Parris N. Glendening Glendening, with his wife, Frances Anne, arrives to vote on Primary Day. (By Bill O'Leary – The Post) Post Stories • Series: Glendening's Record • Glendening Calls on Party • Proving Power of Incumbency • Analysis: Parris Still a Puzzle • A Forceful Reelection Bid • Former Ally Now Against Him

By Charles Babington
and Donald P. Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 8, 1998; Page A01

With the latest poll showing a dead heat, the Maryland race for governor has turned decidedly negative, as both nominees attack each other's record and truthfulness in television ads and prepare new commercials that will hit even harder.

Following Gov. Parris N. Glendening's example of two weeks ago, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey has gone on the attack, airing a new ad showing her opponent in unflattering, slow-motion footage as a somber announcer criticizes his record. But a Democratic political leader said yesterday that Sauerbrey's commercial tells "a belligerent lie" when it suggests that he said Glendening's new mass transit plan will hike the state gasoline tax by 50 cents a gallon.

Sauerbrey's team responded in a news release that "the Glendening campaign is squealing like a stuck pig because the truth hurts." The GOP candidate said separately, however, that the ad "should be fixed" if it's "confusing."

Ellen R. Sauerbrey Former president George Bush backed up Sauerbrey at a recent fund-raiser. (By Rick Bowmer – The Post) Post Stories • No Drought for the Rainmaker • Message, Money Key in Race • Steinberg Endorses Sauerbrey • Sauerbrey Plays Down '94 • Fund-Raising Gains Momentum • Sauerbrey Proposes Tax Cut • Campaign Attracts Heavyweights • Sauerbrey Launches New Bid

Behind the overheated rhetoric is a day-to-day struggle for the affections of perhaps 175,000 undecided voters, being courted by two experienced politicians whose strengths and vulnerabilities are writ large. In new mass mailings – which often get less scrutiny than television ads – Glendening (D) portrays Sauerbrey as a rigid conservative who would "turn back the clock" on abortion access and civil rights.

Sauerbrey, using radio and television but no mass mailings yet, is attacking the governor's integrity, saying he attempted a "midnight pension scam." Her new television ad also portrays him as a tax-and-spender, and she's running a radio ad attacking Glendening's media consultant for specializing in negative campaigning.

The latest statewide poll, conducted for the Montgomery Gazette, the Journal newspapers, the Baltimore Sun and other media outlets, shows Glendening and Sauerbrey virtually even. Glendening is backed by 47 percent of the respondents compared with 45 percent for Sauerbrey, a difference within the poll's margin of error. Only 8 percent of voters – about 150,000 to 175,000, according to political scientist Herb Smith – are undecided.

The poll also found that Marylanders give President Clinton a higher job approval rating than Glendening: 58 percent for Clinton, 49 percent for the governor. Glendening last month canceled a fund-raiser with the president but now says he would welcome Clinton's help.

Until recently, both Glendening and Sauerbrey were airing positive TV ads, trying to reintroduce themselves to voters who might view them warily.

Analysts said Glendening was the first to attack his opponent on television because Sauerbrey was rising in the polls and many voters seemed unperturbed by her past opposition to gun control, abortion rights and some environmental measures. Sauerbrey responded with her own ad Tuesday night. Not to do so, she had said in an earlier interview, would render her "the only one on the defensive."

Sauerbrey's new TV ad says Glendening has proposed "a $15 billion program to expand D.C. Metrorail. Even the Democratic House speaker says it means higher taxes, up to 50 cents a gallon."

Glendening campaign aides howled in protest yesterday. Sauerbrey's campaign "should be ashamed" to imply that House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany) spoke of a 50 cents-a--gallon tax increase, Glendening campaign manager Karen White said.

When Glendening proposed on Oct. 2 a dramatic expansion of mass transit over two decades in the Maryland suburbs, Taylor told The Washington Post, "It's pretty obvious that the current level of revenue is totally inadequate to accomplish that aggressive program without some enhancements." However, in a statement released Tuesday night, Taylor said that it "is just a baldfaced belligerent lie" for the ad to suggest he had ever talked of a 50-cent tax hike.

Stuart Stevens, Sauerbrey's media consultant, said the ad doesn't say that Taylor spoke of the 50-cent tax hike. The announcer makes a distinct pause – equivalent to a period ending a sentence – before alluding to a specific tax increase, he said. The Glendening aides, Stevens said, are "arguing about punctuation."

Sauerbrey said the 50 cents-a-gallon figure came from her staff's own calculations and added, "If it is confusing, then it should be fixed."

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) took a swipe at Sauerbrey as she waited to speak at yesterday's State of the County luncheon in Silver Spring.

"I was amazed, discouraged, disheartened and slightly angered by her opposition to the expansion of Metrorail," Duncan told the audience. "She's not just opposed to it, she's running ads . . . criticizing Governor Glendening for supporting it."

Sauerbrey – while insisting that "I am not against mass transit" – said that "only 25 percent of car trips are work-related." Most of the time motorists are bound for school or shopping, which is a reason she said she supports the proposed $1 billion intercounty connector, a highway that would link Interstates 270 and 95.

But it's not clear how Sauerbrey would pay for that proposal without a gasoline tax either: Maryland legislative leaders have warned that the state's transportation trust fund is running low, and many predict an increase in the state's 23.5 cents-a-gallon motor fuels tax no matter who wins the Nov. 3 election.

Both campaigns said they were preparing new ads that would continue attacks on their opponent. The Glendening and Sauerbrey ads are tough by Maryland standards, but fairly tame compared with those in states where a candidate's face sometimes morphs into that of an unpopular person, or grows a Pinocchio nose.

"What I have seen so far and heard so far doesn't compare to a Willie Horton campaign," said Johns Hopkins University political scientist Matthew Crenson, referring to the controversial ads against Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign against George Bush.

In direct-mail fliers, the Maryland Democratic Party is targeting senior citizens, blacks and other voter groups to highlight Sauerbrey's conservative voting record during 16 years in the House of Delegates. To counter Sauerbrey's recent proposal to give retirees a tax break, for example, one Democratic flier says she "voted against a bill to exempt the first $25,000 of retirement income from state taxes."

The flier cites a 1987 vote on a bill that was rejected by the Democratic-controlled House. Party executive director Kim Callinan said the point is that Sauerbrey's latest proposal is at odds with her past.

A similar flier aimed at blacks says Sauerbrey "would turn back the clock on African-American progress." It cites her vote against the 1992 Civil Rights Act, which died in a Democratic-controlled state Senate committee. It also notes that Sauerbrey criticized Glendening's appointment of Robert Bell as the first black chief judge of Maryland's highest court in 1996.