Tomorrow is Earth Day -- and Governor Robert Ehrlich is using taxpayer dollars to run campaign style TV and radio ads that cover up his dismal record on the environment!

Please join me and your fellow Marylanders in signing a petition telling Governor Ehrlich to stop cheating Maryland taxpayers, and to pay for his personal promotional advertisements with HIS OWN CAMPAIGN DOLLARS.

Click here to sign the petition: http://www.mddems.com/earthday.php

I would also encourage you to read more about Governor Ehrlich's terrible environmental record in the following Baltimore Sun editorial: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.environs18apr18,1,4064637.story.

Let's show Governor Ehrlich that the people of Maryland want their taxpayer money to be used to protect the environment, save the Chesapeake Bay and make our State a healthier place to live, not to produce "environmental spin" to promote the Governor's re-election!

Thanks for your involvement!

Terry Lierman Chair Maryland Democratic Party

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Paid for by the Maryland Democratic Party and not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate's committee. By authority of Oz Bengur, Treasurer.

Maryland Democratic Party, 188 Main Street Suite 1, Annapolis, MD 21401, 410-269-8818, www.mddems.org

Daily News Clips Excerpts - April 11, 2005 - Maryland Democratic Party

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It's the kids - Baltimore Sun Editorial - April 11, 2005

MARYLANDERS didn't need a whistleblower to point out critical fissures in the state's child welfare system. For the Ehrlich administration to spend all its energy protesting the actions of an erstwhile ally, whose recently released e-mail exchanges with top department staff point out glaring safety issues in Baltimore and elsewhere, while not denying the substance of her messages, misses the point. [Complete Article]

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Ehrlich Counts on Unorthodox Appeals to Clinch His Agenda
By Matthew Mosk - Washington Post Staff Writer - Monday, April 11, 2005

As time was running out on the Maryland General Assembly's 90-day session last week, just three of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s 19 policy initiatives had cleared the legislature. So the Republican governor did what he often does in a fix: He hit the airwaves. [Complete Article]

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Ehrlich vetoes bill making changes in the state elections board
By A Sun Staff Writer - April 9, 2005

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. vetoed a bill yesterday allowing the state Democratic and Republican parties to pick members of the state elections board. The bill also would require all five election board members to have been confirmed by the state Senate before they could fire the elections administrator. [Complete Article]

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Ehrlich Vetoes Bills to Curb His Power
Metro in brief - April 9

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) vetoed two bills yesterday that Democratic legislators had pushed to curb his power.

One bill would have altered the appointment process for the State Board of Elections, forcing Ehrlich to name Democratic members preapproved by the party's central committee. The bill also would have made it more difficult for the board to remove the state elections administrator; the current administrator is a Democrat.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) vowed to override the veto in his chamber as early as today. House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) would not say what his chamber will do.

The other bill vetoed by Ehrlich would have required him to get input from the legislature before stating Maryland's posture on international trade deals.

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State's lax oversight puts fragile children at risk - First of four parts
By Jonathan D. Rockoff and John B. O'Donnell - Sun Staff - April 10, 2005

There were warning signs in the months before 11-year-old Arthur Lee Wiley became deathly ill. The severely disabled boy was kept in bed so long he moaned in pain. He suffered a broken leg for reasons no one has ever determined. By February 2002, his physician and child welfare workers had grown increasingly worried that the boy wasn't getting the care he needed at a group home for foster children in Randallstown. On March 4, the caseworkers asked other facilities to take Lee, who had cerebral palsy. But it was too late. [Complete Article]

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Trouble for Troubled Youth - Washington Post Editorial - Saturday, April 9, 2005

INFERNAL CONDITIONS and hair-raising abuses at Maryland's juvenile detention facilities are nothing new. As a candidate for governor in 2002, then-Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich (R) Jr. cited them as he hammered away at his opponent, then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D), whose portfolio included oversight of the state's centers and reform schools for wayward youth. [Complete Article]

Excerpts from the Daily News Clips - April 8, 2005
Maryland Democratic Party (democrat@mddems.org)

Decision Time Baltimore Sun April 8, 2005

BEFORE THE START of the General Assembly session, aides to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. warned that this would not be a year of monumental legislation. Well, mission accomplished. So far there's not much to brag about. And with just days left before the 90-day session concludes Monday night, legislators will have to scramble to get some important measures passed - or else have 2005 remembered as a year of monumental inaction. [Complete article]

