Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan defended his economic record Monday and said the state is in a “much, much better” place compared to when he took office four years ago, casting Democratic opponent Ben Jealous as a candidate offering unrealistic and even “dangerous” policy proposals.
Mr. Jealous countered by saying the state has fallen short under Mr. Hogan in multiple areas, including education and transportation, and that the governor wasn’t able to articulate a clear vision for what he would do with a second term.
Mr. Hogan and Mr. Jealous met Monday in their first and only general election debate of the 2018 governor’s race and touched on topics that included the economy, gun violence, criminal justice, and drug addiction.
Mr. Hogan, seeking re-election as a Republican in the deep-blue state, said he’s managed to steer the state back on course since his election in 2014 by cutting $1.2 billion worth of taxes, tolls and fees and making investments in K-12 education and transportation initiatives.
“We have done exactly what we said we would do,” he said. “We’ve made tremendous progress but there’s still a lot more hard work to be done.”
Mr. Jealous, who has campaigned as a Sen. Bernard Sanders-style progressive, championing Medicare-for-all, marijuana legalization and debt-free college tuition, said Maryland is lagging regional rivals.
“I’m running for governor because I have a vision,” he said. “Folks will tell you the things that I want to do are hard and they’re right. Nothing worth doing is easy.”
In the lively debate, the two men often talked over one another and spent a good deal of the time debating just how far Maryland has come in areas like job creation since Mr. Hogan took office.
“My four-year record is clear: We’ve led the nation, we’ve increased jobs, increased wages, and you just can’t keep making up these stories,” Mr. Hogan said.
Mr. Jealous countered that the people of the state deserve to hear a plan on how the state will move forward.
“You don’t have any plans,” he said.
Mr. Hogan said the state has moved forward at one of the fastest rates in the country, and that Mr. Jealous won’t level with taxpayers on exactly how much his proposals are going to cost them.
“Your only plan is to double the state budget and increases taxes by a hundred percent, and you’re not honest enough to tell people each taxpayer in Maryland is going to have their taxes go up 12 percent,” the governor said.
Mr. Jealous also wants to reduce the prison population in the state and use the savings on other initiatives. He says his plan entails “shrinking our prison system in a way that makes it safer, saving money and sending those monies to our public colleges and universities.”
Mr. Hogan called Mr. Jealous’ plan “downright dangerous.” Mr. Hogan said that, as governor, he has a record of taking violent criminals off the streets.
“Mr. Jealous might not be aware of what’s been happening here in Maryland, but we actually passed the most intensive criminal justice reform act in a generation,” he said.
Mr. Hogan has led Mr. Jealous by double digits in recent public polling on the race, and his job approval ratings have been among the highest of any governor in the country of either party.
But Maryland hasn’t re-elected a Republican governor since the 1950s, and Mr. Jealous’ campaign is banking that a blue wave driven by opposition to President Trump will be enough to turn out Democrats who might have stayed home in 2014, when Mr. Hogan defeated then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in a major upset.
Mr. Jealous repeatedly invoked Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s education secretary, saying Mr. Hogan was touring around the state with her. Mr. Hogan said he’s met with education secretaries under the Obama administration as well.
Both candidates were asked toward the end of the debate what they would tell the president if they had a minute alone with him in the Oval Office.
“I would tell him that he’s his own worst enemy and that he should stop tweeting and that we don’t need this kind of divisive rhetoric,” Mr. Hogan said. “There’s not a whole lot of things that I have in common with the president.”
But Mr. Jealous said Mr. Hogan hasn’t done enough to stand up to the president.
“I would tell Donald Trump that the days of the governor of Maryland aiding and abetting his strategy on everything from the Chesapeake Bay to immigration have ended,” Mr. Jealous said. “There’s now a civil rights leader as governor, and I suspect that might make his blood pressure rise.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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