By David Nitkin
Sun Staff
Originally published February 11, 2002
The message that would accompany Ellen R. Sauerbrey's political
resurrection is locked in her mind and ready to spring.
Voters in suburban Baltimore, Harford and Anne Arundel counties
need a climate that allows individuals to succeed, she would tell them.
That means smaller government, a strong economy and making sure
"people aren't taxed to death."
On a bright winter morning seven months before the primary, the only
audience for her ideas is a German shepherd, Hans, celebrating his
11th birthday as he lunges around her 19th-century farmhouse in
Baldwin.
But Sauerbrey, the standard-bearer of the Maryland Republican Party
for the last two elections, the woman who came within a whisper of
becoming governor in 1994, is ready for her next race.
If Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Baltimore County runs for governor
this year, Sauerbrey says she will seriously consider seeking election
to
his 2nd District congressional seat.
"I miss having the voice," she said. "I've never gotten over being a
teacher and wanting to impart ideas. I miss being in the middle of
public policy debates."
With her name recognition and strong party support, Sauerbrey, 64,
would immediately become a leading contender in a GOP primary.
And though the district's lines have been redrawn to make it less
friendly to a Republican, she would pose a serious threat to Baltimore
County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the term-limited
Democrat who is also looking at the race.
"There is such a pent-up sentiment about what happened in 1994,"
state GOP Chairman Michael S. Steele said of Sauerbrey's continued
appeal to many voters. She lost to Glendening that year by fewer than
6,000 votes in an election marred by recounts and accusations of
fraud. "A lot of people felt she was done wrong," Steele said.
But Ehrlich has not committed to run for governor, even though he
increasingly sounds and looks like a candidate. And Democrats in
Annapolis still have to approve the district's new boundaries. So for
now, Sauerbrey must wait.
Wait for someone else's decision before raising money and organizing
volunteers. Wait for district lines to be made final.
"Time is short," she said late last week, dodging the question of
whether she is irked by Ehrlich's indecision. "I'm keeping my powder
dry."
She is considering other options. There is talk, for instance, of a
possible appointment in the Bush administration.
Still, Sauerbrey says she yearns for a return to elective office, and says
the 2nd District seat is the only one she would consider.
She relishes the prospect of serving in a legislative body as a member
of the party in power - something she never knew during her 16-year
Maryland General Assembly career.
In the three-plus years since Glendening defeated her by 10
percentage points in their 1998 rematch, Sauerbrey has stayed active.
A Republican national committeewoman, she traveled to Geneva last
year as an appointee of President Bush to a six-week human-rights
mission. She has also tended to her recently widowed mother, and
continued to refurbish the 1845 Georgian home that sits on 43 bucolic
acres.
If she runs for Congress, the stakes will be high. The GOP is trying to
preserve a six-vote majority in the House of Representatives during
next fall's mid-term elections, a time when the party that does not
control the White House traditionally makes gains.
Through the congressional redistricting process, Gov. Parris N.
Glendening has made no secret of his desire to eliminate two of four
Republican members of Maryland's delegation. Between the
crosshairs: Ehrlich and Rep. Constance A. Morella of Montgomery
County.
"It's very, very important to me that we keep that seat," she said,
speaking of the 2nd District. "I feel a strong responsibility to see that
it
stays in Republican hands."
So does Ehrlich. As he inches toward the governor's race with
speaking appearances far from his home base and a campaign
fund-raising machine in full gear, he says he is under pressure from
national Republicans to make sure a GOP successor is possible before
he leaves Congress.
A poll last week, paid for by the National Republican Congressional
Committee, tested the strength of Sauerbrey, Del. James F. Ports Jr.
and former Rep. Helen Delich Bentley in potential match-ups against
Ruppersberger.
"We think we have a very good opportunity to keep that seat," said
Carl M. Forti, a spokesman for the national committee, who said he
had seen early poll results but would not release them.
Despite Glendening's efforts to pack the district with Democratic
voters, "it wasn't nearly as bad for us as people were saying it was,"
Forti said.
Sauerbrey would face hurdles if she enters the race, most notably that
she would not reside in the district she seeks to represent. Members of
Congress are not required to live in their districts, though making such
a run could pose problems politically.
Glendening and his allies changed the lines of the Eastern Shore-based
1st District to snake through Harford County and into Baltimore
County, grabbing the homes of Sauerbrey, Ehrlich and other leading
Republicans. That left the 2nd District without an incumbent, and with
a voter-registration edge that would appear to favor a Democrat.
The proposed lines changed the plans of state Sen. Andrew P. Harris,
a Baltimore County Republican who once said that he, too, would run
for Congress if Ehrlich does not. "I decided a while ago that I won't
run in a district I don't reside in," Harris said.
But that doesn't meant Sauerbrey or Ehrlich shouldn't, the senator said.
"I believe in her case and in Bob Ehrlich's case, the district was drawn
to include them with incumbents," Harris said. "Therefore, they can
make the case they could validly represent that area."
Sauerbrey said she recognizes that residency could become a
campaign issue, but is unapologetic.
"The 2nd District is my home," she said. "It's the neighborhoods I
travel, the stores I shop in, the places I know. But my thoughts and the
voters' thoughts may be different."
Sauerbrey is also bracing for the likelihood that wounds from the 1998
governor's race could be reopened in another campaign.
In the final weeks of the last election, Glendening launched a brutally
effective television ad campaign that labeled Sauerbrey as an enemy of
civil rights.
The accusation "left me with a lot of pain," Sauerbrey said. "No one
who knows me thinks that is true. But it's the Democrats' last trump
card."
The redrawn 2nd District includes many heavily African-American
neighborhoods in Randallstown and Owings Mills.
"The use of race is very divisive, and it really bothers me that it has
become part of the Democratic strategy," Sauerbrey said. "I hope we
don't see it again, but I'm sure we will."
If racial politics becomes a theme of a Democratic campaign, then
property rights will be the battle cry of Sauerbrey, Ehrlich or another
Republican.
Ruppersberger suffered the worst setback of his political career in
November 2000 when Baltimore County voters rejected his
community redevelopment vision that relied on land condemnation in
Dundalk, Middle River and the Liberty Road corridor.
Sauerbrey said her choices will become clearer within the next three
weeks. If Ehrlich commits to a gubernatorial run, other potential GOP
congressional challengers would probably defer to her, observers say.
"I know a couple of the other potential candidates have said they won't
run against her," said Carol L. Hirschburg, a former Sauerbrey media
aide. "I think she's an extremely strong candidate. I think she has a
strong desire to contribute more."
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun