Ehrlich

On prison security and his support for Project RESTART (Re-entry Enforcement Services Targeting Addiction Rehabilitation and Treatment), piloted at Maryland Correctional Training Center south of Hagerstown: Ehrlich: I am committed to (RESTART). ... We're talking about a subpopulation of very savable people, who are going to be back on the streets in any event. I would rather have them come back with mental health issues better taken care of, with drug addiction issues taken care of, with training, with the ability to compete in the real world and not have to return to the streets.

Washington County Republicans are gearing up for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner next month. U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., R-Md., who represents Baltimore County in Congress, is the featured speaker for the event, which will take place May 5 at 6 p.m. at the Hagerstown Elks Club. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md., and Rep. George Gekas, R-Pa., also will deliver remarks at the GOP event, according to Lincoln Dinner chairman Richard G. Everhart. Last year's Lincoln Day dinner drew about 300 people.

Facing a $1 billion-plus hole in the state's budget, Maryland's gubernatorial candidates last week offered the first real details about what they'd do to bridge the gap. Neither is completely satisfying and whoever is elected will likely see his or her plan undergo substantial alterations. Kathleen Kennedy Towsend would raise the cigarette tax another 36 cents per pack, borrow from the state's transportation fund and the state's Rainy Day Fund, while slowing the growth of higher education spending.

scottb@herald-mail.com Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on Tuesday criticized Gov. Parris Glendening's handling of the site selection for the University System of Maryland Hagerstown Education Center. Ehrlich, 44, of Baltimore County, said he supports the $13.3 million campus project and would fight to ensure that funding continues for the planned education center at the Baldwin House complex downtown. Some local officials and a steering committee had called for the education center to be built at Allegheny Power's Friendship Technology Park off Interstate 70 or off Robinwood Drive near Hagerstown Community College.

scottb@herald-mail.com While he would like to become Maryland's next governor, Republican Ross Pierpont said he has no objection to primary election challenger U.S. Rep. Robert Ehrlich, also a Republican, getting that job instead. During a stop in Hagerstown Thursday, Pierpont and Sidney Burns, his lieutenant governor candidate, said they support Ehrlich's campaign and share some of his ideas. "We are on the same wavelength on a lot of things," Pierpont said. Pierpont said, for example, he agrees with Ehrlich that there should be state-run slot machines at Maryland race tracks, with the funds going to public schools for kindergarten through 12th grades.

By DAN KULIN / Staff Writer photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer ST. JAMES - The nation's highest military decoration, a Medal of Honor, was handed over to St. James School on Thursday, replacing a medal that was stolen from the school about 20 years ago. cont. from front page The original medal had been awarded, posthumously, to Donn Porter, a 1949 Saint James School graduate who was an Army sergeant during the Korean War. Porter, of Ruxton, Md., was awarded the medal for his actions on Sept.

U.S. Rep. Robert Ehrlich's suggestion that he might consider shifting the site of a college campus proposed for downtown Hagerstown raises an issue that many felt was settled. Some who favored an out-of-town site have never been reconciled to the downtown site, but the danger in reconsidering it now is that it could put the entire project in jeopardy. Ehrlich's remarks were published last Sunday in a Herald-Mail question-and-answer interview written Andrew Schotz. Ehrlich said that "some people here for whom I have I have great respect" had suggested that the project be moved back to the site proposed originally at Allegheny Power's Friendship Technology Park along Interstate 70. Here's the danger, as we see it: Given that this county has never strongly supported Democratic candidates, if Ehrlich's opponent, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, perceives that locals are trying to undermine a decision she backs, she just might decide to shift it back to Frederick County, the area for which it was originally envisioned.

As predicted, the issue of whether to fund a large portion of Maryland's budget by legalizing slot machines at the state's horse tracks is quickly becoming a top issue in the governor's race. Citizens need to pay close attention to who is saying what and demand some straight answers. The issue became more urgent this month when the Maryland General Assembly agreed to boost education funding by raising cigarette taxes by 34 cents per pack. That will provide enough money to fund the recommendations of the Thornton Commission for two years.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - Correctional officers emerged from a meeting with Gov. Martin O'Malley on Monday with what one officer called a "long overdue" feeling of appreciation. O'Malley and Gary D. Maynard, the state's acting secretary of public safety and correctional services, toured Maryland Correctional Training Center, then talked with officers, whose unions supported O'Malley during last year's campaign. The visit came three weeks after O'Malley proposed about $42 million in MCTC upgrades and almost $7 million to hire 155 new correctional officers statewide - including 73 for Washington County - in next year's budget.

