Republican Governors

The Associated Press hasn't called the GOP gubernatorial primary yet, but the Republican Governors Association has. At 8:51 p.m., RGA spokesman Chris Schrimpf sent reporters a statement congratulating former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. "Maryland voters know the difference Bob Ehrlich can make for their state," Schrimpf said. "Bob fought off Democratic tax increases and helped create 100,000 private sector jobs. Under [Democratic Gov. Martin] O'Malley all those jobs and more were lost and what's worse taxes went up by 1.3 billion dollars, the most in history.

A bipartisan group of governors expressed concern Saturday over the impact looming federal budget cuts will have on their states but had few ideas for how to break the latest fiscal impasse gripping Congress. Most of the nation's governors, including Maryland's Martin O'Malley, are in Washington attending a meeting of the National Governors Association - an annual gathering that this year happens to fall just days before $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending reductions are set to begin.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.--GOP National Chairman Haley Barbour, addressing the new class of 30 Republican governors at their annual conference just concluded here, called them "our best and brightest, the people who are proving that Republican ideas work." The net gain of 11 Republican governors on Nov. 8, he said, resulted "because you proposed and carried out policies and programs that are both good policy and good politics. ... You have practiced the politics of performance."Barbour went on: "Governors govern, so you have been able to put the principles of smaller government into action and to demonstrate [that]

The recent commentary by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. ("Obama's unpardonable neglect of clemency," Jan. 13) was particularly interesting and pointed. In these days of concern about the death penalty, an always important topic aimed at the Democratic political base, few politicians indicate any concern for clemency. It has always been a position of risk. I recall that Governor Ehrlich did this. In his column, he correctly points out that more Republican governors have established histories of clemency and post-conviction relief than have their Democratic colleagues.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The name cards on the table all read "Governor" or "Governor-elect," followed by the last name and state. Except one. The title line on the card in front of the woman in the red plaid suit read simply, "Ellen."The Republican leadership was in an awkward spot yesterday as Ellen Sauerbrey of Maryland insisted on appearing at the meeting of the Republican Governors Association with her new colleagues -- although it seems highly unlikely that they are her new colleagues.Mrs.

MIAMI -- When Republican governors meeting here were asked the other day if their education plan included a provision for abolishing the federal Department of Education, John Engler of Michigan had a quick answer.''It's irrelevant,'' he said, ''because even if Congress passed a bill to abolish it, President Clinton would veto it.''Ideological pointsThe popular Michigan governor thus -- perhaps inadvertently, perhaps not -- demonstrated the difference between the Republicans who control Congress and those who hold 32 state governorships.

WASHINGTON -- Republican governors are sending a message to their leaderless party: Follow us.Hailed as models of success in their own states, the "new Republican" governors are suddenly being embraced by GOP officials as the salvation of a party that got the wind knocked out of it on Election Day.This week, at the first post-election party gathering, the governors will showcase their popularity, talk up their pragmatic conservatism, and try to take a...

MIAMI -- Fresh from victories in Virginia and New Jersey, Republican governors met in Miami over the weekend to plot strategy for 36 gubernatorial elections in 1998. They declared that education would be the next issue they would use to try to move power from Washington to the states.On top of the Republicans' education agenda is a request that Congress and the Department of Education eliminate federally required paperwork and regulations on schools."What we want Congress to do with education is exactly what it did with welfare three years ago," said South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors' Association.

LISTEN carefully to the keening in Republican ranks after this year's election, and you can hear a distinct echo of the Democratic lament during the party's darkest days of the 1980s.After the massacre of 1984, when President Reagan won 49 states in a record-setting re-election, Democrats still controlled 34 governorships, three more than Republicans do now. As they picked through the wreckage, smart Democratic governors such Arizona's Bruce Babbitt (now the Interior secretary) all asked themselves the same question: Why are my party's national leaders sinking like lead in the same states where we're golden?

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Attempting to allay fears from the states about the impact of proposed federal spending cuts, top Senate Republicans met privately in Washington yesterday with a contingent of Republican governors.The meeting in the office of Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican leader, came only hours before the governors gathered here for a three-day conference that is expected to focus on the relationship between the states and the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill."Our message will be to the Republican congressional leaders and to the people of this country: Give us the ball and then get out of the way. We can solve these problems," Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah, the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said at an opening news conference last night.

