Ehrlich shares blame for slots failure

Thomas F. McDonough left out a few pertinent details in his comments about former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s failure to keep his promise to bring slots to Maryland ("Ehrlich foes are making up facts to bolster O'Malley," Readers respond, April 14). Mr. Ehrlich was a one issue candidate who found a good gimmick, slots, and ran with it.

You would think therefore, that the Ehrlich people would have been ready with a clear, cogent, well organized bill. Sadly, such was not the case. The Ehrlich slots bill was an embarrassingly confusing mess not understood by anyone, Democrat or Republican, and it gave a disproportionate share of the revenue to the wealthy track owners who had made significant contributions to Mr. Ehrlich's campaign.

Efforts to fix the bill faltered, and Mr. Ehrlich never approached it again with the same fervor. I suspect that Mr. Ehrlich came to the conclusion that he could get more mileage by abandoning his efforts and falling back on the mantra he adopted for most of his lackluster term, "blame the Democrats."

Ann Power, Catonsville