SAUERBREY: Maryland’s biggest loser

By Ellen Sauerbrey - - Monday, November 10, 2014

There were many Democratic losers in last week’s midterm elections, but in Maryland, the biggest loser is Governor Martin O’Malley, whose Presidential aspirations may have just gone up in smoke.

In a stunning election outcome, Republican businessman and Governor-elect Larry Hogan made the gubernatorial election about “the third term of Martin O’Malley”. Running against Anthony Brown, O’Malley’s Lt. Governor, Hogan campaigned relentlessly against the “O’Malley-Brown” record. And Maryland voters repudiated that record decisively.

While Democrats attempted to make the campaign about guns and birth control, Governor-elect Hogan achieved one of the biggest upsets in the country with a disciplined message focused on jobs, the middle class and restoring Maryland’s economy. He pledged to control spending, roll back O’Malley’s taxes, and improve the dismal business climate in Maryland. His campaign put a spot light on the tax and spend record of the O’Malley administration. But his laser like focus was on the 40 tax increases that have been the O’Malley-Brown signature “achievement”.

Voters arrived at the polls in a very bad mood about the condition of their pocketbooks. The O’Malley tax burden has weighed very heavily on the middle class In Maryland. Voters have seen the cost of everything soar. Reeling from taxes on their paychecks, gasoline, tolls, beer, birth certificates, most everything they purchase, and even the rain that falls on the roof, Marylanders have been fleeing the state, refusing to pay for a government that has grown far faster than their paychecks. Heard over and over on election day was the refrain, “I have never voted for a Republican but I am voting for Hogan”

Oblivious to the mood in Maryland, Governor O’Malley has traveled the country bragging that he has cut state spending by $7 billion and created thousands of new jobs in Maryland. Contrary to the O’Malley spin, Larry Hogan has reminded voters that on O’Malley’s watch the state budget has actually grown by $10.4 billion — an increase of roughly 36 percent. And when it was reported in July that Maryland suffered the second-most job losses in the country, Mr. Hogan jumped on the O”Malley “failed policies” that … “have crushed Maryland job creators, and have made it more difficult for average Marylanders to support themselves and their families.”

The O’Malley legacy includes not only Governor-elect Larry Hogan but significant Republican gains in the overwhelmingly Democrat legislature. The State House outcome was a big rejection of the O’Malley redistricting plan that was one of the most egregious in the country. The gerrymandered plan abolished three of the House seats held by the tiny Republican minority. But instead of reducing their numbers in the State House, as expected, the GOP not only held their own, but actually picked up seven new House seats and two new Senators, giving them the largest presence in the Maryland State House in modern times.

One of the most stunning Maryland legislative outcomes is in a district encompassing Dundalk, home of the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where thousands of good paying blue collar jobs have disappeared. There has never been a Republican office holder in Dundalk. But the booing O'Malley received when he rode through Dundalk’s 4th of july parade was a harbinger of things to come. A Republican funded billboard reminded Dundalk voters that their Democrat Senator, Johnny Olszewski, had voted for the O’Malley “rain tax”. On Tuesday, Republicans swept the district, electing a former steelworker to the State Senate, all three Delegates, and a Republican member to the Baltimore County Council.

Another powerful Democrat casualty was the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Norman Conway, who could be tied to O'Malley’s bloated budgets. Republicans also claimed two new County Executive slots. And in five of Maryland counties there is not one Democrat left standing at any level.

In addition to jubilant Marylanders on election night, a big winner was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has had a very public feud with O'Malley for years. Christie sized up the Maryland Governor’s race as winnable, made an unprecedented four visits to Maryland on behalf of Larry Hogan and relished taking shots atO'Malley in the process. As Chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association, Christie gave the Hogan campaign a large transfusion of much needed advertising dollars in the closing days of the campaign.

Larry Hogan ran an almost flawless campaign. With a happy engaging personality and folksy manner that related to voters, he had a strong economic message of positive change and stuck to it. In the process, Governor-elect Hogan and the voters of Maryland upset the O’Malley presidential apple cart.

Ellen Sauerbrey is the former Minority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates and 1994 and 1998 nominee for Governor.