Duncan makes it official

Exec makes Baltimore a battleground vs. mayor

Friday, Oct. 21, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette In Baltimore, the last leg of his gubernatorial announcement tour, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan is joined by (from left) former mayor Kurt Schmoke, comptroller and Baltimore icon William Donald Schaefer, and state Sen. Gwendolyn T. Britt.

At stops in Rockville, Hyattsville, Baltimore and Annapolis, Duncan pledged to make education his top priority, pointing to the successes of the Montgomery school system and decrying the weaknesses of Baltimore city’s.

‘‘We won’t move forward as a state while our largest city continues to lag behind — particularly in its schools,” Duncan said in his speech to about 100 in a recreation hall at Baltimore’s Union Baptist Church. ‘‘We won’t move forward as a state unless we can talk honestly about these problems, and until our leaders step forward with real plans and real solutions to address them.”

Duncan claimed that O’Malley has failed to curb Baltimore’s violent crime or fix its schools. While the city’s downtown may be improving, he said, its neighborhoods ‘‘continue to struggle.”

Duncan defiantly took on Democratic Party leaders who have urged him not to criticize Baltimore. Duncan said it would be a ‘‘disservice” not to lay out the city’s shortcomings.

‘‘How can we solve problems if we’re not allowed to talk about them?” he asked.

Duncan’s speech in Baltimore was the same one he gave earlier in the day outside the Rockville home where he grew up. In Baltimore, Duncan trotted out two former Baltimore mayors — William Donald Schaefer (D) and Kurt L. Schmoke (D) — to give enthusiastic endorsements of his campaign.

Duncan ‘‘has always kept his eye on the ball, and doesn’t want to be president of the world like the other fella,” said Schaefer, never one to shy away from criticizing O’Malley.

The theme of the day was education.

‘‘With me as governor, education gets funded first. Period,” Duncan said.

A Duncan administration will provide clean and safe schools, and make college tuition more affordable, he told supporters. Companies that allow employees to spend time in their children’s schools would get preference in bidding on state contracts.

‘‘If you’re going to do business with Maryland, you must share our priorities, and you must make your own investment into our future,” Duncan said.

And by focusing on education, economic development in the state will improve.

‘‘If you have good schools, good jobs will come,” he said.

The speech in Rockville took place in the middle-class Twinbrook neighborhood where houses have clapboard siding and chain link fences. Bright yellow ‘‘Think Bigger” signs adorned the lawns around the cul-de-sac.

About 300 people — many of them politicians, candidates, county employees, reporters — crowded on the street in front of the modest two-story home. Joining the candidate on stage were his wife, Barbara, three of their five children and Duncan’s mother, Ellie. Maybe a score of siblings and their children stood in the front yard during his speech.

Duncan sounded a familiar theme, his opposition to the legalization of slot machine gambling, without mentioning the incumbent governor by name.

‘‘I look at our governor and I see a single-minded focus on slot machines and a public policy that can best be described as public relations,” he said. ‘‘We don’t have to settle for slots and squabbling. We can have a world-class school system and a world-class economy if we’re willing to think bigger.”

Audra Miller, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Republican Party, defended Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s record on education: Ehrlich has provided a record increase in state education aid, a 60 percent increase in need-based scholarships and passed a charter school law.

‘‘That kind of record, Mr. Duncan can’t hold a candle to,” she said.

Despite the sparse reference to his Republican opponent, a large portion of Duncan’s speeches centered on Baltimore, with not-so-subtle digs at O’Malley, his largely glowing media coverage and his role as the front man of a rock ’n’ roll band.

‘‘I’m not interested in being seen as a national leader. I want us to make our state a national leader. I’m not interested in being on stage. I want to put our state on the national stage,” Duncan said.

And then there was this:

‘‘Rhetoric is not a plan. Optimism alone is not a strategy. And you have to do a lot more than just believe that things are going to turn out OK,” Duncan said, a direct hit at O’Malley’s slogan, ‘‘Believe.”

‘‘Doug Duncan is running behind in his campaign for governor, and today he used his announcement to continue his misleading negative attacks,” said Jonathan Epstein, O’Malley’s campaign manager. ‘‘That’s not thinking big. It’s just a big disappointment for common sense Maryland voters, who are tired of these typical negative attacks.”

Eric Benzer, president of a community association in Northwest Baltimore, called The Gazette on Thursday afternoon at the behest of the O’Malley campaign to ‘‘set the record straight on Doug Duncan’s very negative and misleading attacks on the city of Baltimore.”

Benzer pointed out that Druid Hill Avenue, the site of Duncan’s campaign stop on Thursday, is an example of O’Malley’s success in revitalizing neighborhoods.

‘‘People are finally willing to jog in Druid Hill,” he said. ‘‘During the Schmoke and Schaefer administrations, people were jogging and running for their lives in Druid Hill.”

Endorsements from Schaefer and Schmoke have not proven helpful to politicians in the past. Schmoke joined forces with Prince George’s County Executive Wayne K. Curry in 1998 to endorse Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann (D) for governor instead of supporting the incumbent Parris N. Glendening (D). Rehrmann dropped out of the race, and Glendening sailed to an easy re-election over Ellen Sauerbrey (R).

Schaefer is known as a maverick in the Democratic Party, having endorsed Republican President George H.W. Bush’s re-election in 1992; Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton (D).

Schaefer also has a cozy relationship with Ehrlich and would not say Thursday whom he would endorse if Duncan wins the primary.

‘‘I like them both,” he said.

O’Malley remains ahead in polls. In his speech, Duncan referred to his underdog status, reminding the supporters that Christopher Van Hollen Jr. faced an uphill primary battle against Kennedy cousin Mark K. Shriver before he unseated the entrenched Republican Constance A. Morella for the 8th District seat in the House of Representatives in 2002.

Like Van Hollen, Duncan must overcome the Kennedyesque O’Malley and incumbent Ehrlich to take up residence on State Circle.

Duncan supporter Charles E. Barkley, chairman of the Montgomery delegation in the House of Delegates, said Duncan might not have such an uphill climb.

‘‘I think Doug can relate better with people. I feel O’Malley is too standoffish. I don’t see that in Doug. He actually listens to what you have to say,” said Barkley (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown.