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Out with the old, in with the new

Friday, Nov. 17, 2006

The future looks starkly different for Bob Ehrlich and Martin O’Malley. One is ascendant, the other is searching for a new career.

In retrospect, Ehrlich’s chances of gaining a second term as governor started to narrow soon after his 2002 election. He filled his staff with conservatives who felt they must stand on principle and get Democrats in the legislature to yield. That approach proved wildly unrealistic.

The lack of centrist, pragmatic operatives put the new governor in an immediate hole. Things never got much better.

Ehrlich’s stubborn determination to ‘‘win” rather than find solutions proved costly. Time after time, he and his staff pulled defeat from the jaws of victory. They never would accept half a loaf or incremental gains.

It happened on slot machines, medical malpractice and utility rate relief, to name just three. The governor never learned that in heavily Democratic Maryland the art of compromise requires deep Republican concessions, true partnership and a liberal sharing of credit. Thus, the Democratic legislature effectively thwarted much of what he wanted to accomplish.

The governor hired the worst lobbying crew in anyone’s memory. They routinely excluded key Democrats, alienated potential allies and rarely collaborated on bills in meaningful ways.

Legislative leaders took the hint and went into full-opposition mode. Ehrlich’s partisan tactics — marking key Democrats as election-year targets, for instance — and his failure to give in to legislators’ negotiating demands made it easy for Democrats to ‘‘deep-six” just about any proposal he put before them.

As a result, Ehrlich could claim few concrete achievements when it was time for ‘‘show and tell” before voters. Yes, he held the line on higher income or sales taxes. He pursued and gained a widely praised ‘‘flush tax” to clean up the bay. He inherited a deep-in-debt state government, imposed spending controls and emerged with a $2 billion surplus.

But higher education and K-12 never became a major issue for him. Neither did soaring health care costs or providing medical coverage for 800,000 uninsured Marylanders. A ballooning transportation crunch was never fully addressed. A dysfunctional juvenile justice system grew worse.

Ehrlich’s appointments were wildly uneven. Some were great (Aris Melissaratos and Marty Madden) but others proved disasters (Ken Montague and Ken Schisler). Sadly, there was no attempt at a mid-course correction.

Indeed, Ehrlich lacked flexibility. He never was agile enough to deal with a determined, partisan legislature or to effectively communicate his message to the public. Whining on conservative talk radio and radio sports programs doesn’t move public opinion.

He also needlessly alienated the state’s two major newspapers and then kept up this petty dispute to the point of embarrassment. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

In the end, Ehrlich never grasped the intricacies of being the CEO of a $28 billion public-benefit corporation. After serving 20 years in two legislatures, he knew how to write laws but not how to run a government.

He wasn’t enough of a centrist — or a manager — to get the job done.

This ought to be a lesson for Maryland Republicans, but don’t count on it. The Republican base is so cemented in conservative ideology it won’t accept a true moderate. The state GOP seems doomed to a decade or more in the political wilderness. There’s no new Moses in sight.

O’Malley, meanwhile, has stars in his eyes. He could be Broadway-bound. Soon he will be one step away from the national stage. This is his big, off-Broadway tryout that could catapult him to fame.

The new governor has two years to impress Democrats nationwide that he’s vice presidential timber. If that doesn’t pan out, he’ll have another four years — in the middle of his second term as governor — to show his stuff to national Democrats.

But to get there, he must ‘‘wow” audiences in Maryland first.

He’s off to an uneven start. His transition team will be led by two individuals with no expertise in managing a government turnover of this magnitude. That’s a mistake.

O’Malley almost immediately picked a fight with state school superintendent Nancy Grasmick — a battle he cannot win. Then he reverted to campaign rhetoric in pledging to ‘‘fire” Schisler as head of the Public Service Commission.

Such ill-conceived remarks don’t help O’Malley. The governor-elect cannot remove Grasmick. Indeed, his comments may make Grasmick more determined to serve out her remaining two years. Collaboration on education policy may now be difficult to achieve.

In Schisler’s case, O’Malley can’t fire him without triggering a prolonged court fight that he might lose. A more diplomatic approach is available (through legislation) that could get rid of Schisler by February. There’s no need for O’Malley to display bitter partisanship and meanness. It is unbecoming for a governor-elect.

As the state’s chief executive, O’Malley can’t afford to pursue old vendettas. He and Grasmick, for instance, tangled repeatedly on what to do about Baltimore city’s dreadful schools. He villainized Schisler during the gubernatorial ambitions.

Now is the time to take off his campaign fatigues and forget about arrows aimed at him as mayor. Governor-elect O’Malley must grow and mature. He’s got to prove he can be a statesman, a conciliator and a savvy manager. He’s got to make new friends and win over some of his enemies. He needs successes, not brutal personal battles, to show he has what it takes to get to the Broadway of American politics.

Barry Rascovar is a communications consultant in the Baltimore area. His Wednesday morning commentaries can be heard on WYPR, 88.1 FM.