Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani joined firefighters and police organizations from around Maryland in rallying to support Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s re-election bid at the Glenn Dale firehouse in Prince George?s County.
“If you get the volunteer firefighters for you,” Giuliani told Ehrlich, “you cannot lose.”
Exactly two days before the election four years ago, Giuliani campaigned for Ehrlich, a year after the Sept. 11 attacks had pushed the mayor to national prominence. He had a feeling that Ehrlich was going to win, but “I didn?t know you were going to be quite as good a governor as you turned out.”
Ehrlich needs to be re-elected, said Giuliani, “because he is a damned good governor.”
“This election, like all elections these days, is going to be close,” Giuliani said. “He needs your help.”
The latest Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Poll for MSNBC has the race dead even at 45 percent, similar to other polls last week showing Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley with a very slim lead.
Ehrlich and Giuliani were honored by a parade of organizations representing firefighters, the Fraternal Order of Police, the state fire chiefs, and the auxiliaries.
Jim Collins, president of the Prince George?s County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, presented trophies to Giuliani ? “the man who stood there from day one” after the Sept. 11 attacks ? and to Ehrlich, “a man who?s been with us from day one.”
The emcee for the event was Ed Norris, the former state police chief and former Baltimore police commissioner who was convicted of misusing a city police slush fund and for tax evasion. He is a now a Baltimore radio talk show host and someone Ehrlich called “a great friend.”
“I?ve had a very interesting life,” Norrisadmitted, including 24 years as a cop, most of that in New York City. Giuliani “turned around the greatest city in America,” Norris said. “I?m truly honored to have worked for both of these men.”
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
