| Bob Ehrlich | |
|---|---|
| 60th Governor of Maryland | |
| In office January 15, 2003 – January 17, 2007 |
|
| Lieutenant | Michael S. Steele |
| Preceded by | Parris Glendening |
| Succeeded by | Martin O'Malley |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 2nd district |
|
| In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2003 |
|
| Preceded by | Helen Delich Bentley |
| Succeeded by | Dutch Ruppersberger |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 25, 1957 Arbutus, Maryland |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Kendel Sibiski Ehrlich |
| Residence | Annapolis, Maryland |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Wake Forest University School of Law |
| Profession | Attorney, Politician |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Website | bobehrlich.com |
Robert Leroy "Bob" Ehrlich, Jr. (born November 25, 1957) is an American politician who served as the 60th Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. A Republican, he became governor after defeating Democratic opponent Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a member of the Kennedy family, 51% to 48% in the 2002 elections. Prior to serving as governor, Ehrlich represented Maryland's 2nd Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives and was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Ehrlich lost to Democrat Martin O'Malley in the November 2006 elections. He was the only incumbent governor to be defeated in the November 2006 elections. In 2010, Ehrlich ran again, hoping to defeat O'Malley, but lost again. Ehrlich then announced via his web site that he "will return to private life". In October 2011 he was named as Chairman of Mitt Romney's Maryland campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination for President.[1]
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Ehrlich was born in the Southwest Baltimore suburb of Arbutus, Maryland. After attending Gilman School, he received degrees from Princeton University (1979) on a partial scholarship, where he was the captain of the football team and a member of the Cap and Gown Club, and Wake Forest University School of Law (1982).
After law school, Ehrlich worked for Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver, a Baltimore law firm. In November 1986, Ehrlich won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing parts of Baltimore County from 1987 to 1995. He was a moderate Republican representing a Democratic stronghold.
He married Kendel Sibiski in 1993. They have two sons, Drew Robert Ehrlich and Joshua Taylor Ehrlich.
He is also a frequent guest on the Sports Junkies.
In 1993, 2nd district Representative Helen Delich Bentley announced she would be vacating her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ehrlich announced his candidacy in November, and won the election.
During his term, he introduced legislation aimed at helping disabled people maintain employment, and supported harsher gun violence penalties.
While in Congress, Ehrlich served on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was also a member of the subcommittees on health, telecommunications and the Internet, and environment and hazardous materials; the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus, where he served as cochairman; and the Congressional Steel Caucus.
In 2002, Governor Parris Glendening’s (D) second term was coming to a close. While Glendening had been reelected by a substantial margin in 1998, the final years of his term were plagued by a personal marital crisis, and a large state budget deficit. The rural areas of Maryland – largely Republican – had long criticized Glendening for what they perceived as overzealous environmental regulations as well as a feeling he was ignoring their budgetary needs (bridges, highways, etc.).
On March 15, 2002, Ehrlich announced his candidacy for the governorship. He attacked Glendening's record and his Democratic opposition, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and promised, if elected, to increase school funding, balance the budget, and protect the Chesapeake Bay. Ehrlich chose as his running mate the attorney and Republican politician Michael S. Steele, an African-American.
During the election, Townsend was criticized for her choice of running mate; she picked retired Admiral Charles R. Larson, a novice politician who had switched parties only a few weeks before. The Townsend campaign was also hurt by the unpopularity of Governor Parris Glendening, who had implemented a redistricting proposal that was overturned by Maryland's highest court. Townsend's popularity continued to fall when it was reported that much of her campaign money was given by out-of-state donors; Ehrlich remained on the attack while the lieutenant governor's poll numbers declined.
Though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican governor in almost 40 years, Ehrlich won the race (52% of the vote to Townsend's 47%), becoming only the sixth Republican governor in state history, and the first since Spiro T. Agnew was elected in 1967.
Ehrlich said "fiscal responsibility, education, health and the environment, public safety, and commerce" were the "Five Pillars" of his administration. He opposed sales and income tax increases and supported legalization of slot machines to raise revenue.
Under Ehrlich's tenure, Maryland stayed 0.5% or more below the national unemployment average. The unemployment rate dropped significantly from 4.5% in 2003 to 3.9% in 2006, with an increase of 98,000 private sector jobs.[2] He endorsed the Thornton Plan, which was passed by the Legislature in 2002 and named after Dr. Alvin Thornton. In part, this plan would grant extra money to poorer school systems and those in areas with a higher cost of living.[3] After pushing though the charter school law in Maryland, Ehrlich opened the first-ever public charter school (Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School), and his tenure saw the construction of 45 new schools, and full renovation of an additional 52 schools. He has invested record funding in Maryland Community Colleges as well as in Maryland's Historically Black Colleges.
Ehrlich established a position in his cabinet for people with disabilities: the Secretary of Disabilities became the first cabinet-level disabilities office in the nation. In 2006, he vetoed the "Fair Share Health Care Bill," also known as the WalMart Bill, which required businesses with more than 10,000 employees in the state (three of the four companies being WalMart, Northrop Grumman, & Giant) to either spend eight percent of payroll on employee health care, or pay that amount to a state health program for the uninsured.[4] The reason for the nickname stemmed from the fact that WalMart was the only company in Maryland of that size that did not already provide affordable health insurance to its employees. On July 7, 2006, the Maryland law was overturned in federal court by U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz, who ruled that the law would "hurt Wal-Mart by imposing the administrative burden of tracking benefits in Maryland differently than in other states."[5]
In 2004, Ehrlich signed the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, which funds upgrades of water treatment plants to reduce pollution discharge by a surcharge on business and residential water and septic bills. The resulting reduction in pollution into the bay was expected to meet approximately one-third of Maryland's obligations under the 2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreement. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation described the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act as the most significant piece of legislation for the Bay in a generation.[6]
Ehrlich appointed a cabinet-level Homeland Security advisor. He opposed President George W. Bush's 2006 approval for a U.A.E. firm to take control of six U.S. port operations, including those at the Port of Baltimore.[7] (See Dubai Ports World controversy).
In 2003, Ehrlich abandoned the "life means life" policy of his predecessor that precluded persons serving life sentences from eligibility for executive clemency. Ehrlich promised to evaluate each request for clemency on a case-by-case basis and was nationally recognized for his progressive approach that helped free wrongly convicted defendants.
In 2004, Ehrlich ended the moratorium on executions that was instituted by his predecessor in May 2002. (See capital punishment in Maryland.) Under his tenure, two men were executed by the state; Ehrlich had denied clemency in both instances.
Although he was entitled to membership in the National Governors Association, the Southern Governors' Association, and the Republican Governors Association, he was not actively involved in those organizations.
In 2006, he became a member of the Capital-to-Capital Coalition.
Ehrlich portrayed a Maryland state trooper in an episode of the HBO drama The Wire. The TV episode was entitled "That's Got His Own" and was broadcast December 3, 2006.[8][9][10]
Governor Ehrlich opted to seek a second term and did not face opposition in the Republican primary. When Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele opted to run for Senate instead of seeking a second term on Ehrlich’s gubernatorial ticket, Ehrlich named Maryland Secretary of Disabilities Kristen Cox, who was blind, as his running mate[11] and was renominated by his party for a second term.
On November 7, 2006, Ehrlich was defeated for re-election in the 2006 gubernatorial election by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, who won 53% to Ehrlich's 46%.[12] Ehrlich's term as governor expired at noon on January 17, 2007.[13]
A month after he left public office, Ehrlich and several aides from his administration opened a Baltimore-area office of North Carolina law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice. His wife Kendel took a consulting job as a director of the BankAnnapolis.[14]
In March 2007, Ehrlich endorsed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Presidency. He was the Chairman of Giuliani's Mid-Atlantic Campaign Committee.[15]
Ehrlich and his wife hosted their own radio show on WBAL-AM Radio every Saturday from 2007 to 2010.[16][17]
On March 30, Ehrlich announced that he would challenge incumbent Governor Martin O'Malley.[18][19]
In June 2010, Ehrlich was endorsed by Terrapin basketball standout and Memphis Grizzlies NBA draft pick Greivis Vasquez.[20] Ehrlich was supported by Terps basketball coach Gary Williams in past elections.
On June 30, 2010, Ehrlich announced that his running mate would be Mary Kane, who had served under Governor Ehrlich as Secretary of State, August 2, 2005 to January 17, 2007, and also as Deputy Secretary of State and Chief Legal Counsel, March 2003 to August 2, 2005.[21]
Ehrlich won the Republican primary but lost the general election to O'Malley, who had a solid lead in the polls through July 2010, stumbled for two months, and then resumed his lead that September.[22] Analysts pointed to the Democratic registration advantage in Maryland, O'Malley's cash advantage and advertisements concerning Ehrlich's career as a lobbyist and links to "Big Oil".
In 2006, e-mails between Kenneth D. Schisler, Ehrlich's Public Service Commission chairman, and industry lawyers surfaced. The emails, which were authenticated by Schisler, "appear to show an industry lawyer's close connections with Schisler and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr."[23] Schisler's many personnel changes on the commission included adding more "industry-friendly" members to replace more "consumer-friendly members," as reported by the Washington Post:
"Many of those fired – including the chief hearing examiner, chief engineer, director of accounting investigations, manager of external relations and public information officer – were longtime aides considered more consumer-friendly than those who replaced them."[23]
In January 2006, the Maryland Legislature passed the controversial Fair Share Health Care Bill, over Ehrlich's veto. The bill attracted national attention because it made Maryland the first state to require very large corporations to either spend eight percent of their payroll on employee health care, or pay that amount to a state health-care fund. It became known as the "Wal-Mart Bill" because while it nominally applied to any corporation with more than 10,000 workers, in practice Wal-Mart was the only employer which met that threshold that did not already pay at least eight percent of their payroll on employee health care.[4][24] Critics of the international discount chain claim that Wal-Mart's low wages force employees and their dependents to rely on state healthcare assistance. (See Wal-Mart Employee and Labor Relations).
Supporters of the bill claimed that this veto showed Ehrlich, whose official biography describes him as "unapologetically pro-business," had sided with "big corporate interests rather than Maryland's working families."[4] For his part, Ehrlich called the bill the "first step toward government-run health care" by "anti-jobs lawmakers." He claimed that it would hurt low and middle-income consumers and was unfair to Wal-Mart and other businesses.[25] In summer 2006, a federal judge struck down the legislation on the grounds that it violated federal law.[26]
In light of Marylands' budget deficit and Ehrlich’s staunch opposition to raising taxes, he pursued slot machines as a means for raising state revenue. Ehrlich initially met with little success on the issue and the House of Delegates continually voted down legislation. In early 2005, however, both the House of Delegates and the State Senate passed different sets of legislation allowing slot machines. Both bills varied too much for compromise, however, and died at the end of the legislative session.
Ehrlich cited his reasons for needing slot machines in Maryland by examining the surrounding states of West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania, all of which have legalized slot machines. He claimed that "hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to those states that could be kept in Maryland", and said that most of the money expected to be generated from the slot machines was earmarked for education (though often the state reduces education funding by the amount the lottery brings in, cancelling the lottery's purported goal).[27] Much of the remaining funds were intended to support the state horse racing industry and retain the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course.
State House speaker Michael E. Busch (D) opposed slot machines in Maryland and regularly clashed with State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (D). These actions divided both chambers of the Assembly as well as the Maryland Democratic party. Busch permitted passage of a bill allowing 9,500 slot machines.[27]
Following the failure of the slots initiative, Ehrlich predicted that no further slots bills would be passed during the next legislative session, and that the issue would remain under the table until after the 2006 gubernatorial election.[28] Some legislators tried to call a special session of the General Assembly to address slot machines.
