Gubernatorial candidates court NAACP

Friday, Aug. 4, 2006

ANNAPOLIS — Keeping the NAACP in Maryland has opened a new front in the governor’s race.

Both Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) and Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley (D) have launched aggressive campaigns to woo the nation’s oldest civil rights organization away from the nation’s capital. The NAACP is looking for a new headquarters after deciding to leave its west Baltimore home and move closer to Capitol Hill where most of its work takes place.

Both campaigns deny there is any political tinge to their efforts, but the symbolism could not have been stronger than on Monday when the state’s top two Republicans — Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who lives in Largo — personally took NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon on a high-profile tour of the $2 billion, 235-acre National Harbor retail and entertainment project in Prince George’s County.

The tour crystallized the intersection between government and politics that Ehrlich is beginning to exploit as his re-election campaign gears up. He spent this week in Western Maryland and Southern Maryland meeting with voters, passing out checks and cutting ribbons intended to showcase his record over the past four years.

Democrats have complained that the governor is campaigning on the state’s dime, but there are no signs that Ehrlich will change his strategy.

‘‘I just believe that the best way to run for re-election is to have a record of success to run on — the politics will follow,” he told The Gazette on Thursday. ‘‘Actions mean a lot more than words.”

Meanwhile, the NAACP does not expect to make a decision about where it will move until after the November election. That has not stopped O’Malley pushing sites in downtown Baltimore and Ehrlich talking up National Harbor.

‘‘It’s nice to be this wanted,” said Richard McIntire, a spokesman for the national NAACP office. ‘‘We are being courted and being provided packages from Baltimore city, the state of Maryland and from Washington, D.C.”

Both Ehrlich and O’Malley say that their wooing of the NAACP is based on preserving the heritage, prestige and more than 100 jobs that the organization brings to Maryland.

‘Perfect sense’

When Ehrlich learned that the NAACP had decided to leave its headquarters in Baltimore, his senior staff and the Department of Business and Economic Development began making calls. He invited Gordon to Government House for a late-afternoon cup of coffee on July 5, and the wooing began.

Ehrlich talked about sites in Prince George’s County, such as New Carrollton, but National Harbor, he said, ‘‘made perfect sense.” A week or so later, Ehrlich talked about the NAACP moving to National Harbor with Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) during a round of golf at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville.

After that, Ed Miller, Ehrlich’s deputy chief of staff, called John Stierhoff, a lobbyist for the developer of National Harbor, and Monday’s tour was set up.

‘‘This is not a complicated story,” Ehrlich said. ‘‘We wanted to make the strongest pitch possible to keep this organization in Maryland.”

Ehrlich said he understands the political angle but emphasized that politics was not his motivation.

‘‘I understand the prism,” he said. ‘‘This should not be viewed as a political move at all. This is an administration that practices civil rights, and we have the record to back it up. We’re trying to keep a very historic organization in Maryland.”

O’Malley, too, has been pushing to keep the NAACP in Baltimore, beginning with a meeting back in June, his aides said.

‘‘Of course, the NAACP is free to look at all their options,” said Raquel Guillory, a City Hall spokeswoman. ‘‘We hope that once they do that, the best decision will be to remain in Baltimore.”

Guillory said the city’s economic development experts are working to find real estate space in downtown Baltimore convenient to public transportation with easy access to Washington.

Playing off loyalties

Showing leadership on the NAACP relocation is a coup for Ehrlich, said some Prince George’s politicians who have noticed the governor’s outreach into the voter-rich county that is dominated by Democrats. Ehrlich was trounced in Prince George’s in 2002, but he has built a strong relationship with Johnson, invested millions in highways and pushed commercial and retail development that could pay dividends in this year’s election.

Former Prince George’s county executive Wayne K. Curry, a Democrat friendly to Ehrlich, said the governor’s efforts with the NAACP help make his case for re-election. ‘‘Historically, he is faring better here than any other Republican with the exception of Mac Mathias,” he said, referring to the former U.S. senator from Frederick known for his moderate streak.

Mark Clack, a spokesman for the U.S. Senate campaign of former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume (D), warned that Ehrlich’s motivations should be looked at skeptically. He pointed out that as a congressman, Ehrlich asked the IRS to investigate the NAACP’s tax-exempt status in 2001. Ehrlich has said the letter was standard practice for congressmen to direct federal agencies to help answer constituent questions.

Ehrlich also made a pointed comment Thursday about his disappointment that Democrats in the General Assembly — notably House Majority Whip Anthony G. Brown (D-Dist. 25) of Mitchellville, O’Malley’s running mate — shot down his plans to move the Maryland Department of Planning from Baltimore to Prince George’s.

‘‘Instead of trying to pit one part of the state against another, Bob Ehrlich should be trying to do what’s best for the whole state,” said Hari Sevugan, an O’Malley campaign spokesman. ‘‘Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown believe that we can make Maryland stronger by bringing people together by capitalizing on each of our regions’ strengths.”

‘A perfect fit’

Meanwhile, Prince George’s politicians and business leaders are encouraged by the idea of the NAACP settling in the county.

Ehrlich’s efforts to keep the NAACP in Maryland should be viewed not as ‘‘a political chip,” but as promoting Prince George’s, said Eugene Grant (D), the mayor of Seat Pleasant.

‘‘Moving the NAACP to National Harbor speaks to his sensitivity and his knowledge of our county,” Grant said. ‘‘The Ehrlich administration should be applauded for stepping up to the plate in supporting this organization and supporting economic development in Prince George’s County.”

And having the NAACP move to National Harbor would be a major coup for the nation’s most affluent majority-black county, said Kwasi G. Holman, president and CEO of the county’s economic development corporation. ‘‘One of the county’s objectives is to increase the number of associations and nonprofits,” he said. ‘‘Certainly, an organization with the national prestige of the NAACP would raise the bar.”

A former executive vice president of the Baltimore Development Corp., Holman acknowledges Baltimore is a ‘‘less costly alternative” to Washington. But at the harbor, which also will have a residential component, the group’s 115 employees could live closer to the job, he said. The county’s average Class A office rent is $20.79 per square foot, which is much cheaper than Washington’s $45.44 per square foot. In southern Prince George’s — where National Harbor is — office space rents for $20.25 per square foot.

M.H. ‘‘Jim” Estepp, a former county councilman who is CEO of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable, said the NAACP and Prince George’s would be a ‘‘perfect fit.”

‘‘Anytime you have a national organization wanting to relocate in your jurisdiction, it’s a good thing,” said Estepp, who has watched the county transform from a land of tobacco farms to an increasingly lively — and wealthy —suburban community. ‘‘It’s the diversity. It’s the kind of place people would want to live and work.”

For one of the county’s power brokers, the governor’s intervention should not be judged from a political standpoint.

‘‘I look at what’s good for Prince George’s County,” said U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) of Mitchellville. ‘‘I think it would be very premature to be giving the governor credit for this. Nothing has happened yet.”

Staff Writers Marcus Moore and Alan Brody contributed to this report.