In her second bid to become Maryland's first Republican governor in more than a generation, a new Ellen R. Sauerbrey has seemed to emerge.

She is a more polished candidate than four years ago - as at ease stumping before a throng of loyalists as she is pressing the flesh among more tentative Democratic voters who used to be written off by the Republican party.

All but gone is the bitter rhetoric over her narrow loss in 1994 to Gov. Parris N. Glendening and her subsequent challenge of the election on unproven charges of voter fraud.

And perhaps most remarkable, Sauerbrey has struck a decidedly moderate tone in her well-financed campaign for the State House this year and ended up sounding more like Glendening - her opponent in the Nov. 3 election - than the staunch conservative she has prided herself on being in the past.

"Certainly four years [on the campaign trail] is going to give you different views and outlooks," Sauerbrey said in explaining the change since 1994, when the Glendening camp painted her as an "extremist" from the GOP's right wing.

But critics maintain that the image of a kinder, gentler Sauerbrey is a campaign ploy that makes it easier to sell her candidacy to voters in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

"She's absolutely flipping on things," said Glendening, who himself has been similarly criticized. "It's not that she's changed on one position. These are basic, basic issues, almost value issues."

Sauerbrey, 61, once a strident ideologue who was seen as an obstructionist by Democrats during her eight-year tenure as minority leader of the House of Delegates, remains firmly committed to her core GOP beliefs of lower taxes and a less-intrusive government.

One area where she is in sharp disagreement with Glendening is on the subject of Maryland's business climate - an issue on which they often offer dueling statistics to back up their competing claims.

Sauerbrey maintains the state is not doing all it should for business development, citing burdensome regulations and taxes. Glendening says the state economy is humming and points to an increase in job creation over the last four years.

But the distinctions between her and Glendening on other issues have become less clear as she has tempered her message and pledged to leave untouched many programs and policies now in place, an effort in part intended to broaden her support statewide.

"My role as minority leader is very different than it would be as governor," she said in an interview last week. "My role as %J governor would be to find issues that bring people together, where I could really make a difference in people's lives."

Supporters maintain that the change in Sauerbrey is nothing more than the maturation of a statewide candidate, and that her role as House minority leader required her to take an adversarial stance.

"When she was in the House and minority leader, she did a lot of things that we knew weren't going to pass," said Howard County Del. Robert H. Kittleman, who succeeded her as minority leader. "And when you're governor, you can't do that. She's no longer in the minority, attacking party."

Nevertheless, he added: "She hasn't changed her mind, but she has changed her methods."

Once a vocal proponent of cutting government spending and programs to the bone, Sauerbrey now says she wants to increase spending on education by hiring 1,001 new teachers, similar to Glendening. She also would leave in place a costly formula for aid to local schools hammered out this year by the governor and state legislators.

Dropped proposals

These days, she makes no reference to some proposals she once promoted, such as school vouchers - which give parents who send their children to private schools taxpayer-funded help with the cost - or the fingerprinting of welfare recipients to combat fraud.

As a legislator from Baltimore County for 16 years, she voted against most of the key environmental protection measures, saying the laws and regulations were too onerous and costly to industry. But this year she has promised to maintain Glendening's two major environmental programs - Smart Growth and the anti-Pfiesteria bill - which were opposed by conservatives.

Sauerbrey has a reputation for being rabidly anti-union and routinely voted against organized labor while in the House, but she proudly mentions in campaign ads that her father was a union steel worker. She sharply criticized Glendening for establishing by executive order a limited form of collective bargaining for state workers, but now says she would not reverse the policy.

While she has long wanted to make Maryland a "right to work" state, one in which mandatory union membership would be prohibited, she says she will not push for it in the face of strong legislative opposition. Ditto on such hot-button issues as abortion rights and gun control, both of which she has vigorously opposed in the past.

"I'm not going to use up political capital ... changing laws that are on the books," Sauerbrey said.

L Kittleman said: "Those things she's put on the back burner."

Four years ago, Sauerbrey came within 5,993 votes of beating Glendening, after campaigning largely on the issues of cutting income taxes by 24 percent and shrinking the size of state government.

Since then, Glendening and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly approved a phased-in 10 percent income tax cut, in part to undercut her platform in this year's campaign.

Another tax cut

Sauerbrey is proposing to finish the job by reducing taxes an additional 14 percent, including an income-tax cut for retirees with more than $15,900 in annual income as a first step.

But that cut, coupled with her new education spending and a proposed shift of mass transit funding to the state's general fund, would leave a budget shortfall of more than $1 billion.

Sauerbrey has offered scant details about how she would fill that gap in the budget. Instead, she maintains that money could be saved by making state government more efficient and that revenue would increase by "growing" Maryland's economy through her tax cut.

"Every state that has cut taxes has seen an increase in job creation and economic development," Sauerbrey said, citing tax cuts in Michigan, New York and New Jersey in recent years.

