O'Malley In the Undertow

Last fall, with the Maryland governor's race entering the home stretch, many of then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.'s top donors switched horses and began contributing to Democratic candidate Martin O'Malley. Remembering that one of Ehrlich's first acts as governor was to take the Polar Bear plunge in the Chesapeake, you might say that money from "Ehrlich donors" will create an undertow that could slow or pull O'Malley back from action on some of the most important issues facing our state.

O'Malley has said he may support a statewide ban on smoking in bars in restaurants, but, like Ehrlich, he received $6,000 from the Maryland Restaurant Association and $4,000 from the Baltimore County Licensed Beverage Association during the last election cycle, two groups opposed to a ban. Noncommittal on the need to raise the gas tax, O'Malley got $2,000 from the anti-gas-tax Maryland Motor Truck Association in October, two weeks after they gave twice that much to Ehrlich. O'Malley also got $4,000 from the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributors Association in September, a week before they remembered their old friend, the governor who grew up on a car lot in Arbutus, and sent him a check for $3,000. Finally, while O'Malley supports legalizing slot machines and putting them at racetracks, the percentage of slots profits that go to education remains open to debate, with O'Malley receiving large and late contributions from the Maryland Horsebreeders Association PAC and the Thoroughbred Horsemens & Breeders PAC.