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Session's End Ignites Race For Governor
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Ehrlich has said that the sites are intended to give Democrats a partisan advantage and that early voting will enable those intent on cheating the system to cast several ballots. "We're not going to allow the transparent invitation to fraud that this legislature has blessed," he said, adding that he will consider either a legal challenge or a petition to overturn the law.
More broadly, he and the Democrats are working to turn the events of the past 90 days into campaign themes. Several seemed to be getting a test run yesterday.
The governor said the Democrats who control the legislature, led by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (Anne Arundel), made very clear choices. They passed a bill prohibiting his campaign finance director from serving on the board that oversees state universities. But they failed to pass one that would have enhanced restrictions on child sex offenders.
They were able to overturn his veto of a bill requiring Wal-Mart and other large businesses to expand their health coverage plans, but they were not able to broker a deal to scale back looming electricity rate increases, Ehrlich said.
"By any measure, these misplaced priorities are a function of partisanship," Ehrlich said. "Up and down the ballot, you're going to have candidates who support Mike Miller and Mike Busch and their view of the world. And you'll have candidates who support Bob Ehrlich's view of the world."
Democrats, meanwhile, found other messages that flowed from the legislative session. Miller said repeatedly that he saw the utility rate crisis as the best illustration of a governor who was unwilling to put in the "elbow grease" needed to get a deal done.
"The governor's approach to this was lackadaisical," Miller said. "He just isn't willing to work."
Busch zeroed in on a similar theme. Two days before the session concluded, Busch told reporters that if there were no resolution on electricity rates, "it's clearly at the feet of the governor. He's the one most responsible for resolving this issue. He's the chief executive. "
Barely 48 hours later, the campaigns had picked up the themes.
O'Malley sent out a campaign news release that blasted Ehrlich for "four years of failed leadership in Annapolis." In Ehrlich's mass e-mail, the governor fired back, branding "Maryland's liberal-led legislature as the most partisan and petty in the country."
