Western Maryland is solid Ehrlich country, but that was not always easy to tell from the business people at the Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday, as they gave Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley a respectful and open hearing.
“He was very engaging,” banker and chamber Chairman Brad Pingrey said, adding O?Malley spent a little too much time telling the 130 people in the room about what he did for Baltimore, rather than what he was going to do for Washington County.
Then again, Pingrey said, a similar comment could be made about Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who appeared before the group 11 days ago.
“We would have liked to hear more specific plans,” Pingrey said, especially about funding for school construction in the county growing fast from the influxof commuters from the Interstate 270 corridor.
O?Malley gave his standard 10-point speech, and then spent half an hour answering detailed questions.
He “made some excellent points,” health care consultant Peter Perini said. On local issues, “I think he had the right answers.”
In Washington County, those “right answers” include funding for expansion of Interstate 81, a study for improving Interstate 70 and more state money for public schools and libraries, all promises O?Malley was willing to make.
“I applaud the ideas he has” on health care, Perini said. O?Malley emphasized his plans to make it easier for small businesses and groups of those firms to insure their employees.
“I?m a little concerned about putting that on the backs of business,” Perini commented.
There were even disaffected Ehrlich voters such as Jennifer and Doug Hughes.
“We both voted for Ehrlich” in 2002, said Jennifer Hughes. “We?re not happy with the way it turned out.”
“I like that [O?Malley] countered some of the negative ads without slinging mud,” she said.
The mayor worked the room heavily, and afterward predicted, “We will do much better in western Maryland than we did four years ago.”
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend got 30 percent of the vote.
Del. John Donoghue said O?Malley is “going to do great,” especially among the families of workers in one of the largest industries in the area ? the three big state prisons.
The large numbers of guards and their families are concerned about “locally inadequate staffing policies,” and “they?re on fire” against Ehrlich, Donoghue said.
