Frances Hughes Glendening made her first campaign speech as a third-grader on behalf of a family friend running for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Wilmer Sauerbrey didn't attempt public political discourse until two years ago, when he heckled Gov. William Donald Schaefer during a big Maryland Chamber of Commerce gathering.
It's just one measure of the gap between two people who seem to share only one thing in common: Their spouses are running for governor. And, oh yes, they're both registered Republicans.
Otherwise, it appears they have even less in common than Democrat Parris N. Glendening and his Republican opponent, Ellen R. Sauerbrey. At least the Prince George's County Executive and the Maryland house minority leader are in roughly the same business. They enjoy reading budgets, working a crowd and calling each other irresponsible.
The candidates' spouses are 16 years apart in age and look every bit the product of different generations.
There is Mrs. Glendening, 43, ever stylish in pixie haircut and understated fashions, who would be Maryland's first first lady in eight years. She's a walking "Year of the Woman" poster, pursuing her career as a lawyer for the Federal Elections Commission, attending most of her son's Babe Ruth League baseball games and serving as a guiding force in her husband's political life.
There's Mr. Sauerbrey, 59, a personable, gray-haired engineer turned real estate broker, who would be the inaugural first gentleman in Maryland history. He has about as much interest in campaign politics as in his own wardrobe -- that is, none.
In his tweed jacket and skinny necktie, he could audition for a role in the Eisenhower administration. He acknowledges that since the campaign began he has had to start paying more attention to his clothing. He has ceded to Mrs. Sauerbrey's request that he shave off the gray beard he grew on a fishing trip a couple of years ago.
Asked about Mr. Sauerbrey's role in his wife's pursuit of the governorship, campaign manager Richard W. Montalto says, "He's pretty much stayed out of it."
"When was the last time you saw Dennis Thatcher involved?" asks Mr. Sauerbrey, a reference to the George Will column that described his wife as Maryland's Margaret Thatcher.
Mrs. Sauerbrey, 57, says her husband has "bent over backward" not to participate in the campaign. It's been this way throughout her political career, which began when she was elected to the House of Delegates in 1978. His attitude didn't change when she discussed the prospect of running for governor.
He wanted no part of the decision and no seat on the campaign bus, Mrs. Sauerbrey says.
"He has made it real clear, if I wanted to get into this governor's race he was not going to spend the next 17 months traveling around the state," Mrs. Sauerbrey says. "It's harder to be the spouse of a female candidate, the role of standing by the candidate's side."
Mr. Sauerbrey says, "That's no problem. . . . I don't have an ego problem. I've been pretty successful at my own thing."
A graduate of Lehigh University, Mr. Sauerbrey worked until 1976 as an engineer, first at Black & Decker and later at two other firms. Now he's an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Grempler.
Mr. Sauerbrey's parents were German immigrants who came to this country with little but the desire to work. His mother arrived as an indentured servant who named her son after one of the people she worked for, ophthalmologist Dr. William H. Wilmer, founder of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mr. Sauerbrey's father was a baker in Germany who turned nurseryman and groundskeeper soon after stepping onto American soil.
They lived in Baltimore County, where Mr. Sauerbrey delivered newspapers as a teen-ager. He delivered papers to Rock Oak Road in Ridgely, where this fair-haired teen-ager Ellen Richmond lived with her parents. She wasn't much interested in politics and history then.
After they were married in June 1959, Mr. Sauerbrey gave her books to read on conservative economics, then he took her on a trip to visit his relatives in East and West Germany. Mrs. Sauerbrey has said seeing the cruelty of communism inspired her vigilance against big government.
On those bedrock philosophical issues -- self-reliance, limiting the power of government, curbing taxes -- Mrs. Sauerbrey says she and her husband "are in total agreement."
He shuns election politics, but Mr. Sauerbrey is interested in world affairs, and bristles about the amount of time people spend watching sports rather than keeping an eye on public officials. Asked to name his favorite contemporary political figure, Mr. Sauerbrey cites Ronald Reagan, who he believes does not get the credit he deserves for the West winning the Cold War.
