators in nearly two dozen meetings since January 2005 for the potential fallout from lifting rate caps for BGE customers.

In a sign of the campaign fight ahead, Ehrlich's Democratic challengers have taken up the issue. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan called for new leadership at the commission and asked in a radio interview Saturday, "Where are they in the merger?"

O'Malley organized single mothers, retirees and small-business owners last week to deliver petitions with more than 4,000 signatures to the governor's office demanding relief from rate hikes and the "failed leadership" of the Ehrlich-appointed commission.

"First oil, then gas, then 72 percent," said Ellicott City innkeeper David Balderson. "It just keeps hitting us, and it's driving us crazy."

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.