Ehrlich's Session Record Is Murky

Partisan Lines Blurred in Many Successful Efforts

As the final day of this year's General Assembly session begins today, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s legislative scorecard shows only one of the 20 bills on his agenda has passed. But that batting average does not tell the whole score.

During a weekend briefing with reporters in his State House office, the Republican governor described the past three months as a series of "very clear successes on the big stuff": passage of a $29 billion budget, funding for stem cell research, an expansion of tax credits for homeowners and veterans, and new rules limiting emissions from coal-fired power plants.

"Our priorities were protected," Ehrlich said.

Since the opening days of the legislative session, though, many of Ehrlich's priorities have sounded a lot like those of the Democrats he has vilified who control the General Assembly.

His support of the stem cell measure and the anti-pollution bill, initiatives strongly backed by Democrats, represented a significant shift from his posture just one year earlier. In fact, many advocates feared he would veto the air pollution measure. His support for a tuition freeze next fall at public universities came only after lawmakers found the money in the budget to make it possible. And his budget, which came in 8.9 percent over last year's, prompted a double take from Republican allies.

Even the governor has said that it's gotten hard to tell the difference between some of his bills and the proposals coming from across the aisle. At a bill-signing ceremony last week, Ehrlich noted the similarity between one senator's tax credit bill and a proposal he made at the outset of the session.

"It looks remarkably like the administration bill," Ehrlich said as he signed it. "It just doesn't have my name at the top."

As a result, Ehrlich and Democratic lawmakers are likely to tout many of the same legislative victories as their campaigns for reelection kick into high gear in coming months. The ensuing debate may not be so much about what was done in Annapolis as whether it was achieved because of Ehrlich -- or in spite of him.

Dominant themes from past sessions, such as slot machine gambling and medical malpractice, faded away this year as Ehrlich focused on a far more centrist agenda. Even in January, Democrats said they saw Ehrlich positioning himself for the upcoming campaign. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said that "as a conservative Republican, he needs Democratic voters to have any chance of winning reelection."

But as Ehrlich tacked to the left, it became increasingly more difficult to tell whose agenda was carrying the day.

"Ronald Reagan once said, 'It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets credit,' " said Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert), citing a quotation the Republican president actually borrowed from a Democratic one, Harry S. Truman. "This session, everyone seems to be grasping for credit."

There's nothing new about politicians co-opting the ideas of their opponents. But this year, disputes over the ownership of ideas have flared all session. When the governor put out a news release in March declaring that he had "restored" $28.5 million in highway funds that "were cut by the legislature last year," it enraged lawmakers who had quietly fought the governor over that money for more than a year.