"Shame, shame, shame on Washington County Democrats. No candidate for state Senate, and only one candidate for county commissioner. No reason to vote is the final result. " - Hagerstown Democrat voter "I'm calling in about the county tournament championship that was played Saturday night at North High. In the paper, there's a big article in there with a picture of North High beating Clear Spring Blazers ... a one-paragraph thing about Boonsboro High School varsity girls upsetting North High Hubs, after North held it for six years straight.

ANNAPOLIS -- The proposed dime-a-drink tax, which would fund health care initiatives and disability services, might have support in the General Assembly, but neither candidate for governor backs the proposal, campaign spokesmen said. "Ehrlich likes to protect the taxpayer every way possible," said Andy Barth, a spokesman for former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, who is fighting to regain the governor's seat he lost to O'Malley four years ago. And Gov. Martin O'Malley "is not inclined to support any tax increase," O'Malley spokesman Rick Abruzzese said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former presidential candidate John McCain said Robert Ehrlich has his support in Maryland's Republican primary for governor. McCain expressed his support for the former governor in an interview Monday with The Associated Press after a meeting of the U.S. Naval Academy's Board of Visitors. McCain said he thinks Ehrlich is "a fine guy," and he said Ehrlich has his endorsement. Sarah Palin, who was McCain's running mate, has endorsed business investor Brian Murphy in today's GOP primary.

Business people complained of overregulation and overtaxation Tuesday while chatting with Republican Robert L. Ehrlich, who is trying to regain the governorship this year. Ehrlich, who lost to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2006, said he has held about four dozen similar roundtables and has heard some of the same frustrations. "All right, it's Nov. 3," he told Tuesday's group, urging participants to tell him their wishes as if it were the day after the election and he had become governor again.

Former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. made two stops in Washington County Saturday, having lunch with fire and rescue personnel and then courting the farm vote at the Washington County Ag Expo & Fair as he tries to reclaim the governor's office this fall. "Obviously, we're strong in this county and we're strong in this part of the state," Ehrlich said as he pressed the flesh with exhibitors and visitors to the fair and posed with a steer. "I represented ag districts in the legislature, in Congress and ... as governor.

SMITHSBURG --Pledging a commitment to farmers, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. brought his gubernatorial campaign to northeast Washington County on Monday. Addressing a small group at Misty Meadow Farms near Smithsburg, Ehrlich said he wanted to combat the idea that farmers are responsible for Chesapeake Bay pollution. "The first promise we made to farmers in this state was: No more demonization. No more marginalization. No more blaming you for things that are not your fault," he said.

HAGERSTOWN -- Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. encouraged and embraced supporters in Hagerstown on Thursday while kick-starting his campaign to win back Maryland's governorship. At a rally in Public Square, Ehrlich reminded the crowd that Washington County, like the rest of Western Maryland, is friendly territory for him. He sounded off on what he thinks is wrong with Democratic control in Annapolis. He pledged to try to roll back the sales-tax increase enacted under Gov. Martin O'Malley (it rose from 5 percent to 6 percent)

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Former Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich wants his old job back, and he's challenging the Democrat who ousted him four years ago in a rematch testing whether a blend of GOP, tea party and independent voters can make a difference in heavily Democratic Maryland. Ehrlich launched his candidacy Wednesday in Montgomery County, the state's largest jurisdiction and a key battleground as the home of nearly a quarter of the state's registered independent voters. At a rally in Rockville with about 100 supporters, Ehrlich contrasted himself with Gov. Martin O'Malley by saying he wants to cut the state's sales tax, which was raised from 5 percent to 6 percent under the O'Malley administration.

ANNAPOLIS (AP) -- While Republican candidates already are expressing interest in challenging Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley next year, former GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich is watching from the sidelines for now. Nevertheless, the leading state Republican fundraiser is confident Maryland's first GOP governor in a generation will have a hard time keeping himself off the field. "I think Bob Ehrlich is going to run," said Richard Hug, who keeps in touch with Ehrlich and his past supporters.