In November 2008, a referendum passed with 59% voter approval, after a campaign heavily funded by gambling companies.[29] Initially, 65% of the profits went to the casinos; it is planned that by 2018, this is to be tapered to 33%, with 48.5% of the profit directed to education.[29][30]
On November 6, 2006, the day before the general election, Republican Gov. Ehrlich's and Lt. Gov. Steele's campaigns mailed a flier to a number of Prince George's County residents. The flier, a self-proclaimed "Ehrlich-Steele Democrats Official Voter Guide," though the candidates were actually Republican, was a sample ballot endorsing Ehrlich and Steele with a list of other politicians, all Democratic. The front cover of the mailer featured pictures of several current and former Democratic candidates for public office, with the text, "These Are Our Choices" and the implication that Ehrlich and Steele were Democrats.[31]
For the election on November 7, 2006, Ehrlich's gubernatorial re-election campaign and Michael Steele's Maryland senatorial campaign recruited seven busloads of homeless Philadelphians to distribute misleading voter guides in Maryland. Each "official voter guide," headlined "Democratic Sample Ballot," had boxes checked beside Ehrlich's and Steele's names and those of Democratic candidates in other races, with photos of African-American Democratic leaders on the front. The fliers were handed out to mostly poor and African-American voters in Prince George's County. Workers said that first lady Kendel Ehrlich personally gave them T-shirts and hats and thanked them. However, Ehrlich claimed to be unaware that these workers were hired from Philadelphia. The campaign tactic was widely criticized by Democrats for misleading voters.[32][33]
Many Democrats criticized the mailer as misleading, as it could imply that Ehrlich and Steele were Democrats. (The text on the back of the mailer encouraged Democrats to vote for Republican candidates, but the sample ballot itself made no direct mention of the candidates' party affiliations.) Others, including Kweisi Mfume and Jack B. Johnson said that the featuring of three Prince George's County Democrats on the front of the mailer suggested that they all had endorsed Ehrlich and Steele, which was not the case.[34]
| Year | Office | Subject | Party | Votes | Pct | Opponent | Party | Votes | Pct | Opponent | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Congress, District 2 | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 125,162 | 62.74% | Gerry Brewster | Democrat | 74,275 | 37.23% | ||||||||
| 1996 | Congress, District 2 | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 143,075 | 61.83% | Connie Dejuliis | Democrat | 88,344 | 38.17% | ||||||||
| 1998 | Congress, District 2 | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 145,711 | 69.32% | Kenneth Bosley | Democrat | 64,474 | 30.67% | ||||||||
| 2000 | Congress, District 2 | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 178,556 | 68.56% | Kenneth Bosley | Democrat | 81,591 | 31.33% | ||||||||
| 2002 | Governor | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 879,592 | 51.55% | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend | Democrat | 813,422 | 47.68% | Spear Lancaster | Libertarian | 11,546 | 0.68% | ||||
| 2006 | Governor | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 825,464 | 46.2% | Martin O'Malley | Democrat | 942,279 | 52.7% | Ed Boyd | Green | 15,551 | 0.9% | ||||
| 2010 | Governor | Robert Ehrlich | Republican | 776,319 | 41.8% | Martin O'Malley | Democrat | 1,044,961 | 56.2% | ||||||||
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Helen Delich Bentley |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 2nd congressional district 1995–2003 |
Succeeded by Dutch Ruppersberger |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Parris N. Glendening |
Governor of Maryland 2003–2007 |
Succeeded by Martin O'Malley |
| 104th | Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski | House: S. Hoyer | B. Cardin | K. Mfume | C. Morella | W. Gilchrest | R. Bartlett | A. Wynn | R. Ehrlich |
| 105th | Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski | House: S. Hoyer | B. Cardin | C. Morella | W. Gilchrest | R. Bartlett | A. Wynn | R. Ehrlich | E. Cummings |
| 106th | Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski | House: S. Hoyer | B. Cardin | C. Morella | W. Gilchrest | R. Bartlett | A. Wynn | R. Ehrlich | E. Cummings |
| 107th | Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski | House: S. Hoyer | B. Cardin | C. Morella | W. Gilchrest | R. Bartlett | A. Wynn | R. Ehrlich | E. Cummings |