O'Malley, Ehrlich square off in first debate

In their first debate of the election year Monday, Gov. Martin O'Malley and rival Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. each insisted he has a better plan for jobs, education and spending taxpayer dollars wisely as Maryland emerges from a national recession.

Neither O'Malley, the Democratic incumbent, nor Ehrlich, a Republican seeking to reclaim the position he lost four years ago, made a major blunder. But the televised debate was tense at times, in part because of a free-flowing format that allowed the two to respond to each other directly while the moderator sat silently for long stretches.

Ehrlich repeatedly referred to O'Malley as "gov," and O'Malley several times called Ehrlich "Bob"; both nicknames had an icy edge by the end of the hour.


O'Malley stuck closely to his campaign talking points, while Ehrlich — whom observers said had more to gain from a strong debate showing because he trails in the most recent polls — pulled material from a wider pool of topics. Ehrlich criticized O'Malley's television ads, discussed his own support of gun rights and took credit for the military base realignment that will move personnel and jobs to Maryland.

O'Malley questioned Ehrlich's commitment to schools, an issue that Maryland voters routinely say is a top priority. "In the toughest of times, I have protected education," the governor said. "I've made college more affordable. In easier times, the former governor always looked for ways to get out of funding education. He cut school construction and he forced 40 percent increase in college education."

The former governor said "hostile" regulating agencies have strangled Maryland's private sector. "We have not created one net new job in this state over the past four years. … We've doubled our unemployment rate," Ehrlich said.

O'Malley shot back with a federal labor statistic that "the truth of the matter is we have actually created 33,000 net new jobs." The figure refers to job growth January through August, though, overall, there are far fewer jobs than when O'Malley took office.

One of the testiest exchanges came over the state's DNA database. Ehrlich expanded the use of the database through legislation in 2005, but O'Malley said he has done a better job of collecting and entering the samples.

"The fact of the matter is this DNA backlog went completely unanalyzed. I mean you didn't even bother to analyze the samples so how could local law enforcement —" O'Malley said, before Ehrlich cut him off.

"The samples hadn't even been taken," Ehrlich snapped.

"Bob, come on man. It was there and everyone knows it, Bob," O'Malley spat.

The conversation heated up again over federal spending in Maryland.

Ehrlich accused O'Malley of relying too heavily on one-time federal grants to pay for recurring costs. " Washington is going to change big time in the next few weeks," he said. "Trust me, those dollars have stopped."

O'Malley cut in: "Trust you? Trust you?"

The debate was recorded Monday morning at WJZ-TV, and was moderated by veteran anchor Denise Koch. It was broadcast in the evening on that station, Maryland Public Television and several radio stations and websites.

Maryland voters won't have to wait long for another one: The candidates will appear together at a live forum in Washington at noon Thursday, an hour-long debate hosted by The Washington Post, National Public Radio station WAMU and WUSA-TV.

Many of the arguments Monday could have been made four years ago, the first time the two candidates faced each other.

In his opening remarks, Ehrlich accused O'Malley of trying to "litigate the past" in recent television commercials. He went on to revisit O'Malley's education and arrest policies as Baltimore mayor, a position he held from 1999 to 2007.

And when Koch asked O'Malley whether he'd pledge not to raise any taxes or fees — something Ehrlich has promised — the governor instead recounted the various taxes and fees that Ehrlich raised beginning in 2003.