In the races for the top two state positions on Tuesday, Brian Frosh for attorney general and Anthony Brown for governor, both Democrats, are more experienced and more in tune with mainstream Maryland voters than their opponents.
Frosh, a proud member of the Jewish community, has been a state senator representing District 16 since 1994. For 11 years, he has been the chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee. During the three-way Democratic primary in June, the Gazette quoted him as pointing out that as attorney general, most of the laws he’ll be enforcing, he has written.
A mainstream liberal, Frosh has earned high ratings from consumer groups and high votes for his work to protect the environment, particularly the Chesapeake Bay. He also gets good marks on civil rights. Unsurprisingly, considering his leadership in restricting who can have access to firearms, he received an “F” from the National Rifle Association. These are among the reasons we believe he should be Maryland’s next attorney general. His Republican opponent, attorney Jeffrey Pritzker – who is also a proud Jew and a past board member of Beth El Congregation in Pikesville – lacks Frosh’s stature and experience.
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown has admittedly run a lackluster campaign in his bid to succeed Gov. Martin O’Malley. It is perhaps the lack of dynamism and policy specifics from the Brown camp that has allowed his Republican challenger, businessman Larry Hogan, to close the wide gap between them to fewer than 10 percentage points.
But Brown has crucial experience that Hogan lacks: eight years as lieutenant governor, another eight as a state delegate, and military service including a 10-month Army Reserve stint in Iraq while serving in the statehouse. Brown’s Jewish running mate for lieutenant governor, Ken Ulman, is impressive in his own right, having served two terms as Howard County executive after one term as a councilman.
Hogan, meanwhile, has no elective experience – neither does his running mate, former USDA official Boyd Rutherford – and we do not believe the governor’s chair is a place for on-the-job training. We are also leery of Hogan’s call to make Maryland “more business friendly” – which Pritzker has done as well – without just as strong a commitment to building a state that is more affordable, cleaner and livable for its working- and middle-class residents, who need access to better transportation and sustainable wages in order to thrive.
We trust that, as governor, Anthony Brown will be equal to that challenge.
