8/20/02

By MARK POWELL

Surrounded by the drought-stunted corn on Lew Smith’s Talbot County farm, Aug. 14, Robert Ehrlich painted a picture of himself as a friend to farmers.
In the quickly heating up political race for governor, the congressman from Harford County, and expected Republican nominee, is running a tight race in the polls with the Democrat shoo-in, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Ehrlich didn’t have to try hard to win the support of the group on Smith’s farm. Many of the farmers in the crowd of 30 or so expressed disappointment with the current administration of Gov. Parris Glendening.
“You haven’t felt good about this administration,” Ehrlich said to the farmers, Farm Bureau leaders and ag equipment dealers. “You’ve gotten the ‘treatment’ a little bit.”
There were several nods from the group in the shade of a linden tree on the hot day.
“I can make a difference,” Ehrlich said. “I can de-politicize the Department of Natural Resources for one.” He alluded to anti-hunting groups holding sway in the agency.
“It’ll be tough to change the culture at DNR, but we can do it when we put our people in.”
On Maryland’s current nutrient management law, Ehrlich said: “We would revisit it with you.”
“You were demonized for causing the pfiesteria outbreak,” he said.
In fact, he said, the top issue ahead for controlling nutrient pollution from municipal sewage systems.
Ehrlich said sewage treatment plants have not been dealt with as the farming community has in addressing nutrient management concerns because it is expensive to fix sewage treatment plants.
“My No. 1 environmental issue as governor would be to get waste treatment plants up to par,” Ehrlich said.
He said he is trying to push through legislation in Congress currently that would help Chesapeake Bay region cities pay for upgrades of sewage treatment plants.
Farmers, he said, were forced to install nutrient management plans on their farms.
“Townsend and Glendening calculated correctly that they could just blow you off,” Ehrlich said.
On the drought, Erhlich said because of the scope of its effect nationally, Congress will be addressing it.
He also noted that Gov. Glendening has forwarded a request to the USDA asking that much of Maryland be declared an agricultural disaster area.
Ehrlich asked for the support of the farmers in the election.
Discussing political strategy with them, he said the race is likely to come down to few voting districts within the state’s urban core — Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
“We have to win and win big on the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, Southern Maryland and other rural areas,” Ehrlich said.
Like him, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is still waiting on the September primary to be officially chosen her party’s candidates for governor. From that point, Ehrlich expects that the campaign will take a negative tone.
Speaking about the Democratic Party’s long control over Maryland’s state leadership, Ehrlich said: “They’re a big machine that’s used to winning.” Because he has pulled close to Lt. Gov. Townsend in the polls, Ehrlich said he expected the Democratic Party leadership to try negative campaigning to make those Democrats — the vast majority of politically active Marylanders — seriously considering Ehrlich to think again.
Last week, Townsend hired the architect of Gov. Glendening’s victory over Ellen Sauerbray to energize her campaign. Democratic leaders in the state have been pushing Townsend to make changes to quell Ehrlich’s apparent rising popularity. To date, the Maryland Nurserymen’s Association is the only agriculture group to officially endorse Ehrlich. He will address the Maryland nurserymen association at their management dinner in Timonium on Sept. 24. Maryland Farm Bureau officials say they will not endorse a gubernatorial candidate.