Ellen R. Sauerbrey Sauerbrey is making her second run for governor. (By Craig Herndon - The Washington Post) Post Stories • Nominees Ready Strategies • Sauerbrey Plays Down '94 • Fund-Raising Gains Momentum • Sauerbrey Proposes Tax Cut • Targeting Economy, Schools • Campaign Attracts Heavyweights • Sauerbrey Launches New Bid

By Robert E. Pierre and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 30, 1998; Page B01

BALTIMORE, Sept. 29—Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening today called for new legislation to keep guns away from children, while Republican challenger Ellen R. Sauerbrey detailed another tax relief plan as she proposed to reduce closing costs on real estate transactions.

With five weeks remaining in the campaign for governor, Glendening and Sauerbrey stepped up their attempts to use their positions on gun control and taxes to emphasize their strengths, and expose what they perceive to be their opponents' vulnerabilities on the issues.

Glendening (D), who pushed one of the nation's strictest gun laws through the legislature in 1996, said today that he would introduce legislation in January requiring that guns sold in the state have safety devices that allow them to fire only for the gun's owner. The governor intends to follow up today's proposal with an announcement Wednesday in Rockville that gun control advocate James S. Brady will endorse his candidacy, officials said. Brady was President Ronald Reagan's press secretary and was seriously injured in the 1981 shooting of the president.

Parris N. Glendening Glendening seeks a second term. (By Rick Bowmer - The Washington Post) Post Stories • Glendening Calls on Party • Rematch of '94 Set • Glendening Won't Join Clinton • Slot Stance Evolved • Proving Power of Incumbency • Analysis: Parris Still a Puzzle • A Forceful Reelection Bid

Glendening has used the issue of gun control to differentiate himself from Sauerbrey, whom he calls the National Rifle Association's "point person" in part because the organization provided the Republican with financial help in the past.

"Guns kill. Guns kill children," Glendening said at a news conference in Baltimore. "It seems that barely a week goes by that we don't see a story . . . of a young person getting ahold of a gun and accidentally or intentionally killing someone else or themselves."

Sauerbrey, who has voted against gun control legislation in the past, said she is not beholden to the NRA for its past financial contributions. And she said the gun control proposal outlined by Glendening deserves further study.

But rather than debate Glendening on the subject, Sauerbrey spent much of the day touting her ideas for spurring the state's economy as she provided the first details of her plan to reduce closing costs on real estate transactions and make purchasing a home more affordable. At one campaign stop, she appeared with former labor secretary Elizabeth Dole.

A Glendening aide said that the idea to trim closing costs required more study but that the governor generally supports proposals that help people buy homes.

Glendening's gun proposal -- similar to measures under consideration in several other states -- would require that all handguns sold in Maryland be built with internal safety features that would keep them from being fired by a child or any other unauthorized user. These devices differ from a trigger lock, because they are built directly into the gun.

Among the alternatives being researched are combination locks and high-tech devices that recognize fingerprints. But national and state gun rights advocates said such measures increase the cost of the weapons and should not be mandatory.

"It's not needed," said Richard Thompson, a member of the board of directors of the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association. "They are trying to discourage honest people from owning a gun. It won't make streets safer. It won't reduce crime. It creates a false sense of security."

But Sally Welch, who appeared with Glendening today, wants to see a new law in place. In 1988, her 15-year-old son, Jason, was shot accidentally by his cousin in Baltimore. "The hardest part is that I think it could have been prevented," Welch said.

Sauerbrey's running mate, former U.S. attorney Richard Bennett, said that Glendening's proposal has some merit but that the governor seems to think all crime revolves around guns.

"It's clear that the governor's whole approach to crime is guns, guns, guns," Bennett said. "The governor seems to think that proposing stricter requirements on guns will solve all crime problems. We have a juvenile justice system that is in total chaos."

In discussing her latest tax relief proposal, Sauerbrey said she hopes to make it cheaper to buy real estate in Maryland by no longer requiring buyers to pay a year's worth of property tax in advance at settlement. The plan would be phased in over 12 years and could reduce closing costs on a $150,000 home by roughly $1,500.

"That's a big chunk of change to bring to the settlement table," said Sauerbrey, who spoke before two business groups here today.

The General Assembly moved to reduce closing costs in 1995 by no longer requiring first-time home buyers to pay certain state taxes due at settlement. Also that year, lawmakers passed a bill allowing homeowners to pay tax bills in two installments. But so far less than 3 percent of new home buyers have chosen that option.

Still, according to the Federal Housing Administration, Maryland has the second-highest closing costs in the country, trailing only Minnesota. Virginia's average closing cost on a single-family home is $1,000 less than in Maryland, where buyers pay an average of $3,428 in transfer, recordation and property taxes at the time of settlement.

