Arizona Sen. John McCain hoped to leave Baltimore on Tuesday night with his presidential campaign coffers $1 million fuller, according to former Gov. Robert Ehrlich. Ehrlich planned to introduce the Republican nominee to a crowd of 200 to 300 at the Center Club atop the Legg Mason tower.
Ehrlich told The Examiner that he planned to tell the crowd that “on the major issues confronting the country ? pork [spending], earmarks, [oil] drilling, the surge [in Iraq], trade, health care I believe that our nominee represents the best choice for the country.”
Anyone with any doubts about McCain?s credentials and positions should “contrast them with Obama?s record as one of the most liberal senators,” the former governor said.
“Obviously, Maryland is tough go” for McCain to “get to 51” percent and win Nov. 4, said Ehrlich, who lost a relatively close re-election bid with 47 percent. But “his profile plays well in Maryland to independents, moderate Democrats and retired military.”
Ehrlich and his fundraisers had strongly backed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the Republican race for president, but now are heavily involved in the McCain campaign.
“He?s a fascinating guy, he?s not your typical guy,” Ehrlich said of McCain. “That maverick streak is real and pronounced.”
McCain has sometimes annoyed conservatives with his support of campaign finance controls and his opposition to President Bush?s tax cuts. But Ehrlich said McCain “in a very quiet way [has] gone to groups on the right” and asked them to examine his 22-year voting record in the Senate.
“It?s an easy call,” Ehrlich said.
It also was an easy call for about 100 members of organized labor as well who demonstrated against McCain last night.
“We?ve got people who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Ernie Grecco, president of the Metropolitan Council of the AFL-CIO. McCain is “not helping us at all,” he added. “His economic policies are all bad.”
Ehrlich countered, “A lot of union households are voting for McCain.”
Across the Inner Harbor at the Silo Point development, Gov. Martin O?Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown were holding their own fundraiser Tuesday night. O?Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese declined to estimate what their campaign might take in, but he scoffed at Ehrlich?s spin on the McCain event.