One of the under-reported promises made by Congressman Ehrlich in the gubernatorial campaign of 2002 was to re-energize the pardon power in Maryland. My advisers thought it a bit loony to make the pledge, since the race promised to be close and there was little political advantage to be gained. After all, Gov. Parris Glendening had framed his clemency strategy with one brief line - "life means life" - to minimal criticism from his liberal base. Still, I thought it an essential element of the job description to "do justice" through the exercise of this extraordinary power.

The General Assembly returned to Annapolis today, and the biggest idea floating around comes from across the Potomac. With the details of Gov. Martin O'Malley's agenda a mystery for the time being, lawmakers in Maryland's capital find themselves confronted by a bold, if not altogether sound, idea from Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell to increase the commonwealth's transportation funding by $3.1 billion over the next five years. On Tuesday, he proposed eliminating the politically unpopular gas tax altogether and replacing it with higher sales taxes, a variety of fees and as-yet nonexistent revenue from taxing sales over the Internet.

"Saving the Chesapeake Bay is a test; if we pass we get to keep the planet," wrote Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker, in the foreword to a book I wrote about 20 years ago for the foundation. The bay, on the doorstep of the nation's capital, polluted by all modern humans do, was as good a place as any to learn if humans could exist sustainably with the rest of nature. What have we learned since that book, "Turning The Tide," was published in 1991? In a revised, 2003 edition, I set out six "Lessons Learned" that looked back over the previous decade.

CHARLOTTE -- Speaking to members of Iowa's influential delegation to the Democratic convention on Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took a shot at several Republican governors while laying out a broad vision for the party that some suspect he hopes to one day lead. The delegation meeting was the latest of several O'Malley has attended this week -- he has also appeared before delegates from Ohio and Texas, for instance. But given Iowa's first-in-the-nation role in the presidential primary season, his visit here led to inevitable talk of his own political ambitions in 2016.

Democrat Tom Barrett's defeat in Wisconsin is also a loss for Gov. Martin O'Malley and his Democratic Governors Association which poured about $3.2 million into the attempt to topple Republican Gov. Scott Walker. O'Malley noted in a statement that Democrats were outspent "ten to one" in Wisconsin. He looked for the silver lining of last night's election results in Wisconsin, saying in a statement that "Republican governors across the country are on notice" and "The people of their states will not tolerate partisan overreach.

Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley played surrogate for the Obama administration Sunday morning, appearing on CNN's State of the Union to offer his views on the GOP presidential nomination fight, the president's chances for re-election and the economy. O'Malley was paired with Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell of Virginia for the roughly 10 minute piece. Each chairs his respective party's governors association. O'Malley had the in-studio advantage, sitting across the table from CNN host Candy Crowley.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans yesterday unveiled details of their sweeping plan to revamp Medicaid, the health-care plan for the poor, by turning it over to the states, eliminating most federal regulations and capping federal spending.Although the plan provides $182 billion toward balancing the budget in seven years, House Speaker Newt Gingrich denied that Republicans want to cut Medicaid. Calling the proposal "absolutely historic," he said it would increase annual federal Medicaid spending by 39 percent over the next seven years.

NEW ORLEANS -- At the Republican Governors Conference here the other day, Gov. John Engler of Michigan was asked by a reporter whether he thought the strong re-election of Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and the election of his brother, Jeb, in Florida marked "the new generation" taking over leadership of the Republican Party.Mr. Engler noticeably blanched. "We've got a lot of people in that new generation," he finally said, meaning himself among others who also easily won re-election. The Bush brothers, he said, "don't do it all by themselves.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. testified Wednesday on behalf of state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, calling him "a gentleman" and "very friendly. " Ehrlich, a Republican, and Currie, a Democrat, were elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1986, a circumstance that Ehrlich said led to a lasting relationship. Ehrlich said he has "always found [Currie] to be a gentleman" and "somebody willing to work with us on most occasions. " The former governor was the first Republican on a lengthy list of Annapolis politicians to testify as character witnesses for Currie, who is facing bribery charges.

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. accused the O'Malley administration Monday of meddling with state labor department operations for political gain, releasing documents that illustrate how employees removed a downbeat jobs assessment from their website after what workers said was pressure "from the top. " The documents, including e-mails obtained by Republicans through a public information request, show labor department officials scrambling to expunge an...