What the guv said or didn’t say is left to interpretation

Friday, Oct. 6, 2006

On its face the statement is pretty damning.

Appearing on Washington Post radio Thursday, Gov. Bob Ehrlich said of running mate Kristen Cox: ‘‘In my heart of hearts, I cannot answer honestly if Kris had sight, whether she would be the person I chose. I do not know that.”

The O’Malley campaign jumped on the statement like a hobo on a ham sandwich, saying the guv was questioning his own running mate’s qualifications.

The Ehrlich campaign said the statement was being misunderstood.

‘‘Kris is an individual who has been empowered by her blindness,” spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said. ‘‘This is very similar to the reason Michael Steele was chosen as lieutenant governor. Not because he was black, but because of the leader he became after overcoming racial and economic obstacles.”

— Douglas Tallman

Wootten weighs in

High school basketball legend Morgan Wootten, whose Hall of Fame credentials include a 1,274-192 record over 46 seasons at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, endorsed Michael Steele for U.S. Senate this week.

Steele — a 6’ 4’’ fencer who tried out for basketball in junior high, only to be told by his coach to find another sport — invited a few reporters to Wootten’s University Park home on Wednesday as he picked up the endorsement.

Steele and Wootten sat in two wooden chairs in front of a wall filled with painted basketballs and trophies that chronicle Wootten’s legendary sports career.

One wall displayed autographed photos of presidents who invited the coach and his players to the White House over the years. From John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, the accolades were clear. Wootten has a reputation as a coach, teacher and positive influence for so many youngsters in the Washington area.

Wootten, a Republican, said Steele’s ‘‘family man” status, his roots in Prince George’s County and positions on education earned his endorsement. In 1994, Wootten endorsed Wayne Curry for Prince George’s county exec and backed Parris Glendening when he ran for governor.

‘‘It’s such an honor when someone who is not part of the political process thinks enough of you to offer an endorsement like this,” said Steele, who graduated from DeMatha’s rival, Archbishop Carroll High School.

Steele is known to use the phrase that ‘‘a Senate seat is a terrible thing to waste.” Wootten had a different sports-related take: ‘‘We can’t afford to drop this ball.”

— Thomas Dennison

Tough love?

Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, after sitting silently for most of Wednesday’s Board of Public Works meeting and looking glum and pouty, showed that he still had some fire in the belly by ripping into State Highway and Maryland Department of Transportation officials for crying poor.

Schaefer didn’t like that MDOT — an agency with a budget of more than $3.6 billion — needed a five-year $7.5 million contract for public relations work such as media buys and graphic arts. SHA officials complained that the legislature had cut jobs for PR workers and that the agency would be better served by paying a contractor to do the work because the agency didn’t have the time, equipment or expertise to do it.

‘‘Horsehockey,” Schaefer spewed, mocking the SHA officials and MDOT Deputy Secretary Jim Ports.

Schaefer looked at the ceiling and whined that no one listens to him and that state bureaucrats realize that he’ll be gone in a month or so. ‘‘Don’t pay attention to him. ... He won’t be here next month,” moaned Willie Don.

Schaefer then shot Ehrlich an angry-father look and blamed him for letting agencies get away with that kind of stuff.

The guv tried politely to disagree, which prompted Schaefer to cut him off. Ehrlich called the vote, and with the support of Treasurer Nancy Kopp the contract passed 2-1. Schaefer abstained.

— Thomas Dennison

Careful words

After the meeting, Schaefer seemed to soften his position on Martin O’Malley — kind of. A few months back, Schaefer told The Gazette editorial board that O’Malley has not been a good mayor. On Wednesday, he told reporters that O’Malley ‘‘has been a pretty good mayor.” Ehrlich has done a pretty good job as governor, too, he said.

Asked if he was softening toward O’Malley, Schaefer seemed to back away, ‘‘I really don’t want to say that he was a good mayor or a bad mayor.” Schaefer then said O’Malley didn’t have the proper experience to be mayor.

The former governor said O’Malley has always focused on his next elected office, so we asked if O’Malley has the experience to be governor.

‘‘If he keeps his mind on being governor, he’ll be fine,” Schaefer said.

— Thomas Dennison

Harsh words — soft ones, too

Schaefer also had some tough words about the GOP nominee for his job.

‘‘I’m not supporting Anne McCarthy,” he said after being asked if some of his loyal supporters were backing the former business school dean. ‘‘She is very nasty.”

Asked for some examples of McCarthy — a political neophyte whose campaign is barely registering a pulse these days — being ‘‘nasty,” Schaefer said, ‘‘She wants to get me out.”

