Seeing Red In Maryland

Not that I go looking for conspiracies, but ...

Think about this. The BGE deregulation and the price freeze deal were worked out in 1999, the year after an election. At that time, the Democrats (who were in control of the Legislature, the Governorship, and the Public Service Commission) were no doubt thinking the Republican threat was waning. After all, Parris Glendening had just defeated Ellen Sauerbrey for the second time and by a wider margin than the first time. It's probably fair to say that when this deal was worked out, the Democrats almost certainly expected someone from their party to be Governor when the deal expired in 2006, which just happens to be an election year.

So, that means - if they thought it through - the 1999 Democrats were either

1. setting up their future incumbent as the "fall guy" when the bills came due on the eve of an election, or
   
2. setting up their future incumbent as the "hero" when he/she came to the rescue of the citizenry with a tough new deal on the eve of an election, or
   
3. setting up the future legislature as teh "heroes" fro the same reasons, giving the legislative leadership the upper hand in dealing with - or running against - their future incumbent.

And when you throw in the fact that Kathleen Townsend was the Lt. Governor and likely front-runner in 1999 for the 2002 race - and thus the likely incumbent in 2006 - you can imagine all sorts of angles and conspiracies.

Of course, all of this is predicated on the 1999 Democrats thinking it through and not just pushing the problem off to a later date. Sadly, this is the most likely explanation.

posted by Mike Milligan @ 5:39 PM