When Gov. Robert Ehrlich speaks at his parents? Arbutus home late today to formally announce his re-election bid, he will come out fighting not just his expected Democratic challenger, Mayor Martin O?Malley. He will also come out swinging against what he refers to as the “two Mikes,” the presiding officers of the Senate and House.
Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Mike Busch will be a significant subject of conversation in the campaign, Ehrlich promised last week, just after the legislature overturned one of his vetoes for the 43rd time. Ehrlich often invariably rails about General Assembly Democrats, personified in the two men.
“Look behind the curtain, and it?s not the wizard, it?s Mike Miller,” Ehrlich said of the fight over electric rates. “It?s the proven formula of an arrogant majority.”
But Miller and Busch will be on the fall ballot in only their home districts, slivers of the state with about 2 percent of its population. At home, where their constituent service is enhanced by their legislative power, they do quite well.
Busch has represented Annapolis for 20 years. “They voted heavily for Ehrlich and I was still the top vote-getter,” he said. District 30 is considered one of five swing districts where Republicans have targeted Democratic senators, but in the three-member delegate district, the lone Republican elected, Del. Herb McMillan, came in 1,400 votes behind Busch last time.
Asked about the political attacks, Busch countered, “People ought run for something, not against someone.” Instead of blaming people, “people ought to run on their record.”
In Miller?s District 27, Ehrlich carried Calvert County, but lost in Prince George?s County in 2002. Miller himself got 72 percent of the vote.
For the first time in his eight terms, on Tuesday Miller formally announced his re-election plans, but that was largely to boost his ticket mates, he said.