Now a person buying a home must pay a year's worth of property taxes in advance -- part of which reimburses the sellers for the amount they have paid in advance with the rest going into an escrow account to pay the remaining months of the tax year. According to the Maryland Association of Realtors, Maryland is one of only seven states that demand advance payment.

Under Sauerbrey's plan, which she hopes to formally unveil next week, real estate buyers would not pay any property tax at closing.

Several real estate agents at the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors luncheon, where Sauerbrey appeared with Dole, said many young buyers take out second mortgages to pay closing costs. A recent study by the Maryland Association of Realtors estimated that 3,000 more people would qualify to buy homes each year if closing costs were reduced by $1,000.

Sauerbrey's plan would have little if any effect on state finances, but the plan would cost current homeowners as much as a year's worth of property tax when they sell their home, according to a 1996 state analysis of the idea when it was proposed earlier.

Sauerbrey said today she hadn't heard the criticism, but said, "That's obviously an issue that will have to be addressed."

Peter Hamm, Glendening's spokesman, said the campaign will study Sauerbrey's proposal after she formally presents the details.

"This governor would welcome ways to help people buy a first home," Hamm said. "Considering the nature of this proposal, we need to assemble a roomful of policy wonks and determine what the impact may be on revenue."

AdWatch

Name: Ellen R. Sauerbrey, "What Maryland Needs"

Election: Republican candidate for Maryland governor

Length: 30 seconds

Producer: The Stevens & Schriefer Group

In Sauerbrey's ad, she speaks directly into the camera and there is footage of her greeting voters.

Sauerbrey: Isn't it sad, after four disappointing years, Parris Glendening is again running a negative campaign. Maryland has so much potential, but we're still at the bottom of the barrel in new job growth, have some of the highest taxes in the nation and a governor who builds stadiums instead of classrooms. In this campaign, I'll talk about implementing my full 24 percent tax cut, including cutting the retirement tax, making sure our children can read. Lower taxes, better schools. That's what Maryland needs.

Analysis: Sauerbrey began airing the commercial after Glendening began airing two ads that attack her record of voting against gun control and opposing some environmental restrictions. Glendening's commericials for the most part accurately portray her voting record, but her negative tone is seen by some political analysts as a measure of how tight the race has become. Incumbents typically do not talk about their opponents unless the race is close or they are behind. Sauerbrey is attempting to exploit what polls show to be a close election by appearing to take the high road and emphasizing her message of lower taxes and better schools. But her commercial also hits Glendening and in doing so stretches the truth: The governor did approve spending $225 million on a Baltimore football stadium and $70 million for road improvements to a Landover stadium, but he also has won $635 million in new school construction spending that has built or renovated nearly 6,000 classrooms. Analysts vary on whether Maryland's taxes are among the highest in the nation, and there are competing studies on whether Maryland's new job growth is among the lowest in the nation.

-- Daniel LeDuc

Name: Parris N. Glendening, "Toughest"

Election: Democrat seeking reelection as Maryland governor

Length: 30 seconds

Producer: Shrum Devine Donilon

Glendening's ad opens with Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) describing Glendening's "courage" in taking on the gun lobby and then shows the governor greeting voters and police officers. Footage of confiscated weapons is followed by unflattering, slow-motion video of Sauerbrey speaking from a podium while the commercial's graphics label her "The gun lobby's candidate." The commercial ends with footage of a smiling Glendening and Townsend.

Townsend: He's a quiet man with a lot of courage. I saw it when he took on the gun lobby.

Narrator: Governor Glendening -- he drove the NRA into the ground to pass one of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and gun crimes are down 20 percent. Ellen Sauerbrey -- the NRA point person in the legislature, even opposing the ban on assault weapons. And when she lost in 1994, the NRA paid for her attempt to overturn the election. The choice: the gun lobby's candidate or two of their toughest foes. Glendening-Townsend, the team that works for Maryland.

Analysis: Glendening is attempting to highlight the difference between his record on gun control and Sauerbrey's. He passed one of the nation's strictest gun control laws, limiting a person's handgun pur-chases to one per month. The measure helped lower handgun sales 25 percent last year. Gun-related violent crimes were reduced 20 percent from 1994 to 1997; it is Glendening's contention that gun control laws contributed to the decline. Sauerbrey did vote against an assault weapon ban when she served in the legislature. She has received contributions from a NRA affiliate but has not advocated any changes to Maryland's gun control laws and says she would do nothing to change existing laws. The NRA did not entirely pay for her legal challenge to the results of the 1994 governor's race, but did contribute $25,000 to help defray the cost.

-- Daniel LeDuc