Every semester, Rick Vatz, a mass communications professor at Towson University in Baltimore County, invites former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich to the campus. Ehrlich speaks to Vatz’s persuasion class and, if my work schedule permits, I make it a point to attend. At this point, perhaps a little full disclosure might be in order.
I like Ehrlich, and voted for him three times. He’s a former Maryland state delegate and congressman. He didn’t live in my state legislative district or congressional district, so I couldn’t vote for him when he ran for those offices.
But I voted for him when he ran for governor in 2002, 2006 and 2010. I met him in 2002, during his first run for the governor’s mansion.
The late Del. Tony Fulton of Baltimore — God rest his soul – introduced us. Fulton, a Democrat – to the horror of his fellow black Democrats from Baltimore – had invited Ehrlich to take a tour of Carver Vocational-Technical High School in the heart of West Baltimore.
But Fulton had a method to what his fellow black Democrats perceived as madness. He’d also invited then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was the Democratic candidate for governor.
I found it interesting that Kennedy Townsend, the Democrat who was supposedly the “friend of the Negro” candidate, didn’t make it. Ehrlich did.
During a campaign stop at Bowie State University, a historically black institution in Prince George’s County, “friend of the Negro” candidate Kennedy Townsend chirped how happy she was to be at Coppin State University, another HBCU located over 30 miles north in Baltimore.
Current Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was mayor of Baltimore for eight years. I suppose he could find his way to Carver Vo-Tech if he wanted to, but I wouldn’t bet the house on it.
Whatever the case, Ehrlich impressed me as the candidate more genuinely interested in the concerns of black Baltimoreans than either Kennedy Townsend or O’Malley.
That, in a nutshell, is why I was in Vatz’s persuasion class earlier this month to listen to Ehrlich’s lecture. He entered the lecture hall around 2:15 p.m. to a rousing ovation from students who seemed not to care that Ehrlich is no longer in office, or even running for one.
Ehrlich started the class by presenting Vatz with a copy of “Turn This Car Around,” Ehrlich’s new book about politics and his days as Maryland’s first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew held the office from 1967-1968.
More full disclosure: Ehrlich ‘fessed up that I’m in the book, and you might be reading more about it in a future column.
Then it was on to the fun stuff: Ehrlich had Vatz’s class evaluate the presidential candidates, including the incumbent, President Obama.
“It seems he’s being cautious,” one student said.
Ehrlich agreed.
“Obama’s a very cautious politician,” the former governor noted. When another student mentioned that Obama seems to be running as an outsider, Ehrlich agreed again, and then expressed some incredulity.
“He’s the incumbent and he’s running as the outsider,” Ehrlich exclaimed, then added that running as the outsider might be part of Obama’s strategy.
“The stimulus didn’t work, and Obamacare is iffy,” Ehrlich said. “So Obama is fighting these darned, evil, greedy, rich Republicans.”
It’s a strategy Ehrlich should be all too familiar with. It’s the one O’Malley used against Ehrlich in 2010, to great advantage. Now, one year later, thanks to the website MarylandReporter.com, we learn the truth.
“The top campaign contributors to Gov. Martin O’Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot for last year’s election were ‘business interests and fat cats,” a story in the Nov. 17 edition reads.
I wonder what the former governor says about that in his new book.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
