You couldn?t find a much friendlier audience for a pro-business Republican governor than the group of entrepreneurs and corporate executives Gov. Robert Ehrlich addresses today.
“It?s a great opportunity for the governor to have his first major speaking event after the session in front of a very friendly audience,” said Rocky Worcester, president of Maryland Business for Responsive Government.
Worcester is expecting the best attendance ever for the luncheon at Baltimore?s Hyatt Regency, more than 600 executives at $125 a pop.
“Those who hedge their bets are not going to be there,” Worcester said. He?s noticed that some members of the lobbying corps who have attended in the past have not been returning his phone calls about attending, perhaps for fear of antagonizing Mayor Martin O?Malley and other Democrats.
Democrats say the “R” in MBRG actually stands for Republican, and they?re not far wrong. The group?s board includes John Kane of the Kane Cos., chairman of the state GOP; and Dick Hug of Hug Enterprises, Ehrlich?s chief fundraiser whom the General Assembly wants to throw off the university system Board of Regents.
The group?s 137 members include the biggest corporations in Maryland: banks, law firms, insurance companies, oil companies, utilities (Constellation Energy and Pepco), retailers (Giant andWal-Mart), and most large business and trade groups.
MBRG produces an annual score card for legislators in which Republicans do well, and Democrats score poorly.
Seven years ago, MBRG supported the deregulation of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and its electricity rates, moves that have wound up producing whopping rate increases for consumers. “If we had 20-20 hindsight, we might have taken a different position,” Worcester said. “The problem was that it was not deregulation at all; in effect it was price regulation,” keeping artificially low rates for seven years.
There?s plenty of blame to spread around. The deregulation bills MBRG backed were sponsored by Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, the top Democrat, and supported by most Democrats in both houses of the legislature.
