Robert L. Ehrlich
From Freepedia
| Date of birth: | November 25, 1957 |
| Place of birth: | Arbutus, Maryland |
| Spouse: | Kendel Sibiski |
| Political party: | Republican |
| Office(s): | Governor of Maryland (2003–present) U.S. Congressman, Maryland 2nd District (1994–2003) |
Robert Leroy Ehrlich, Jr. (born November 25, 1957) is an American politician and the 60th and current Governor of Maryland. A Republican, he became governor in 2003 after defeating Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a member of the Kennedy family, 51%–48% in the 2002 elections. Prior to serving as governor, Ehrlich was a U.S. congressman from Maryland's 2nd congressional district and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
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Early life, career, and family
Ehrlich was born in the small community of Arbutus, Maryland located southwest of Baltimore and was raised in a conservative Lutheran environment. After attending the Gilman School in Baltimore, he received degrees from Princeton University (1979), where he was the captain of the football team, and Wake Forest University Law School (1982). After he obtained his degrees, Ehrlich went to work for the Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver law firm of Baltimore. In November 1986, Ehrlich won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing parts of Baltimore County from 1987 to 1995.
Ehrlich married his wife Kendel in 1993 and they have two sons, Drew Robert Ehrlich and Joshua Taylor Ehrlich.
Congress
In 1993, 2nd district congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley announced she would be vacating her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ehrlich decided to pursue the seat and announced his candidacy in November of the same year. His campaign involved promises of lower taxes and more support for the U.S. Military and senior citizens. He also promised aid for veterans and better education for Maryland’s children.
Ehrlich won the seat by a substantial margin, making himself one of the few leading Republican figures in the heavily Democratic state. Throughout his congressional tenure, he maintained most of his campaign promises and worked towards lowering one of the highest tax rates in U.S. history and towards garnering further support for American troops abroad. He supported disabled Americans by introducing legislation aimed at helping those who had been disabled maintain employment, and supported harsher gun violence penalties.
While in Congress, Ehrlich served on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committees, where he further served on the subcommittees on health, telecommunications and the internet, and environment and hazardous materials; the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus, where he served as cochairman; and the Congressional Steel Caucus. A staunch conservative, Ehrlich has been an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush ever since Bush’s election in 2000, and he has supported several Bush initiatives including the No Child Left Behind Act and the recent tax cuts.
2002 Gubernatorial Election
In 2002, Governor Parris Glendening’s (D) second term was coming to a conclusion. While Glendening had been reelected by a substantial margin in 1998, the final years of his term were plagued by corruption, a personal marital crisis, and a large state budget deficit. The rural areas of Maryland—largely Republican—had long criticized Glendening for what they perceived as overzealous environmental regulations as well as ignoring their budgetary needs (bridges, highways, etc.).
It was during this time that, on March 15, 2002, Ehrlich announced his candidacy for the governorship. He attacked Glendening's record and his Democratic opposition, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and, if elected, promised to increase school funding, balance the budget, and to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
During the election, Lt. Gov. Townsend was criticized for her choice of running mate; she picked retired Admiral Charles Larson, a novice politician who had switched parties only a few weeks before. Larson was also a white male, unlikely to boost minority turnout. In contrast, Ehrlich's running mate was Michael Steele, a Roman Catholic African-American lawyer and former seminarian, who had been chairman of the Republican Party of Maryland. The Townsend campaign was also hurt by the unpopularity of Governor Parris Glendening, who had implemented a partisan redistricting proposal that was overturned by Maryland's highest court. Townsend's popularity continued to fall when it was reported that much of her campaign money was given by out-of-state donors; Ehrlich remained quiet while the Lt. Governor's poll numbers declined.
Even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican governor in almost 40 years, Ehrlich won the race, becoming only the sixth Republican governor in state history, and the first since Spiro T. Agnew in 1967. Ehrlich won by 51% of the vote to Townsend's 48% and Libertarian Spear Lancaster's 1%.
After the election, heavy criticism was directed at Townsend from many Democratic Party activists. Nonetheless, most observers agreed that Townsend ran a weak campaign; specifically, they cited a lack of planning, claiming that she hastily booked campaign stops in rural areas hostile to her and produced campaign literature of poor printing quality.
Governor of Maryland
Since becoming governor, Ehrlich has focused what he calls the Five Pillars of his Administration: fiscal responsibility, education, health and the environment, public safety and safer neighborhoods, and commerce. The $1.8 billion state budget deficit left by the Glendening administration has been eradicated under Ehrlich’s guidance. Moreover, the Maryland budget has been balanced every year (the state forcasts a $1 billion surplus for the 2005 fiscal year) since Ehrlich has been in office. He has also continually fought against sales and income tax increases vigorously proposed by the heavily Democratic Maryland General Assembly.
In education, Ehrlich has endorsed the Thornton Plan, named after sponsor Dr. Alvin Thornton. The plan was proposed to drastically increase education funding in the state by $1.3 billion annually with the hopes of improving public education for students across Maryland, especially for schools in lower-income neighborhoods. Health care has also been a priority for Ehrlich, and has established a position in his cabinet based on providing affordable healthcare benefits to those who cannot afford them. Protecting the Chesapeake Bay has been Ehrlich’s primary environmental objective, and he has signed into law legislation which will reduce pollution and runoff in the Bay by millions of pounds annually.
Considering Maryland’s proximity to Washington, D.C., Ehrlich has continually tried to improve Maryland's readiness level for another terrorist attack. He has appointed a cabinet-level Homeland Security advisor and has also signed into legislation laws which are aimed at reducing repeat offenders and eliminating the revolving-door nature of the state prison system. With employment, Maryland boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, and has seen an increase of 60,000 jobs since Ehrlich has taken office. He has also continually supported minority business owners and the hi-tech industry.