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Ehrlich trims goals as session winds down
by Steven T. Dennis and Thomas Dennison
Gazette Staff Writers Apr. 8, 2005

ANNAPOLIS -- With much of his agenda struggling in legislative limbo this week, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has lowered his sights in the face of a hostile legislature. Six weeks after he celebrated the House of Delegates' razor-thin passage of slot machine legislation with a snowball fight outside his mansion, the slots bill, medical malpractice reform and other key initiatives appear dead or dying. [Complete article]

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Medicaid Cuts Would Unfairly Punish Legal Immigrants
Thomas Perez, Special to the Gazette April 8, 2005

Gov. Robert Ehrlich has a plan to reward legal immigrants for their immense contributions to our country and our community. His proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year kicks all legal immigrants off the Medicaid rolls (emphasis added). [Complete article]

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Budget deficit estimated for juvenile agency
By Lynn Anderson Sun Staff April 8, 2005

Still reeling from recent reports of child abuse at two detention centers, Maryland Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. faces a new round of criticism from legislators and advocates for a fiscal crisis that threatens to further destabilize the juvenile corrections system. [Complete article]

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Hiring, firing probe comes into focus
Ehrlich also wants look into predecessor's moves
by Thomas Dennison Gazette Staff Writer Apr. 8, 2005

ANNAPOLIS -- A legislative probe into the Ehrlich administration's hiring and firing practices is beginning to take shape, with leading Democrats talking about who will be on the commission and the areas the investigation will cover. [Complete article]

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Medmal reform sinks out of sight
by Catherine Dolinski Gazette Staff Writer Apr. 8, 2005

ANNAPOLIS -- On Jan. 10, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. stood next to a giant plaster cast signed by hundreds of doctors and promised to propose a stronger package of tort reforms than the one he was about to veto. [Complete article]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 5, 2005
Contact: Derek Walker | Desk: 410-269-8818 | Cell: 410-980-0939

GOVERNOR'S GOP ATTACK MACHINE STRIKES AGAIN

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Ehrlich's Request for Respect and Civility Now a Distant Memory

In today's Baltimore Sun, John Kane, Governor Ehrlich's hand-picked GOP Party Chair, called Democratic leaders in Maryland "left leaning liberal bastards" and "bozos," and suggested that they "grow up" rather than continue to explore changes to the state's election laws that include expanding voter rights and moving the primary election date.

Chairman Kane is continuing the personal, partisan attacks that have characterized the approach of Governor Ehrlich and his top lieutenants in recent months. Ehrlich, who campaigned for Governor by promising to bring a new measure of civility to Annapolis, has taken a completely opposite tack, from running roughshod over state agencies to accusing whistleblowers in his own administration of conspiring with Democrats.

"Whether it's Bob Ehrlich, Michael Steele, Joe Steffen or John Kane, voters in Maryland have seen and heard enough. Our state's Republican leaders have adopted and endorsed an ineffective, counterproductive approach to governing and campaigning that our Governor learned at the feet of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay" said Maryland State Democratic Chair Terry Lierman.

"At a time when the state's foster care system is reeling, mental health and Medicaid programs are being depleted, and the juvenile justice system looks unjust, Ehrlich and his top associates should be leading the state forward, not dragging us further into the quagmire of assassin politics," said Lierman.

"Kane's comments reveal a growing realization by the right-wing Republican machine that Ehrlich/Steele priorities and values are well out of touch with mainstream Marylanders," Lierman continued. "Ehrlich and Steele have failed to win the trust of the citizens of Maryland, and we now see they fear they and the Maryland Republican Party are heading for an electoral disaster in 2006."

"Name calling is not a leadership tactic," said Lierman. "The voters of Maryland will get the final word next November."

