Horse-Racing Industry Criticizes Ehrlich

Calling Referendum 'Bad Policy' Is Attempt to Thwart Successor, Some Say

Representatives of Maryland's horse-racing industry yesterday sharply criticized former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for voicing opposition to the state's slots referendum, suggesting that the Republican was trying to deny a victory to his Democratic successor.

Ehrlich, who spent much of his four-year tenure lobbying unsuccessfully to legalize slot-machine gambling, said Saturday that Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision to put the issue before voters in November is "bad policy."

"What people need to understand is, this is not my bill, this is not even anywhere close to my bill," Ehrlich said during his weekly radio show on Baltimore's WBAL-AM. "I want to see a future for horse racing in Maryland, but this is just a bad way to go about it."

Yesterday, leaders of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, who consider slots essential for the industry's survival, said they were taken aback by their former ally.

"Most people I've talked to can't understand why he's flipped like this," said Richard J. Hoffberger, president of the association. "It sounds like partisan politics."

Hoffberger said he thinks the plan being put to voters is "substantially similar" to what Ehrlich backed as governor and that a referendum may be the only way to bring slots to Maryland. O'Malley offered the referendum as a compromise, given the legislature's inability to pass a stand-alone slots bill.

"If it takes a referendum to get it done, let's get it done," Hoffberger said.

Former aides to Ehrlich said they were surprised by the outcry, given that Ehrlich has made similar comments previously on the radio show he co-hosts with his wife, Kendel. Saturday's broadcast was largely devoted to the slots issue and featured an interview with Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), a one-time Ehrlich nemesis who is leading the slots opposition.

"It's a new low in Maryland politics," said Gerard Evans, a lobbyist for the horsemen's association. "After striving for years to save the horse-racing industry, to throw in with a political opportunist like Peter Franchot is disgusting."

In November, Maryland voters will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment authorizing 15,000 slot machines at five locations. Ehrlich has said that a constitutional amendment would make it too cumbersome to alter slots locations, suggesting the legislature could pass a better bill when it reconvenes in January.

If the ballot proposal passes, about half the proceeds would be earmarked for education. Seven percent, or up to $100 million a year, would be used to enhance the winnings in horse races at major tracks and to subsidize breeders.

Ehrlich has voiced concerns that the percentage of proceeds available to operators of slots parlors -- 33 percent -- may be too low to run first-class operations.