Controversy
O'Malley rumors
Ehrlich came under fire by O'Malley after one of his aides, Joseph Steffen, allegedly spread rumors that Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley was unfaithful to his wife. O'Malley, a Democrat, is running for governor in 2006 and, if he wins the primary, will likely face off against Ehrlich in the general election. O'Malley and his wife had a highly-publicized press conference to deny the rumors and accuse Republicans of dirty politics. Steffen resigned shortly thereafter. [1] The Ehrlich Administration later investigated and found that Steffen was the only person using a government computer for such a purpose. The press then reported that the rumors were widely known by the press and by Democrats. And as early as 2000, Katie O'Malley was discussing them with her brother, a Baltimore City Councilman.[2]
Partisan hiring practices or Partisan Witch Hunt
The O'Malley rumors and Steffen's role in the Ehrlich Administration provided a reason for legislative investigation into hiring practices by the Administration. In September 2005 newly released e-mails showed that an aide in Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s appointments office personally authorized the dismissal of a mid-level state engineer, Vincent J. Gardina, a Democrat and at will employee, on the Baltimore County Council who had worked for five months on dredging projects at the Maryland Environmental Service. Gardina, who earned $55,000 a year, had received a favorable work evaluation just weeks before being terminated.
After being dismissed, Gardina sued the governor, alleging that he was fired solely because of his political affiliation. The state settled the suit, at the recommendation of Democrat Attorney General Joe Curran, for $100,000 before the question could be resolved. Gardina was an at will employee that served at the Governor's pleasure.
Britney Spears
Creating national notoriety, Ehrlich's wife, Kendal, jokingly commented that she'd like to "shoot Britney Spears" because of the bad influence that Mrs. Ehrlich feels Ms. Spears has on teenage girls. [4]
Slot machines
In light of the budget deficit left by Glendening and Ehrlich’s staunch opposition to raising taxes, Ehrlich has pursued slot machines as a means for raising revenue for the state. Ehrlich initially met with little success on the issue, and the House of Delegates continually voted down legislation, but in early 2005, both the House of Delegates and the State Senate passed different sets of legislation allowing slot machines. Boths bill varied too much for compromise, however, and died at the end of the legislative session.
Ehrlich cited his reasons for needing slot machines in Maryland by examining the surrounding states of West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania, all of which have slot machines legalized. He claims that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to those states that could be kept in Maryland. Furthermore, most of the money that was expected to be generated from the slot machines was earmarked towards education, although often the state reduces education funding from the amount it wouuld have spent by the amount the lottery brings in, cancelling the lottery's purported goal [5]. Much of the remaining funds were intended to support the state horse racing industry and retain the Preakness at Pimilico racetrack.
State House speaker Michael E. Busch (D) has steadfastly opposed slot machines in Maryland and has regularly clashed with State Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (D). These actions divided both chambers of the Assembly as well as the Maryland Democratic party. However reluctantly, Busch premitted passage of a bill allowing 9,500 slot machines.[6]
Following the failure of the slots initiative, Ehrlich predicted that no further slots bills would be passed during the next legislative session, and that the issue will remain under the table until after the 2006 gubernatorial election. [7] Some legislators tried to call a special session of the General Assembly to address slot machines. A referendum has also been discussed.
Issues With The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun lost a major lawsuit against Ehrlich when Judge William D. Quarles Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed the Sun's lawsuit it brought for "Ehrlich['s] ban on Sun journalists."[8]. Quarles' opinion stated that the Sun had demanded "special access beyond what is granted to the general public, and that the governor was within the law to deny that special access to two writers because he did not like what they wrote about him."[9] The Sun has appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. In the Sun's articles critical of Ehrlich, with the exception of articles related to this specific subject, the Sun makes no mention of its suit and statements against the Ehrlich administration. Further, many noted The Sun's action in July 2005 ordering Gregory Kane—its only conservative columnist—could no longer chat with Ron Smith on his talk show on WBAL radio. Many perceived hypocrisy in The Sun's suing Ehrlich for his blackout of columnists David Nitkin and Michael Olesker, while pulling the same stunt in silencing Kane on WBAL’s airwaves.
Another Sun article titled "Ehrlich criticized for choice of golf club as fund-raiser site"[10] stated that the club where Ehrlich had one of his fundraisers had no African-American members in its 127-year history. One of their columnists, Michael Olesker, advised Ehrlich to learn a lesson from Groucho Marx[11]. An editorial in the Sun implied he continues to use Lt. Gov. Michael Steele for political purposes, and accused them both of endorsing the club's policy[12]. The Maryland NAACP and Democratic Party Leaders such as Kweisi Mfume, Isiah Leggett and Montgomery County Executive (and probable 2006 gubernatorial candidate) Doug Duncan joined in the criticism. Later, the Sun reported that Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr., a Democrat, also hosted a fundraiser there[13]. Additionally, Peter O'Malley, the younger brother of and top political adviser to Baltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley, had his wedding reception to Melinda O'Malley at the club.
2006 gubernatorial election
For more information, see Maryland gubernatorial election, 2006.
Sources
See also
External links
| Preceded by: Helen Delich Bentley | U.S. Congressman, Maryland 2nd District 1995–2003 | Succeeded by: Dutch Ruppersberger |
| Preceded by: Parris N. Glendening | Governor of Maryland 2003–present | Succeeded by: — |
Categories: 1957 births | 2006 Maryland elections | American lawyers | Elks | Governors of Maryland | Lawyers | Members of the U.S. House from Maryland | Members of the Maryland House of Delegates | Methodists | People from Maryland
