"We've got a convert," Parris N. Glendening exclaimed happily on a recent Saturday as he finished his pitch to a man leaving B. J.'s Wholesale Club in Columbia.
Mr. Glendening was wrong. Gregory J. Morgan, a salesman from the Catonsville section of Baltimore County, had listened to the Prince George's County executive, asked a few questions and departed enlightened but not fully persuaded.
"I told Mr. Glendening I feel uncomfortable with someone from Prince George's County," said Mr. Morgan. "We've benefited for years from having a governor from the city."
He added, "The other concern is, how can you promise everybody everything without being taxed to death?"
Geography and promises. Unprompted, Mr. Morgan had put his finger on two sizable stumbling blocks on Mr. Glendening's path to the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and, if he survives the Sept. 13 primary election, the Governor's Mansion.
A bespectacled, self-proclaimed policy wonk, Mr. Glendening is trying to become the first Maryland governor elected from the suburban Washington area in more than a century, and the first lacking roots in the historically dominant Baltimore region in nearly three decades.
After 12 years as the highest elected official in Prince George's, Mr. Glendening is running as the only candidate with significant executive experience, touting his ability to guide the county through hard economic times while managing to steadily increase spending on schools and police.
For his campaign, he has put together a strong organization of political professionals and has outdistanced all his rivals in fund raising, amassing a stunning $3.4 million by early this month.
He has also accumulated a daunting array of endorsements from politicians and special interest groups, often from organizations that seem natural adversaries -- environmentalists and developers, labor unions and business groups.
Along the way, he has promoted a sweeping, if expensive, agenda for change, promising to make education his highest priority for attention and dollars, but also pledging to beef up law enforcement, recharge the state's economy and protect the environment.
Those promises, and others, have been flung back at him by his rivals, who say he has made commitments that ignore the reality of the state's ragged fiscal condition, with a shortfall of $160 million projected for next year, then $300 million annually through 1999.
In response, he says he has no plans to raise taxes while conceding that he could not honor all his commitments overnight, or even next year. Many would have to be phased in over four or eight years as he reshaped the state budget to reflect his political priorities, he says.
But Mr. Glendening has made it clear, on the stump and in interviews, that he would be an activist chief executive, grappling with fiscal problems not simply to make ends meet but free the funds to initiate and expand the programs he hopes will define his governorship.
"If you're not going to invest in education, public safety and jobs," he says, "then why are you running for governor?"
At 52, Mr. Glendening embodies the stereotype of the mild-mannered college professor, which he has been at the University of Maryland College Park since 1967, in recent years teaching one political science course a semester.
Not a pushover
But he is nobody's patsy. Beneath the bland veneer burns a formidable ambition ignited by poverty, forged in academe and tempered in the internecine and often impenetrable political wars of Prince George's County over the past quarter-century.
"He may be a wonk, but he can go toe-to-toe with the best of them," says Gerard E. Evans, the county Democratic chairman.
Born in the Bronx, one of Mr. Glendening's earliest memories dates from age 5. He was standing on the edge of a road in the deep South, watching as an old Army truck that contained all his family's possessions lie on its side burning in a ditch.
The family was on its way to Florida after his father lost the lease on the gas station he ran on the New York Thruway. The Glendenings settled in Hialeah, a racetrack town near Miami. The house they rented had electricity in just two rooms and no indoor plumbing.
Mr. Glendening's father worked two jobs, machinist and milkman. Eventually, he bought the machine shop, but kept the milk delivery route. Mr. Glendening, one of six children, started working early, but quickly realized that education was the escape route from privation.
By 1967, he had earned a doctorate in government and urban studies at Florida State University and was on his way to College Park to begin his teaching career. Soon after, he entered politics.
Changing P.G. County
During his tenure as county executive, Prince George's has experienced dramatic demographic changes, becoming a majority black subdivision and gaining a reputation as a mecca for middle-class African-Americans.
Over the years, he has been occasionally bedeviled by allegations of cronyism in the awarding of county contracts, claims that he trims his sails to the prevailing political winds, and a long-standing feud, now in election year remission, with the party faction led by Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., the state Senate president.
As his rivals for the Democratic nomination are quick to point out, he also presides over a county that ranks behind only poverty-wracked Baltimore City among the state's major jurisdictions in its crime rate and the performance of its students on standardized tests.
On crime, Mr. Glendening says he has expanded the police force 40 percent, pioneered community policing and instituted other innovative anti-crime measures. He also notes that crime is a problem everywhere, especially in urban subdivisions such as Prince George's.
Mr. Glendening blames low student test scores on poor management, asserting that his only control over public education is providing money and campaigning for staff and policy changes. That's because the school board is elected, not appointed as in Baltimore City, and the superintendent is picked the board, he says.
County residents have resoundingly ratified his stewardship at the polls. In six elections, primary and general, beginning in 1982 when he was first elected county executive, he has taken at least 70 percent of the vote and carried every precinct.
Mr. Glendening is the Democratic gubernatorial primary front-runner, holding a lead of 22 percentage points in the most recent independent poll, published last month. Trailing were state Sen. American Joe Miedusiewski of Baltimore, state Sen. Mary H. Boergers of Montgomery County and Lt. Gov. Melvin A. Steinberg of Baltimore County.
