Two former Maryland governors lament state of politics

COLUMBIA — A former governor of Maryland said business owners should be concerned about the deterioration of moderate politics in the state.

Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. said the state’s move to the left in a hyper-partisan political era will be a hindrance  to effective lawmaking.

“When the dominant party in the state moves a particular direction — in this case, left — members of the Chamber of Commerce better get worried and you are and you should be,” said Ehrlich.

Ehrlich made his remarks during a reporter-moderated discussion that included his predecessor, Democratic former Gov. Parris Glendening. The pair appeared at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce as part of what Glendening referred to as their “traveling roadshow” series of talks on a loss of moderation in politics.

“People look for honest, efficient, effective government, and that’s what I think we are very much in danger of losing,” said Glendening. “The hyper-partisanship we see and the absolute bitterness and the personal attacks to mobilize a base more than anything else, flies in the face of having a government that works efficiently.”

“We need to cool down the heat of the political rhetoric,” said Glendening.

“When free people fight over power it’s never pretty. It’s not supposed to be pretty,” said Ehrlich. “This is not new. There are aspects of this that make it worse.”

Among those, Ehrlich said, are 24-hour talk radio, 24-hour news and social media.

“Everyone’s a free agent now,” said Ehrlich. “There was a reason for smoke-filled rooms. Deals got done … by not everybody was tweeting at the time. Not everybody was going to go out and do a blog at the time. The advent of social media has made it much more difficult to create team and discipline and coalitions and, by the way, newbies don’t know their place.”

Glendening agreed but said the move in Maryland to a more progressive form of politics is driven by a concern about the environment and economic disparities.

“There has to be a movement that is more progressive and inclusive in addressing issues that will help us move toward a shared prosperity, and business people do better if you have a broader base of people doing better as well,” said Glendening

The Democratic former governor called for more personal responsibility from users of social media, and he lamented the spread of unsourced, uncorroborated posts.

“Candidly, I think more people have got to start to figure out a method of how they handle this,” said Glendening. “Personal responsibility. I think we have institutional changes that must be made, and education and personal responsibility becomes very significant as well.”

The pairing, on paper, seemed unusual and unlikely.

Glendening, 75, is a self-described “unabashed liberal progressive,” a former college professor turned Prince George’s County councilman, county executive and governor. During his eight years in office, he presided over state and local redistricting that bolstered his party’s hold on state politics. A local redistricting plan, which in part punished some members of his own party, was ultimately struck down by the Court of Appeals.

Ehrlich, 60, and a Republican former state lawmaker elected to Congress during the Newt Gingrich “Contract with America” era, later became the state’s first Republican governor in nearly 40 years.

In recent years, Glendening and Ehrlich have found themselves working on parallel tracks on some issues, including criminal justice reform. The efforts have led to them speaking together — their appearance Thursday at the chamber’s conference being the third such “traveling road show” — to talk about the state of politics and the death of moderation.

“If you can work together on something as controversial as prison reform, surely you can work together on other things,” said Glendening.

Both men called for redistricting reform — an irony not lost on Glendening, who said he bore some responsibility for the problem when he reapportioned the state’s eight congressional districts from an even distribution to a 6-2 that favored his party.

“Both parties have done it,” said Ehrlich. “Both parties have drawn lines to elect their members.”

Both men held out some hope that politics will re-center itself.

“I’m an eternal optimist, and I believe the system can be righted,” said Glendening. “It’s broken right now. It has been broken in the past. … The question is how much more broken can we withstand — and it seems to be getting worse right now — and how long can we ignore some of the truly pressing issues.”

Editor’s note: Daily Record government reporter Bryan P. Sears served as an unpaid moderator for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce’s forum with Ehrlich and Glendening.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the age of former Gov. Robert Ehrlich. He is 60.