When Baltimore businessman Richard E. Hug meets new faces, he discreetly determines what they do for a living, where they live and what kind of car they drive. And when he later calls them -- if he likes what he heard -- it isn't to make small talk.
"I meet someone for the first time, I very graciously find out about them," said Hug. "It's like a little calculator in my mind: 'Hey, this guy could probably help us out for a couple thousand dollars.' "
Hug's "little calculator" turned into a giant bank account for the GOP this year as the veteran Republican fund-raiser lent his fund-raising prowess to Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s successful campaign for governor.
With Hug in charge as finance chairman, Ehrlich raised $10.5 million -- a state record for a political campaign -- in his bid to defeat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Ninety-three percent of the money came from Maryland, according to the Ehrlich campaign.
"It's amazing," Ehrlich said. "Some people like to play golf or like business, but Dick likes to shake people down."
Official fund-raising totals will not be released until both campaigns file their finance reports tomorrow.
Michael G. Bronfein, Townsend's finance chairman, said the lieutenant governor raised "at least $8 million," but the final amount is still being tabulated. Hug -- who helped raise $6.4 million, the previous state record, for Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey's unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1998 -- is confident that Ehrlich raised more than Townsend.
"The fact we out-raised Townsend was a terrific personal achievement," said Hug, a lifelong Republican.
If Hug's prediction holds up, it would be an impressive feat, considering the lieutenant governor began the year with four times the amount of money Ehrlich had.
Hug, 67, recalls that in September last year Ehrlich asked him if he could raise $8 million for the campaign.
"I told Bob at the time, $6 or $7 million was a slam dunk, but I said $8 million is going to be a stretch," Hug said. "I never dreamed we would hit $10.5 million and then we went through $8 million like a knife through butter."
'It was a game'
Hug and John Reith, Ehrlich's finance director, raised the money by assembling 160 Marylanders to serve on the campaign finance committee.
Each committee member was responsible, with Hug's help, for raising between $25,000 and $100,000. Some raised more.
"It was a game, who could raise the most money," said Robb Banks, 33, a committee member from Carroll County. "We are all businessmen and we are all competitive."
Staging intimate house parties as fund-raisers was one strategy that the committee and Ehrlich's staff perfected. At the events, a group of friends, business associates or neighbors would pay to attend a party where they meet Ehrlich over a home-cooked meal.
Ehrlich attended 200 such parties this year, including 100 held in the 100 days that preceded Oct. 25. The events typically brought in between $10,000 and $100,000.
Major fund-raisers
Ehrlich also benefited from three large fund-raisers.
A March event in Baltimore raised about $700,000, as did a Nov. 3 fund-raiser in Montgomery County that featured former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
An Oct. 2 fund-raiser in Baltimore featuring President Bush raised $1.8 million, a record for a single fund-raiser in Maryland.
The final component of Ehrlich's fund-raising strategy was targeting small-business owners and Republican loyalists through direct-mail appeals.
The campaign raised $1.4 million from direct mail, the bulk of which came from people who gave less than $50. In all, 63 percent of the money Ehrlich raised came from donations of $249 or less, according to his campaign.
Spending power
The money allowed Ehrlich to flood the airwaves with television and radio ads and conduct one of the largest get-out-the-vote operations ever undertaken by a Republican candidate.
The campaign also had money to spend on things other campaigns might have seen as wasteful.
Ehrlich took out a two-page ad in the Washington Post one week before the election that cost $50,000. His campaign also gave free Ehrlich/Steele T-shirts to anyone who wanted one and distributed hundreds of bottles of water with the "Ehrlich/Steele" logo.
"It was the last $2 million we raised that allowed us to be so intense," Hug said.
Hug said he spent hours on the phone each day calling prospective donors -- a skill he perfected raising money for charitable organizations and cultural institutions.
After growing up in Pensgrove, N.J., Hug graduated with a master's degree in wood technology from Duke University in 1957. He then went to work for Koppers Co. in several different states as a manager in its forest products division. In 1973, Koppers transferred Hug to Baltimore, where he started a subsidiary, Environmental Elements, which develops technology to reduce air pollution.
Hug purchased the subsidiary in a 1983 leveraged buyout. He retired from the company in 1995, although he remains a shareholder and maintains an office at the company's headquarters in South Baltimore.
Shortly after he came to Baltimore, Hug immersed himself in the business community and began raising money for different organizations.
In 1979, he ran the United Way of Central Maryland's campaign. About the same time, he led an effort to raise $40 million to build the National Aquarium at the Inner Harbor.
Chairman of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce between 1983 and 1988, Hug also led a $120 million fund-raising effort for the University of Maryland Medical System in the early 1990s.
Political start
Hug started raising money for political candidates in 1998, when he was tapped by Sauerbrey to head her effort.
"I remember in Ellen's campaign we were told at a certain point we are going to need $3 million for advertising and [Hug] just smiled and said, 'That is not going to be a problem,' " said Republican consultant Carol I. Hirschburg, who was Sauerbrey's communications director.
Sauerbrey's $6.4 million was $200,000 more than Gov. Parris N. Glendening raised. President Bush then asked Hug to lead his Maryland fund-raising effort during his 2000 presidential campaign. Hug raised $6 million for Bush and the Republican National Committee.
Hug said the key to raising money is being persistent and making a lot of friends.
"When I ask someone for a contribution it is really difficult for them to say no," said Hug, who estimates he has raised $200 million since moving to Maryland. "If someone turns me down in April, I say I'll call them back in May. I'll call six or seven times, but invariably I will get them in my noose."
Hug is also training the next generation of GOP fund-raisers, such as Banks.
"Dick is a motivator and allowed me to see my potential," said Banks, manager of Russel BMW in Catonsville. "I owe it all to him. I now know you ask and you ask and you tell them to give and make them give until it hurts."
Banks, Hug and the rest of Ehrlich's fund-raising team met last week to discuss their next project: getting Ehrlich re-elected in 2006.
"He is going to need at least $15 million," Hug said. "Maybe more, but I'm pretty confident he can raise the money."