Bob Ehrlich

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	(1957-11-25) November 25, 1957 Arbutus, Maryland
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Kendel Sibiski Ehrlich
Residence	Annapolis, Maryland
Alma mater	Princeton University Wake Forest University
Profession	Attorney, Politician
Website	bobehrlich.com

For the entrepreneur and businessman, see Robert Ehrlich (businessman).

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 2^nd 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".

Early life, career, and family

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 Law School (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.

Congress

Ehrlich's congressional portrait

In 1993, 2^nd 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.

Governor of Maryland

2002 gubernatorial election

Main article: Maryland gubernatorial election, 2002

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 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, if elected, promised to increase school funding, balance the budget, and to 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 Lt. Governor's poll numbers declined.

Even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican governor in almost 40 years, Ehrlich won the race, becoming only the sixth Republican governor in state history, and the first since Spiro T. Agnew was elected in 1967. Ehrlich won by 52% of the vote to Townsend's 47%.

Tenure as governor

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 .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. 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. After pushing though the charter school law in Maryland, Ehrlich opened the first-ever public charter school, and funded the construction of 45 new schools, and full scale 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 that 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. 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."

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 Restoration Act was described by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as the most significant piece of legislation for the Bay in a generation.

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. (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 effectively ended the moratorium on executions that was instituted by his predecessor in May 2002. (See capital punishment in Maryland.) Since then, two men have been executed by the State, with Ehrlich denying 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.

2006 gubernatorial election

On November 7, 2006, Ehrlich was defeated for re-election in the 2006 gubernatorial election by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. Ehrlich's term as governor expired at noon on January 17, 2007.

Between elections

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.

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.

Ehrlich and his wife hosted their own radio show on WBAL-AM Radio every Saturday from 2007 to 2010.

2010 gubernatorial campaign

Main article: Maryland gubernatorial election, 2010

On March 30, Ehrlich announced that he would challenge incumbent Martin O'Malley.

In June 2010, Ehrlich was endorsed by Terrapin basketball standout and Memphis Grizzlies NBA draft pick Greivis Vasquez. Ehrlich has also been 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.

Ehrlich won the Republican primary but lost the general election to O'Malley, despite being tied in the polls through September. Analysts pointed to the huge Democratic registration advantage in Maryland, O'Malley's huge cash advantage, as well as an onslaught of controversial ads inaccurately portraying Ehrlich as a lobbyist.

Controversies

Slot machines

In light of Marylands' budget deficit and Ehrlich’s staunch opposition to raising taxes, he has pursued slot machines as a means for raising revenue for the state. 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 slot machines legalized. He claims that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to those states that could be kept in Maryland. Furthermore, most of the money that was expected to be generated from the slot machines was earmarked towards education, although often the state reduces education funding from the amount it would have spent by the amount the lottery brings in, cancelling the lottery's purported goal. 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) steadfastly opposed slot machines in Maryland and has 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.

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 will remain under the table until after the 2006 gubernatorial election. 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. Initially, 65% of the profits go to the casinos. By 2018, this is to be tapered to 33%, with 48.5% of the profit directed to education.

See also

• Government of Maryland

References

• Maryland Archives gubernatorial biography. [1]
• Maryland Archives general biography. [2]
• Congressional Quarterly election library. [3]
• Ehrlich Personnel Story [4]
• MD Gubernatorial Candidates List [5]

External links

• Bob Ehrlich official campaign site
• Template:GovLinks
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission