Maryland Governor's List of Surplus Property Alarms

[Judi Lynn]

Maryland Governor's List of Surplus Property Alarms Environmentalists, Legislators

November 25, 2004 — By Gretchen Parker, Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. − Gov. Robert Ehrlich wants to sell off land, buildings and other surplus state property in a plan that has alarmed environmentalists and led to a feud with Maryland's biggest and most influential newspaper, The (Baltimore) Sun.

Ehrlich so far has gotten rid of 300 cars, the state yacht and a plane. But his administration's inventory of "excess" property also includes 3,000 acres of land that mostly lies in and around state parks, leading to an outcry from environmental advocates who call the plan a "fire sale" of treasured areas.

Ehrlich this week said that the inventory is merely an inventory and not a for-sale list.

But his critics are skeptical. They point to the administration's recently aborted deal to sell 800 acres of sensitive timberland to a politically connected developer, Willard Hackerman. He is a longtime friend of the state comptroller, who is an Ehrlich ally, and would have bought the land without bidding for it. Hackerman would have received a tax break worth up to $7 million.

The deal fell through after a series of articles in The Sun examined it and the Republican governor's broader goal of selling off state property.
(snip/...)

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=459


Erlich

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. What a goober.

That said, this is SOP for "taking care of the boys" at every level of government: local, county and state.

A vigilent electorate and press are the only tools that stop it.

[cybildisobedience]

2. and the "environmentalists" who voted for him --

how do they feel now?

[NJCher]

3. another typical repuke business deal

Cher

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Selling public land is a betrayal on many levels, but particularly

because much land that becomes public was left to the state by private citizens in their wills. The testators/testastrixes wanted the land to be undeveloped, preserved, and enjoyed by the citizens, not by private interests. To sell off their land is breaking a promise. I'm not sure if that means the land reverts to the descendents of the benficiaries of the original owner if the land is proposed for sale.

[aquart]

13. It depends on how the will tied up the property, doesn't it?

[izzie]

5. Washington Post had two items on him yesterday. Bad guy.

He thinks he is King and WE know Bush is King. We can not have two Kings in one country.

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

6. Hey...isn't EHRLICH public property?

He's a public figure. He's a public servant.

I'll give you $5.00 US for him right now. We can outsource the job to the City of Baltimore.

Let's talk about it (you Bawlamer natives know what that means..)

[DBoon]

8. Let's put him up on eBay!

If a grilled cheese sandwich can be sold, so can a governor.

[nickshepDEM]

7. 2006...

Just Couple more years untill we can get rid of this goofball. Although I think it will be harder than most people think. I live in Maryland and in my area of Dundalk he acutally has a pretty large support group. Every were I go I see a "We love our Gov" or "Another Democrat for Ehrlich" bumper sticker. I still think O'Malley will crush in if he decides to run.

[Igel]

16. From Edgemere.

But that was a long time ago. Left there in the late '70s.

I was shocked when I heard the democrats lost the governorship there.
(Can Mikulski and Ehrlich *really* be from the same state?)

[Stinky The Clown]

9. This man was trained by Newt Gingrich

Ehrlich first gained prominence as one of the freshman congressman who invaded the US Capitol as a result of Gingrich's Contract on America (tm). He is a Nazi through and through, He defeated Bobby Kennedy's oldest child, the-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, to win the Maryland statehouse. Townsend, while a wonderful lady, ran what I consider an abysmal campaign, and, in many ways just like Al Gore, had to run away from her former boss, who was a pretty ineffective Governor.

We have hope for '06, however, in the face of Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley. He is a rising star in the national democratic party and had a speaking role at the convention. O'Malley is very popular and quite charismatic. He has been an effective mayor. While he has yet to officially announce for Gov, but no one doubts he will.

Anyone in Maryland .... we need to work hard for O'Malley. Even with our state being solid blue in the final outcome, check out this map:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/MD/S/01/map.html

While that map is the partial result for the last Senate race, only, it is very much indicative of the larger voting patterns in our state. We have a creeping red/pink stain on us. Marylanders, do NOT be complacent. Get off your asses and work.

And don't forget, we are 100% Diebold with NO paper record (as affirmed and defended by Ehrlich's SoS/Elections chief). Our margin of victory can not be allowed to be close. It must be so overwhelming that any election fraud would have to be so flagrant, so massive, so widespread, as to be laughable. Anything less is a recipe for disaster. And since the governor race is a midterm, no one will be watching closely. Fortunately, we have a real newspaper who is not afraid to look hard at politicians, but don't feel too comforted by that. We need to do our jobs, too.

This governor MUST be taken down. If not for him and his policies, imagine what would happen were he to win a second term and then have his Lt. Governor run. Mike Steele is, in my opinion, even more electable than Ehrlich. He is a charismatic, soft spoken, good looking, intelligent, reasonable sounding African American who hails from Prince Georges county, the most affluent, well educated predominantly African American county in the US (IIRC). He could get elected by taking all the republican areas and making a serious dent in the African American areas. Steele could seriously break the back of Maryland's long standing democratic traditions by moving large blocs of formerly reliable (but sadly, often ignored) Black Democratic voters to the Republican fold. This is ABSOLUTELY possible. We can NOT take the African American vote for granted. Steele's story is compelling on its face (self-made, yadda yadda) and will play well among the newly affluent African Americans who, I suggest, could easily tilt Republican.

So, Marylanders, answer the call. Work to have Ehrlich removed from office ........ it is a MUST on our To Do list.

[many a good man]

10. Thanks for the info! Ehrlich must go.

He will and he knows. They're just trying to grab everything they can because it'll be a long time before they're back in the Gov's mansion.

I'm really looking forward to O'Malley. Even though I live in Monkey county I prefer him to Duncan. Unfortunately I thought his speech to the DNC was pretty lame.

[Comicstripper]

11. Hey, I live in Montgomery County too!

And I prefer O'Malley to Duncan as well. For the charisma, mostly.

[LiberalEsto]

15. Me three!

And I'll take O'Malley over Duncan any day!

[nickshepDEM]

12. ***Husb2Sparkly*** or anyone else in MD.

I want to help when O'Malley announces that he will run for GOV. I signed up as a volunteer at his website but they have yet to send me an E-mail to verify or ask me to help out. Do you have any information on groups or anything that I can sign up for to help? Also I have alot of young friends (Im 20 btw) and family who are not registered to vote and I would like to register them and possible alot of others by 2006. How do I go about getting a boat load of voter registration forms? Also, when I go to register these people how to I get them to register democrat without really forcing them into the party? I dont want to register people and them turn out to be on the other side. At the same time I dont want to say if you dont vote democart I wont submit your form or whatever.

[nickshepDEM]

14. bump

bump

[genieroze]

17. Ehh, Whats Up Doc?

[lwin]

18. Ahnuld has done the same thing

Here in California, Ahnuld has also had an "inventory" done, and assigned value to property. One prime piece of beachfront real estate in my county, that is used as a Fairgrounds, is high on his wish list, talking about how much it could bring if it is sold to condo and hotel developers, etc. It makes me sick.