Excerpts From Daily News Clips -- March 31, 2005
Maryland Democratic Party democrat@mddems.org

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GOVERNOR EHRLICH'S JUVENILE IN-JUSTICE

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DJS sets a bad example
Baltimore Sun Editorial | March 31, 2005

AT THE RELATIVELY new juvenile holding tank at the Baltimore Juvenile Justice Center, where the staff is supposedly freshly trained in best practices and state law, children have been badly, apparently illegally, treated. At the well-established Alfred D. Noyes Children's Center in Rockville, there are new reports of the old, familiar "fight clubs," as well as allegations that a staffer ran a gang -- with shame and physical abuse as hazing -- in one of the units. Apparently, not much has changed as the Ehrlich administration rolls into its third year of juvenile justice "reform." [complete article]

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Abuse of Md. Youths Leads To Firings, Reassignment
David Snyder Katherine Shaver | Washington Post Staff Writers | March 31, 2005

Boys at a state-run juvenile detention facility in Rockville were routinely stripped naked and punched by other residents, sometimes at the direction of staff members, according to allegations in a report released this week. Some of the boys at the Alfred D. Noyes Children's Center allegedly were deprived of full meals, and a staff member read boys' mail aloud "so residents could hear and make fun of the contents," according to the report, released Tuesday by a state monitoring agency that investigates detention facilities. [complete article]

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Md. Democrats chide Ehrlich for problems at juvenile jails
Potential '06 challengers point to pledge of reforms
Lynn Anderson | Baltimore Sun Staff | March 31, 2005

The two Democrats considered most likely to challenge Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in next year's election blasted the administration yesterday for failing to improve conditions in Maryland's troubled juvenile jails, where an independent monitor once again has reported abuse. [complete article]

Highlights from the Daily News Clips -- April 4, 2005
Maryland Democratic Party democrat@mddems.org

"Mr. Ehrlich is the governor now. He's responsible. He can cry smear and accuse people of blackmailing him with unpleasant disclosures, as he has done recently. He can say he doesn't know the whistleblower - as if she were some sort of wild thing sent in by the Democrats. It doesn't matter if he knows her or not. What matters is the quality of service his administration provides." - C. Fraser Smith in the Baltimore Sun, April 3, 2005

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THE EHRLICH FOLLIES

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Ehrlich's legislative priorities sputter as session winds down
By Andrew A. Green | Baltimore Sun Staff | April 4, 2005

With a week to go in the legislative session, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has yet to see a single vote cast against any of his proposals on the floor of the House of Delegates this year. But that's because only his least-contentious ideas have made it through the legislative process, while others have stalled, giving him a mixed record at this point in the last session before attention shifts to next year's election. [complete article]

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Are Democrats responsible for global warming, too?
C. Fraser Smith | Baltimore Sun | April 3, 2005

GOV. ROBERT L. Ehrlich Jr. calls it partisan harassment, but he shouldn't be able to duck some alarming questions about child welfare in Maryland. We'll put them in true-false format.

Abusive conditions in the juvenile justice system have worsened during the Ehrlich administration. The questions are inevitably political because Mr. Ehrlich campaigned on a promise to improve things. True or false? [complete article]

Excerpts From Daily News Clips -- April 1, 2005
Maryland Democratic Party democrat@mddems.org

"There's no clear vision - other than positioning the governor for next year's campaign. There's no game plan for ending the Annapolis gridlock that has poisoned the atmosphere and stalled action on major issues…Ehrlich is content to react. He's avoiding any leadership role with the General Assembly for fear of embarrassments that could damage him with voters. That leaves the legislature without the strong rudder governors historically provide. No wonder everything is pretty much at a standstill." - Barry Rascovar, The Gazette, 4/1/05

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EHRLICH'S SINKING SHIP STATE

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That sinking feeling
Barry Rascovar | Gazette Columnist | Apr. 1, 2005

Maryland's gubernatorial ship of state has sprung a leak. It's not in danger of sinking -- yet. But Bob Ehrlich's boat is taking on water and if the captain's not careful he could find himself drifting aimlessly, without momentum, into next year's election campaign. [complete article]

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Secretary says Juvenile Services making progress
Montague defends agency after abuse reports, escape
attempt at Hickey School; 2 teens used scissors as weapon
Lynn Anderson | Baltimore Sun Staff | April 1, 2005

In his first public remarks since reports this week of abuse at state-run juvenile detention facilities, Maryland's Juvenile Services secretary said yesterday that his agency is making steady progress in reforming the troubled system. [Sounds like an April Fool's Joke to us. What's getting better?] [complete article]

Dear Friends,

I'd like to encourage you to take a look at two articles - today's editorial from the Washington Post and a piece from Saturday's Baltimore Sun.I know you share my concern that the Governor's misplaced priorities and petty political games are putting our State and our citizens in danger!

