Courting African-American voters in Prince George’s

Ehrlich strategy stumbles after report on his push to investigate NAACP

Thursday, May 25, 2006

UPPER MARLBORO — Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s wooing of African-American voters seemed to be on the upswing — until his attempt six years ago to challenge the nonprofit status of the NAACP came to light last week.

On May 17, Ehrlich was the toast of Prince George’s County as he was honored by an influential charity for his contributions to faith-based organizations.

The following morning, The (Baltimore) Sun reported that Ehrlich’s chief fund-raiser questioned the NAACP’s tax-exempt status because of the organization’s political activity, drawing strong rebukes from the governor’s political enemies.

‘‘Just because he received that award doesn’t mean that the vast majority of citizens in Prince George’s County are going to support his re-election,” said Del. Joanne C. Benson (D-Dist. 24) of Landover. ‘‘People in Prince George’s County don’t have short memories. We remember the governor’s record over the past four years and today we learn that he wanted to put the NAACP out of business. We remember these things.”

The juxtaposition of these two events is emblematic of the steep hill the Republican has to climb in a Democratic state with large numbers of African-American voters.

Four years ago, Ehrlich lost Prince George’s County to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) by more than 100,000 votes. Townsend even topped the 1998 totals of Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a former Prince George’s County executive, by nearly 5,000 votes.

Ehrlich — with awards like the one he received from the Mission of Love Charities in Upper Marlboro on Wednesday night — points to political gains in Prince George’s County, but Democrats cited the more than 100,000 new registered Democrats in Prince George’s. That’s an 8-1 ratio favoring Democrats.

Former Prince George’s county executive Wayne K. Curry, a Democrat and friend of Ehrlich’s, acknowledged that Ehrlich is ‘‘paddling upstream” in courting African-American voters. President George W. Bush is not popular among African Americans, he said, and that has an impact on down-ticket Republicans.

Curry was quick to say that the Mission of Love award helps to ‘‘reverse the tide.”

‘‘It says a great deal that an organization devoted to helping the less fortunate among us would give such an important award to a Republican governor,” he said.

A crowd of about 500 predominantly African-American business, political and religious leaders gave Ehrlich a standing ovation when he was handed the award, named for Decator W. ‘‘Bucky” Trotter, a Prince George’s state senator revered by many African Americans in the state. Trotter, who served in the Senate from 1983 to 1998, died two years ago.

‘‘Five years ago, I was a stranger here,” Ehrlich said as he talked about his work over the past four years that has empowered faith-based groups like Mission of Love.

‘‘We’ve empowered faith-based groups because faith-based groups capture hearts and change lives,” he said.

Douglas E. Edwards, president and CEO of Mission of Love, said the governor’s support over the past three years could be rewarded at the ballot box.

‘‘I can tell you that there were a lot of registered Democrats in the audience, but I can say they will be voting for the governor,” Edwards said Wednesday.

The charity — which has powerful friends in the Ehrlich administration and in the legislature — has received more than $350,000 from the state over the past three budget cycles. During this year’s session, Ehrlich allocated $350,000 in one of his supplemental budgets, which was reduced to $100,000 by the legislature.

Whatever momentum the governor seemed to pick up Wednesday seemed to dissipate Thursday after the Sun reported that Ehrlich’s top money man, Richard E. Hug, asked to have the Internal Revenue Service investigate the NAACP’s tax-exempt status.

The Sun reported that Ehrlich, then a congressman from Baltimore County, followed up with a letter of his own asking the IRS to respond to Hug’s complaint. Congressman Ehrlich directed the IRS to send its answer to his ‘‘special projects coordinator,” Joseph F. Steffen Jr., known in Annapolis as the ‘‘Prince of Darkness,” whom Ehrlich fired for spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s personal life.

‘‘It’s absolutely shocking that Bob Ehrlich and his hit men took aim at the nation’s oldest civil rights organization,” said Derek Walker, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Many Democrats seized on the NAACP story.

‘‘The NAACP was completely within its right to criticize the Bush administration over polices that it did not agree with,” U.S. Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume, who was president of the NAACP from 1996 to 2005, said in a statement. ‘‘When government agencies try to silence criticism all of us as Americans should speak out. The 18-month IRS audit seems now to be the result of political pressure at the highest levels of government, and it does not pass the smell test.

‘‘The parade of Republican congressmen and officials that pressured the IRS to commence an investigation of the NAACP points to a disturbing pattern of misuse of power aimed at imposing censorship on the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.”

Ronald W. Walters, professor of leadership studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an authority on African-American political matters, said the connection between the IRS investigation and Ehrlich is damaging politically for the governor.

Ehrlich was a member of Congress during the so-called Republican revolution of 1994 and that ‘‘his past is coming back to him,” Walters said.

He added that the NAACP controversy could force Ehrlich to select another African-American running mate as he did in 2002 when he tapped Michael S. Steele, an African American from Prince George’s County and chairman of the state Republican Party.

Ehrlich is spending a lot of time and resources in Prince George’s County to help build support, said Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of Forestville.

He noted that the governor has touted his part in county economic development, housing and transportation projects.

‘‘He’s more competitive in Prince George’s County than he was three or four years ago, but articles like the one today about the NAACP will give pause to those who were considering voting for him,” Currie said.