Gov. Robert Ehrlich and lieutenant governor candidate Kristen Cox did not attend an NAACP-sponsored candidates’ meeting Wednesday evening in Largo because of a previous commitment to attend another forum in Baltimore, a campaign spokeswoman said Thursday.
“There was never a call made that the governor was able to attend,” spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said. “But regrets were extended.”
An e-mail sent Wednesday night from the campaign of Ehrlich’s Democratic challengers, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley and District 25 Del. Anthony Brown, portrayed the governor’s absence as a last-minute withdrawal from the forum at Prince George’s Community College. A spokesman for the campaign said in the e-mail that Ehrlich should realize that leadership is about more than a photo-op between rounds of golf.
“This was an important opportunity for Maryland families to hear about the candidates’ visions for what they would do as governor — a topic on which Bob Ehrlich has been absolutely silent to this point,” said Hari Sevugnan. “It does a real disservice to Maryland families that … Bob Ehrlich doesn’t value the opportunity to speak to the NAACP.”
Representatives from the Prince George’s County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were not available for comment Thursday morning.
Ehrlich recently toured the county’s $2 billion National Harbor development with national NAACP leaders who are considering relocating their headquarters to the mixed-use center now rising on the banks of the Potomac River.
O’Malley reaffirmed his vow Wednesday night to work towards keeping the organization in Baltimore. “I’ll be straight with you,” O’Malley told the crowd of several hundred, “we want to keep ‘em.”
O’Malley and Brown attended the event, as did Green party candidates Ed Boyd and James Madigan. Populist party candidates Christopher A. Driscoll and Ed Rothstein did not attend.
DeLeaver said Ehrlich and Cox spent Wednesday evening in Baltimore at a candidate forum sponsored by the Associated Black Charities at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture.
ejacobson@dcexaminer.com