Governor Ehrlich went out of his way last week to politically attack a former aide who became a 'whistle blower' when she feared the Governor and his Administration were spreading rumors about her and that her current job at Towson University was in jeopardy.

Over the weekend, both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post reported that the same woman had communicated substantive concerns to the Governor and his Cabinet about how Ehrlich has made a disaster of the state's foster care system.

Our foster care programs are in place to serve children, often the most vulnerable in our society. Children's lives and livelihoods are at risk if the system fails them. As the Sun article says, "children are still dying" while the Governor plays politics.

I hope you agree with me that this matter needs immediate and thorough investigation.

Sincerely,

Terry Lierman
Chair, Maryland Democratic Party

P.S. Please visit our web site at www.mddems.org for more information about the Maryland Democratic Party!!

Daily News Clips -- March 28, 2005
From Maryland Democratic Party - [democrat@mddems.org]

"His [Ehrlich's] extraordinary remarks reinforced the impression of an administration that veers from one bizarre gambit to the next, without much attention to the major debates facing the state."

- The Washington Post, 3/28/05

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STATE HOUSE SHENANIGANS

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Mr. Ehrlich's Distractions
Washington Post Editorial - Monday, March 28, 2005

AS HUNDREDS of pieces of legislation head into the crucial home stretch of the Maryland General Assembly's 2005 session, one might think Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) would be busy fighting for bills he likes and against those he doesn't. Instead, he is engaged in scandal damage control.

That's the impression the governor gave when he suggested to reporters that he is the victim, first, of an "orchestrated" Democratic campaign to leak embarrassing material about his Republican administration, and, second, of a former aide who he says tried to "blackmail" him.

His extraordinary remarks reinforced the impression of an administration that veers from one bizarre gambit to the next, without much attention to the major debates facing the state.

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Md. Foster Care Draws Scrutiny
Ehrlich's Challenge to Media on Former State Worker Backfires
By Matthew Mosk - Washington Post Staff Writer - March 26, 2005

When Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. stood in front of the State House on Thursday and called on news reporters to investigate Michelle Lane, he said he suspected a little digging would expose her role in a politically motivated conspiracy to tar his reputation.

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Ex-state worker described as frustrated by DSS lapses
Nurse accused by Ehrlich of blackmail is defended
By Lynn Anderson and Michael Dresser - Baltimore Sun Staff - March 26, 2005

Michelle Lane, the Baltimore woman Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has accused of blackmailing him, didn't start out as an adversary. Lane, who worked for Ehrlich as a congressional aide, a campaign worker and a transition team member, took a job in the Maryland Department of Human Resources on Ehrlich's inauguration day to work on the administration's new programs aimed at protecting vulnerable foster children, friends and colleagues said.

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Ehrlich says ex-employee working with Democrats
Governor accuses woman of seeking revenge for firing
By Andrew A. Green - Baltimore Sun Staff - March 27, 2005

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday accused a Baltimore County woman who threatened to reveal more information about the dealings of former administration aide Joseph F. Steffen Jr. of being a disgruntled ex-employee who worked with high-ranking Democrats to exact revenge on him after she was fired.

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Keep stirring that mud
by Dan Rodericks - March 27, 2005
(midway down column)

Let me try to get this straight: The Republican governor, who should be embarrassed that one of his longtime political operatives was exposed as the guy who engaged in a little Internet rumor-mongering about Martin O'Malley's marriage, wants to find out if Democrats were behind exposing the guy?

Can this be correct? Bobby Governor wants to know - check that, he wants all of us to know - if the outing of Joe "The Prince of Darkness" Steffen was part of an orchestrated campaign by his political opponents. Why? So the governor can say: "Uh-huh! See? Toldya! It was a Democrat who exposed Steffen!"

This makes no sense. Why is Bobby G. trying to give this story "float"?

Instead of trying to smoke out the source of the story, shouldn't he be more concerned that a foul game was afoot, with Steffen up to his pointy ears in it? Does the governor think blaming Democrats or some vengeful state employee for outing Steffen is going to diminish what Steffen did?

"We really want to know," the governor said the other day. "The people have a right to know, and we want to know as much as you want to know about political orchestration in this entire process by anybody connected with the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates."

Why is Bobby keeping this story alive? For God's sake, it's expressly against the rules of smart politics. Move on, man.

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