Irked by Schaefer
So imagine Mr. Sauerbrey's vexation when Gov. Schaefer stood up at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Conference in Ocean City in October 1992 and talked about the state's plan to develop a manufacturing plant to create jobs. The crowd of hundreds at the Sheraton Ocean City ballroom listened to Gov. Schaefer, then heard another voice boom out over the multitudes.
"BAD NEWS!" the voice shouted. It was Mr. Sauerbrey's first foray into public political debate and quite out of character, says Chris Costello, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce vice president for human resources and marketing.
"I know Wil, he's a very quiet guy," says Mr. Costello, who was at that meeting in Ocean City. "He usually doesn't say anything."
Mrs. Glendening, on the other hand, is outspoken about her political views and plays a visible role in her husband's campaign.
She has been co-chairman of all three of her husband's transition teams when he was elected county executive. Asked if she will serve on the gubernatorial transition team, Mr. Glendening says, "Frances Anne will be involved in some significant capacity, as she has in the past."
Campaign manager Emily Smith says that "Parris seeks her advice," and adds that Mrs. Glendening was among the people who interviewed her before she was hired. Ms. Smith says Mrs. Glendening also played a role in the decision to select Kathleen Kennedy Townsend as Mr. Glendening's running mate.
It's easy to see how Mrs. Glendening makes an effective campaigner. She speaks with more expression and exudes more warmth and energy than her husband. The daughter of George Hughes Jr., the late state senator, member of the House of Delegates and tax court judge, she has had years of practice.
"I used to give speeches for my Dad," says Mrs. Glendening. She remembers standing before an assembly as a third-grader at Columbia School in Cumberland to support her father's friend, Sen. J. Glenn Beall Sr., who was running for re-election.
He was a Republican, as was Mr. Hughes -- as is Mrs. Glendening.
"I'm a Mathias Republican, I'm not a Reagan Republican," she says, referring to former Sen. Charles Mathias, a liberal much like her father, who served in the General Assembly in the 1950s and 1960s. "When Parris and I were married I said I would either change my name or my party affiliation, but not both."
She voted in the Republican gubernatorial primary, but won't say for whom. "Not the nominee," she says.
The only disagreement
Mrs. Glendening has trouble recalling significant political arguments with her husband, a lifelong Democrat. The only disagreement she can remember arose when Mr. Glendening in the early 1980s opposed publicly funded abortions. He has since changed his position on that.
Her party affiliation has created no conflicts with the campaign, but her profession has. As a chief legal and policy adviser to a member of the Federal Elections Commission, Mrs. Glendening cannot attend fund-raisers where money is also being collected for federal candidates. As a federal employee covered by the Hatch Act, she may not campaign alone for her husband. She may attend events with Mr. Glendening, and she has as often as time allows.
The two met at the University of Maryland in the early 1970s, when Mrs. Glendening was an undergraduate studying government and English. Mr. Glendening, nine years older, was her academic adviser and her professor in a few classes. She says they started dating when she was in her senior year, and never while he was her instructor.
After a four-year courtship, they married in November 1976, while Mrs. Glendening was studying at the university for a master's degree in public administration and American government. She went on to complete a law degree at Catholic University in 1986.
The Glendenings have one son, Raymond, 14, and live in a three-bedroom brick colonial in University Park.
Mrs. Glendening and Mr. Sauerbrey say if their spouse wins, they will continue to pursue their own careers. Mr. Sauerbrey says he'll continue working on the old farmhouse in Baldwin that he and Mrs. Sauerbrey have been repairing for years.
Mrs. Glendening does not anticipate moving to the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis, as that would be too disruptive for Raymond, who attends DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville.
As for the prospect of becoming Maryland's first gentleman, Mr. Sauerbrey says, "I've never done it before. I'm going to have to cross that bridge when I come to it."