This op-ed was intended for publication in Maryland newspapers, but after giving them a few days to use it themselves I’m placing it here.
Late note: I didn’t see this online, but the Cumberland Times-News indeed ran the article on January 17th.
As he closes in on three full years in office, it’s fair to say that Governor O’Malley has dealt with a full plate of problems – most particularly in balancing the budget.
While he had a huge budget reserve to work with when he assumed office, it took less than a year for him to spend it down to the bare minimum to maintain the state’s bond rating. Then he expended most of the rest of his political capital on shepherding through a series of tax increases and Medicaid expansion during a 2007 Special Session of the General Assembly. Since then, the fiscal record has shown little improvement and time and time again Governor O’Malley has needed to revisit the budget and make further cuts to keep it in balance.
Yet the Governor has been praised by those on the far left end of the political spectrum for expanding government as much as he can under the circumstances and signing legislation making Maryland a “greener” state. While the extra restrictions have done practically nothing to improve the quality of Chesapeake Bay, O’Malley’s allies on the environmental front have cheered these advances, emboldening him to further alienate the business community.
It’s this tumultuous three-year record which is sparking a fairly rare internecine primary fight against an incumbent Democrat. Certainly there are a few political cranks who regularly place their name on the ballot year after year with little hope for victory, but the challenge posed by fellow Democrat George Owings might be different and could cause Governor O’Malley some headaches on the campaign trail this year.
Owings has a very passable political resume as a former 16-year member of the General Assembly and as Secretary of Veterans Affairs under Governor Ehrlich, and could be best defined as a relic of a bygone era when the Democratic Party had a conservative wing not much different from today’s TEA Party attendees. His platform leans heavily on fiscal conservatism and cutting the size of government in order to address Maryland’s persistent budget problems.
The question for Governor O’Malley, then, is just how much attention he needs to pay to his challenger.
Given the governor’s tendency to blame all ills on his Republican predecessor, some in O’Malley’s camp might see Owings as a stalking horse entered into the race by allies of former Governor Ehrlich to set up a primary fight on the Democratic side. With Maryland’s comparatively late September 14 primary, the battle between O’Malley and Owings could take up a vast portion of the campaign season.
On the other hand, taking the challenge seriously could promote informative debate on just what functions are necessary for our state’s government to perform at peak efficiency before the final campaign between the GOP and Democrat primary survivors begins in mid-September. While the state of the economy is a issue most addressed on a national level, what a state does to attract jobs is something determined by its leadership in the governor’s office.
Under Governor O’Malley’s leadership, Maryland plummeted from 24th to 45th in The Tax Foundation’s measure of state business tax climates. And while the unemployment rate for the state as a whole remains below the national average of 10 percent, some of Maryland’s most rural counties have rates rivaling or exceeding double-digits.
Job creation and the impact of policies coming out of Annapolis are certainly legitimate issues worthy of debate. Let’s hope Governor O’Malley engages his primary opponent and doesn’t duck the issue because he feels entitled to his party’s nomination.
