Americans for Prosperity Won't Confront Ehrlich
Notably, Gov. Christie’s move did not escape criticism from the secretive extremist Americans for Prosperity (AFP’s New Jersey director was Christie’s GOP primary opponent). Don’t expect any criticism of Bob Ehrlich from AFP’s Maryland director, Dave Schwartz, however, who was Bob Ehrlich’s longtime campaign stewardand was on Andy Harris’s campaign payroll when he made the lateral move to Americans for Prosperity.
Gov. Christie’s tax hike wasn’t the only flip-flop of his brand new term. He also reversed his opposition to his state borrowing $1 billion for transportation projects, despite criticizing such borrowing during his campaign. He did not specify how he will get the money to repay the state’s new debt.
Caveat Emptor
Maryland tea partiers would be wise to look askance at Republicans promising to cut spending and lower taxes, particularly Bob Ehrlich, who not only raised taxes when he was governor, but also proposed the the largest spending increase in modern Maryland history. Mr. Ehrlich’s record must haunt him because he recently dusted off a stale canard from his 2006 campaign, claiming he blocked $7 billion in tax increases during his term. He arrived at that figure by adding up every revenue raising provision in every bill introduced by every legislator while he was governor, even though most never left their sponsors’ desks and several were duplicates he counted twice—not to mention he enacted more than $2 billion in tax hikes, per the link above. Only his small band of die-hard followers fell for his fuzzy logic last time, and they’ll really have to suspend their disbelief to do so again.
Mr. Ehrlich and New Jersey Gov. Christie aren’t the only Republican governors whose deeds contradict their words. Those participating in the Annapolis "tea party" event last month should know that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin raised taxes by $1.5 billion, accepted $642 million in federal stimulus funds, and left Alaskans with a $1.6 billion budget gap when she walked off the job. Don’t expect an ad from Americans for Prosperity talking about that, however.
Maryland’s Most Corrupt Governor Since Spiro Agnew
Did anyone expect this missive to end without mentioning...
SANDY ROBERTS
In the final weeks of their last campaign, Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele paid $417,000 from their donors’ contributions to a defunct company registered to Michael Steele’s friend and advisor, the Washington lawyer Sandy Roberts. Baltimore’s WBAL-TV senior investigative reporter Jayne Miller uncovered 28 payments to the company, which claimed to be an importer and commodities trader, spread between four different state and federal accounts Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele controlled. Mr. Roberts never claimed to be in any kind of campaign services business, and no other campaign, party organization, or PAC ever reported paying him for any services. Federal and state law prohibits campaigns from paying third parties to conceal the purpose or recipients of campaign funds.
The same Sandy Roberts, who hosted a lavish party for Michael Steele at the 2004 Republican national convention in New York and has been quoted in news stories as a Steele confidant, was the beneficiary of an Ehrlich administration action paving the way to a multi-million dollar retail concession at Baltimore Washington International Airport. State auditors later determined that Mr. Roberts, who is black, posed as an independent airport retail business owner to qualify for preferences under the airport’s disadvantaged business enterprise program when in fact the airport retail giant, Hudson News was actually running his stores.
Michael Steele denied any involvement, and we might believe him if Mr. Roberts was the only Ehrlich/Steele associate exploiting the minority business enterprise program during their tenure, but he was not.
Longtime GOP strategist Carol Hirschburg, pursuing a $110 million state computer contract, obtained fast-track minority certification during the Ehrlich-Steele administration that was later found to be improperly awarded and was withdrawn, as reported in the Baltimore Sun.
Joanne Vatz, the wife of Mr. Ehrlich’s longtime friend, the commentator and Towson University Prof. Richard Vatz, started a computer business only months after Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele were sworn in, obtained minority certification, and landed several no-bid state contracts, as reported in the Baltimore City Paper.
Maryland GOP activist and Ehrlich-Steele website designer Aaron Kazi similarly secured minority business certification soon after Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele were inaugurated, leading to state contracts and participation in the same $110 million deal with Ms. Hirschburg, according to the Baltimore Sun.
ALAN FABIAN
When the convicted felon Alan Fabian was first indicted in 2007, news stories identified him as a top national GOP contributor, but none reported that the politicians receiving the largest share of Mr. Fabian’s stolen money--$385,000--were Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele. And to this day, no newspaper has reported that the Ehrlich administration tripled a state contract for Mr. Fabian to $2.2 million without competitive bidding, a peculiar action because Mr. Fabian had won the contract only 11 months earlier in a competitive process by under-bidding three competitors that state evaluators determined to be better qualified to do the work.
Mr. Fabian’s bid should have raised suspicions because it was less than half the price offered by the three better qualified competitors. Then, only 11 months into the five year contract, the Ehrlich administration tripled it to $2.2 million without advance notice or competitive bidding. That price was two times higher than the highest bid from the more qualified competitors.
Mr. Fabian was then-Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s campaign finance chairman at the time, his corporate counsel was Mr. Ehrlich’s closest friend and principal advisor, David Hamilton, and he flew Mr. Steele around the country in a private charter jet paid for with stolen money. Even worse, Mr. Fabian may have used the state contract to defraud the former Provident Bank. Click here for the full story.
Plainly spoken, if you are a tea partier or an Americans for Prosperity adherent and you support Gov. Ehrlich, you are a hypocrite.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis
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