However, economists vary on how or even if state tax cuts spur economic growth. The states that Sauerbrey cites have had a mixed record of creating jobs since the depths of the recession in 1991. Maryland, for example, has had a higher rate of job growth in the past seven years than New York or New Jersey, but not Michigan, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sauerbrey also hopes to spur business development by making Maryland more "business-friendly." She says she would overhaul state regulations, except those necessary to protect the Chesapeake Bay. She wants to establish a reform commission to eliminate "overly zealous, job-killing regulations" and create a new state Department of Technology, headed by a cabinet-level secretary.

She has never shaken the attacks Glendening made in 1994, when a last-minute advertising blitz sought to portray her as a wealthy, GOP extremist, loyal to the Christian right and out of touch with Maryland voters.

Hamstrung that year by a $1 million campaign spending limit in the general election - a condition of her accepting public financing for her gubernatorial bid - she was unable to fight back with an ad campaign of her own.

"That was never the real me," she said.

But four years later, the Glendening campaign's persistent attempts to demonize her as an agent of the right wing appear to have failed.

A poll this month for The Sun and other news organizations showed that 57 percent of likely voters in the Nov. 3 election do not believe Sauerbrey is "too conservative" for Maryland.

Sauerbrey enjoys support from an energized grass-roots organization of true believers. This year, she also has won endorsements from some Democratic former elected officials, whose support she has tried to use to boost confidence among " Democrats who may have been hesitant to cross over and back a conservative Republican.

Her campaign also has been buoyed by a highly successful fund-raising effort, owing in part to Glendening's vulnerability and to her role as the Maryland GOP's national committeewoman, which has brought in national Republican figures as big-money draws.

The money has allowed her to pay for television ads this year that lash out at Glendening for his record and missteps and raise questions about his integrity.

Sauerbrey's campaign also has worked hard to portray her in a softer light, beginning with a television ad that sketched out some of the details of her life story.

A victory by Sauerbrey would make her Maryland's first Republican governor since Spiro T. Agnew won in 1966, and its first woman governor. And it is clear she has thought about the prospect for a long time.

"I'd like to be able to look back after four years and say we were able to reduce the tax burden and reduce the red tape that is strangling our small businesses," she said.

"I'd like to have my legacy be that ... I made Maryland live up to its potential with better quality and safer schools, by restoring a feeling of safety in neighborhoods."

And, she added, "obviously, by cutting taxes."

Candidates on the Issues:

EDUCATION: She proposes hiring an additional 1,001 teachers over four years for classrooms across the state. She also says she would use the governor's office to promote the use of phonics-based reading instruction, though such curriculum decisions would still be left to local school boards and the state board. She wants to toughen certification requirements for state teachers.

taxes: She says she would cut state income taxes by 14 percent, on top of the 10 percent cut approved by Glendening and the legislature in 1997. She would begin by cutting taxes on retirement income. Under her plan, an individual over 65 would pay no state taxes on the first $33,000 of retirement income, for a savings of up to $800 a year. Maryland currently exempts from taxes the first $15,900 of retirement income.

ENVIRONMENT: She criticized Glendening as overreacting to last year's Pfiesteria outbreaks, but says she would not seek to overturn the governor's anti-Pfiesteria law. She says the state should repopulate the Chesapeake Bay with aquatic grasses and disease-resistant oysters, a goal some marine biologists doubt is feasible. She says the state must balance environmental protection with a concern for economic growth and private property rights.

CRIME/GUNS: She says she would revamp the juvenile justice system, in part by creating a statewide juvenile court and building a separate correctional facility for young offenders who are tried as adults. She wants to abolish parole for all violent criminals. She also wants to double - to 10 years - the mandatory minimum sentence for using a firearm in a crime of violence. She supports the death penalty.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: She is promising to make Maryland more "business-friendly" by overhauling state regulations and cutting taxes. She wants to establish a reform commission to "eliminate overly zealous, job-killing regulations" and would create a new state Department of Technology, headed by a cabinet-level secretary.

PTC ABORTION: She has said she would not seek to reverse the state's basic law guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion. But she has proposed three significant changes in current law. She would seek to ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure, require parental notification when teens seek abortions, and put new restrictions on the use of state funds to pay for abortions for poor women.

GAMBLING: She has said she would consider legalizing slots "as a last resort" to preserve the state racing industry.

More information about the candidates' positions is available on their campaign Web sites. Glendening's address is www.glendening.org and Sauerbrey's address is www.ellensauerbrey.com

Ellen R. Sauerbrey

Age: 61

Home: Baldwin, Baltimore County.

Family: Husband, Wilmer. No children.

Education: B.A., English and biology, Western Maryland College.

Experience: Maryland House of Delegates, 1979-1995. House minority leader, 1987-1995. Former high school science teacher.

Running mate: Richard D. Bennett, Baltimore lawyer and former U.S. attorney.

William F. Zorzi Jr. covers government and politics for The Sun.

Pub Date: 10/25/98