McCarthy’s campaign manager was not available for comment on Thursday.

The irony is that Democratic nominee, Peter Franchot, was the first to start banging on Schaefer. The comptroller has barely said a cross word about the Takoma Park liberal since the primary.

If Franchot ‘‘calms down,” Schaefer said, ‘‘he’ll be a good comptroller.”

— Thomas Dennison

Budget brain trust?

As if the four budgetary top dogs in the legislature don’t have enough influence on the state finances, Franchot has added them to his ‘‘fiscal policy advisory council.”

Norman Conway, House Appropriations Committee chairman; Sheila Hixson, House Ways and Means Committee chairwoman; Uly Currie, Senate Budget and Taxation Committee chairman; Mac Middleton, Senate Finance Committee chairman, are the legislative members of the group.

It also includes former comptroller Bobby Swann; former Deputy Comptroller Steven Cordi; former adviser Robert Douglas, who was Schaefer’s press secretary; William Ratchford, former director of the Department of Fiscal Services; Walter Sondheim, senior adviser to the Greater Baltimore Committee; and former Democratic delegate Timothy Maloney.

With so many Democrats on the panel, Republicans weren’t impressed.

‘‘We know Peter Franchot is one of the most fork-tongued partisans in the legislature,” GOP spokeswoman Audra Miller said. ‘‘It’s really just smoke and mirrors to hide his irresponsible fiscal policy and the damage he would do to our state’s fiscal health.”

Franchot said the group will meet in the open, unlike a similar legislative group called the Fiscal Leaders Committee, which meets privately.

The council will provide continuity with the administrations of Louis Goldstein, William Donald Schaefer and Franchot, if he gets elected, he said.

— Douglas Tallman

Having it both ways?

Del. Bill Frank, who is leading the GOP efforts to pick up seats in the House of Delegates this fall, seems to support the Thornton school funding formula and oppose the Thornton school funding formula.

A Democratic operative working to elect more Dems to the House dropped off a copy of the ‘‘issues” page on Frank’s Web site.

The Baltimore County Republican says in the ‘‘Creating Educational Opportunities” section that: ‘‘We have strongly supported the full funding of the landmark ‘‘Bridget to Education Excellence Act, which has increased funding to historically high levels for K-12 education.”

Frank didn’t seem so strong back in 2004 as quoted in The Washington Times.

‘‘I think that funding Thornton is fiscally irresponsible,” Frank told The Times. ‘‘The money is simply not there after fiscal year ’05 ... so we need to stretch it out, but do it over an additional three or four years.”

— Thomas Dennison

Oh, Montgomery

Pat O’Neill, who has the longest continuous service on the MoCo school board, got a surprise when she opened a letter from the county Board of Elections last week.

A certificate of nomination for her re-election bid spelled her name as ‘‘O’Neal.”

‘‘I was stunned,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill, who is running unopposed, said her name has been misspelled before — the apostrophe left out or the e and i transposed, ‘‘But this was way off.”

She notified the elections board. Two election officials called to apologize the next morning.

‘‘As soon as we were made aware of it we corrected the situation and we offered our sincere apologies to Mrs. O’Neill,” said Marjorie Roher, a spokeswoman for the elections board. ‘‘As much as it pains me to say it, it was a simple error in proofreading.”

Given the problems experienced during the Sept. 12 primary after elections board staff forgot to include access cards that activate the county’s electronic voting machines, O’Neill said she would expect election officials to be more careful.

‘‘I would think they’d be dotting every i and crossing every t,” she said.

— Sean R. Sedam

Turning back the clock?

If only for a day, St. Mary’s College wants to reclaim its centuries-ago title of Maryland’s political center.

The state’s first capital city wants to host a gubernatorial debate, perhaps in the original State House, but has received no indication — positive or negative — from debate organizers or the gubbie campaigns.

Zach Messitte, who heads the college’s Center for the Study of Democracy, has conveyed the school’s interest to League of Women Voters of Maryland head Lu Pierson for about a year and informally offered the college as a venue to Martin O’Malley during a recent visit.

Bob Ehrlich is scheduled to speak at the school today as part of a daylong swing through Southern Maryland.

Messitte said the small liberal arts school would be an ideal debate location.

‘‘Politically, both sides win because we’re a blue island in a red county. It’s not Morgan State, so they’re not going to feel like it geographically favors one side,” he said. Additionally, ‘‘we’ve made a commitment to civic engagement and the study of Maryland politics that is equal to or better than any higher education institution in the state.”

Messitte called the outlook ‘‘muddy.”

‘‘I’m not waiting by the phone for the call,” he deadpanned.

— Alan Brody