With the election only five days away, the candidates for governor yesterday charged each other with 11th-hour switches on the environment and taxes.
In dueling press conferences in Anne Arundel County, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey said Democrat Parris N. Glendening had gone through a "death-bed conversion" to become a would-be tax-cutter, while he derided her attempt to cast herself as an environmentalist.
"In the very last days of the campaign, she is making wild claims that she is an environmentalist," Mr. Glendening told a group of environmentalists gathered at the water's edge in Annapolis.
Mrs. Sauerbrey has been distributing a flier highlighting her concern for the environment which reads in part: "As a former biology teacher, she cares deeply about a clean and healthy environment."
Those kinds of statements don't change her long history in the legislature voting against major environmental bills, according to Glendening and an environmental leader who appeared with him.
"If Ellen Sauerbrey is elected governor, it will be a dark four years in the history of the Chesapeake Bay," said John Kabler of Clean Water Action. "It will be four years from which the Bay may never recover."
Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, and Bill Woodfield, owner of Woodfield Fish & Oyster Co. in Galesville, both praised Mr. Glendening.
Mrs. Sauerbrey has said she supports many environmental goals, but has made it clear she will bring a pro-business outlook to environmental issues.
Mrs. Sauerbrey's subject of the day was taxes. "He is a born-again tax-cutter," said Mrs. Sauerbrey, who has proposed a 24 percent cut in personal income taxes over four years. "The record shows he has no conviction in the things he is saying."
Her campaign imported a half-dozen Prince George's Countians a Glen Burnie shopping center to talk about their taxes during Mr. Glendening's 12 years as executive.
"Parris Glendening has never met a tax he didn't like or a tax he doesn't like to raise," said Jim Jordan, a 36-year-old telephone cable splicer from Upper Marlboro. "We pay through the nose in taxes."
At the event, U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, the 1st District Repubican, gave Mrs. Sauerbrey his endorsement.
Mr. Glendening has supported several tax increases as county executive, though some taxes have been cut. He has pledged that as governor he would not raise taxes, and he says he would review business taxes with an eye toward cutting them.
Moving quickly to blunt Mrs. Sauerbrey's message, the Glendening campaign also produced several Prince George's residents, making them available next to Mrs. Sauerbrey's parking lot event to describe their support for the Democrat.
"Nobody likes to pay higher taxes, but I believe we're served very well in the county," said Mary Dugan, a Laurel resident in her 50s.
She said she was pleased, for example, that Prince George's County has provided money to supplement federal programs for the disabled, including her 30-year-old son.