But the Baltimore region still can dominate a Democratic primary, so Mr. Glendening remains vulnerable if voters decide to rally around a single home-grown candidate.
The geographic issue is linked to money, not civic pride or bragging rights. Baltimore has been beset by a declining tax base and seemingly intractable social problems since the 1960s, its viability dependent in large measure on massive infusions of state aid doled out by governors with strong links to the city.
In what may rank as the coup of the campaign, however, Mr. Glendening in April won the endorsement of Baltimore Democratic Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, enhancing his stature in the city while gaining the support of Maryland's most influential black elected official.
To further display his commitment to the Baltimore region, he tapped Kathleen Kennedy Townsend of Baltimore County as his lieutenant governor running mate. Ms. Townsend is a former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general and the eldest child of the late Robert F. Kennedy. The selection has met with mixed reviews.
Mr. Glendening has been pressed throughout the campaign to explain how he would pay for some of his promises -- which include increased funding for education, law enforcement and job creation -- without raising taxes.
He responds by saying all his commitments, which he himself estimates at $200 million, are dependent on the availability of revenue. To Republican state Sen. Howard A. Denis, the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Helen Delich Bentley, Mr. Glendening's reply is "political hot air."
Said Mr. Denis, "You can do anything if you have adequate resources."
Fellow Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls have been harsher. Mr. Steinberg calls Mr. Glendening the "$300 million man," the price tag he puts on his opponent's promises. Mr. Miedusiewski places the cost at $760 million.
But two officials who bolstered Mr. Glendening with crucial early endorsements and hold what amount to political IOUs say they always understood the payoff would take time. The two -- Montgomery County Executive Neal Potter and Mayor Schmoke -- also seemed confident that Mr. Glendening has the commitment and political acumen to eventually redeem his pledges.
Mr. Potter wants the state to resume paying the employer's share of Social Security for teachers, librarians and community college workers, a $170 million program ended two years ago amid the state's recession-driven fiscal crisis.
Mr. Glendening has vowed to restore the program statewide. Mr. Potter, whose county lost a $28 million annual subsidy in the cutoff, said such commitments have to be viewed against the track record of the candidate as well as budgetary conditions.
"I think Glendening has shown real expertise in dealing with very difficult fiscal situations," said Mr. Potter, a Democrat, "and his ability to come through with the brass ring is very good. But I don't expect miracles."
Neither does Mr. Schmoke, even though he said when he endorsed Mr. Glendening that the candidate was committed to providing major support to Baltimore, including new police aid, help with a jobs program and a state takeover of the costs of the city Circuit Court system.
"I'm not expecting him to take the kind of action President Clinton did in his first year to produce a stimulus package for urban America," said the mayor.
"But I do expect him to be very sensitive to the concerns of the city and help as much as he can in keeping with his goal of improving the overall financial health of the state."
Mr. Glendening's private polls show that Mr. Steinberg, who has been advertising on TV for several weeks now, has moved back into second place, ahead of Mr. Miedusiewski and Ms. Boergers.
"Mickey [Mr. Steinberg] is the only other candidate able to spend real money," Mr. Glendening said. "I've always said the race is between the lieutenant governor and myself."
.' Tomorrow: Helen Delich Bentley
CANDIDATE PROFILE
PARRIS N. GLENDENING
Age: 52
Home: University Park, Prince George's County.
Family: Wife, Frances Anne, one son.
Education: B.A., M.A., Ph.D., political science, Florida State University.
Experience: Hyattsville City Council, 1973-1974. Prince George's County Council, 1974-1982, including two years as chairman. Prince George's County Executive, 1982 to present. Associate professor, University of Maryland College Park, 1967 to present.
POSITIONS ON ISSUES:
Taxes/budget: Says he has no plans to raise taxes and does not believe a general tax increase will be necessary in the next four years. Would deal with the state's fiscal problems and free funds to follow through on his campaign promises by reordering priorities, intensifying economic development efforts and streamlining government.
Economic development: Would offer incentives to jump-start the state's economy, including tax credits to businesses that provide new jobs and tax rebates to companies that hire people on welfare or the long-term unemployed. Says the state must revitalize older communities by giving tax breaks to companies that locate in such areas. Would continue to invest in the Port of Baltimore, "a critical part of Maryland's economic engine."
Crime: Supports the death penalty. Would require violent offenders to serve mandatory minimum terms before being eligible for parole and would make prison space for them by moving nonviolent offenders to "lower-cost facilities" such as boot camps. Would increase state aid for law enforcement, with emphasis on police patrols and community policing.
Gun control: Supports a proposal to require a license for the purchase of a handgun and to limit the number of handguns that can be purchased to one a month. Would ban all assault weapons and so-called "cop-killer" ammunition.
Abortion: Supports abortion rights. Would lift restrictions on government-funded abortions for poor women.
Schools: Says education would be his top priority as governor and promises increased funds. Would target some of the additional money to the state's poorer jurisdictions, such as Baltimore. Supports recertification of teachers. Would expand school-based decision-making, with emphasis on local, rather than state control. Would hold schools to performance standards, but would not permit the state to take over troubled schools.