Heartbreaking loss but graceful farewell for House speaker

Doleful but not bitter, Casper Taylor moves on after decades in office

By Jeff Barker
Sun Staff

December 8, 2002

CUMBERLAND - How quickly political fortunes can change.

As spring began, Casper R. Taylor Jr., the first House of Delegates speaker from Western Maryland in 100 years, was approaching the end of his record ninth legislative session wielding
the gavel.

His name was surfacing as a possible running mate for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, whose election seemed as inevitable as his own. Plans were
under way for an addition to the House office complex almost certain to be named for Taylor.

But something happened on the way to Cas Taylor's victory lap.

In June, a state court reconfigured his district to include voters in Republican-rich Washington County who don't feel the same kinship with Taylor as constituents in his Allegany
County home and political base.

When the ballots from the Nov. 5 election were counted - and recounted - Taylor had lost by 76 votes to a building contractor and political novice who hadn't even planned to run
against the speaker but was thrown against him by the court's redistricting map.

Instead of adding another term to a distinguished career, the election became an abrupt reminder that nothing can be taken for granted in electoral politics.

Rather than the expected plaudits on another victorious campaign, Taylor, 67, received this halting voice-mail message the day after the election:

"This is one of the saddest days of my life," begins the unmistakable voice of state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. "I don't know ... [long pause] ... the electorate is so stupid. I
should have lost, you should have won. You're such a good guy. I've got to shed a tear."

In the month since the election, Taylor and his staff have begun to box up the mementos in his State House office - the photos and proclamations, the autographed Ravens football and
Maryland Terrapins basketball - and contemplate his next step.

With his continuing interest in economic development and transportation, he wouldn't rule out a top post, were it offered, in the administration of Republican Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich
Jr. "I still have a burning passion to be in public service," he says.

Taylor leaves office on the morning of Jan. 8.

The transition from the speaker's office won't be easy. The position was long part of Taylor's identity. A recent family Christmas card depicted his handful of grandchildren playfully
holding gavels. Even the door to his downtown Cumberland office, where he handled primarily local concerns, reads "Speaker of the House."

In his phone message, Schaefer seemed to partly voice what Taylor has been feeling. The speaker says he has experienced a complicated mix of emotions, including grief, frustration with
redistricting, anger at political opponents who helped orchestrate his defeat and pride that he - the round, balding son of a restaurant owner and the first in his family to attend college -
had prominently imprinted his name in state archives as the longest-serving speaker.

Still fretting

He is still fretting about the election, to be sure.

"One of the first feelings is rejection. It is very heartbreaking," says Taylor, who, even when upbeat, can project a mournful countenance. When he became speaker in 1994, he was
described in a profile in The Sun as a "doleful-looking penguin," a description he and his family adopted by buying penguin cuff links, statuettes and other paraphernalia.

But for all the hurt of an election defeat, there is, at least for veteran officeholders, a plus: You get to take a symbolic bow as you leave the spotlight.

Taylor, as he plots his future, has been receiving a bittersweet stream of congratulatory e-mails and the sort of recognition normally reserved for gold-watch retirement ceremonies.

At a breakfast meeting of several hundred Montgomery County political and business leaders last week, he was summoned to the stage with a standing ovation.

"Cas, I really wish I didn't have to do this today," said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, before presenting him with a proclamation of "heartfelt thanks" signifying the impending
end of Taylor's reign as speaker.

Taylor, giving Duncan a trademark wink, told the audience, "The two-party system in Maryland is alive and well."

One accolade still awaiting Taylor is the naming of a new addition to the House office complex. While no name has been formally picked, Taylor's colleagues quietly make it clear that, if
anything, his election loss boosted sentiment to use the building to honor Taylor.

While emphasizing that the House hasn't made a decision, Anne Arundel County Del. Michael E. Busch, the Democrat who will succeed Taylor as speaker, says, "When those doors
open in 2005, I can't imagine there'd be anyone else we'd honor."

Taylor will be remembered as an emissary for his isolated, mountainous district - "Welcome to Western Maryland!" he often tells visitors - who advanced in Annapolis, in part, because
he is the antithesis of a slick politician.

Cumberland native

Born in Cumberland, Taylor attended the University of Notre Dame, where he rose to president of the prestigious student political club. After graduating in 1956, he went into business
with his father, married his high school sweetheart, Mary "Polly" Young, and started a family.

He says the restaurant business - with all of its opportunity for contact with voters - provided a good start to his political career, which began with his House election in 1974.

As speaker, he won colleagues' support by promising to listen and to allow them to develop their own opinions and expertise. In return, he often received their loyalty when he needed it
most.

He could be tough, and occasionally curmudgeonly, but was rarely considered dictatorial by his peers. As chairman of the House Economic Matters Committee from 1987 until 1994, he
was approachable enough to be the target of members' pranks - as when a delegate added the fictitious name of "Seymour Butts" to a witness list that Taylor proceeded to read aloud,
drawing snickers.

Taylor used his influence to attract or aid Western Maryland businesses and tourist draws, including a Jack Nicklaus golf course, state-subsidized air service to the Cumberland area, and
Canal Place, a Cumberland recreation area of historical value. He fought to make health insurance more available to the poor, and he battled to salvage the final installment of a 10 percent
income tax reduction even though critics said the state couldn't afford it.

Guns, redistricting

He had won his previous election with 70 percent of the vote. But this time, Taylor faced redistricting - about 4,000 voters were added in Washington County, less friendly to Taylor than
Allegany. He also encountered political foes' criticism of his record on gun control and his support of a possible voter referendum on legalizing slot machines.

At least three gun-rights organizations helped defeat him by buying campaign ads and distributing anti-Taylor literature. They targeted his support of 2000 legislation to require built-in
locks on all handguns sold in the state.

Taylor insists he doesn't feel betrayed by voters, at least not those in Allegany County, where he received 61 percent of the vote. The victor, LeRoy Myers, won 70 percent of the vote in
Washington County, which also backed the Republican Ehrlich by more than 2-to-1.

"I've gotten over it because I'm convinced I wasn't rejected by my home county," he says.

But he acknowledges the defeat's timing was bad. He had hoped to be in office when the expanded House office complex is dedicated in several years, probably with his name on it.

"I was so hoping I could serve one more term to see it done," Taylor says. And at that moment he looks truly doleful.

Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun