What a difference four years doesn't make.
Maybe it's a natural offshoot of the state's having two alpha personalities, Martin O'Malley and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., with a long shared history and equally long memories. But when these two get together, there's always this sense of unfinished business, of old scores to be settled.
On Monday, they took to a WJZ Channel 13 studio for the first gubernatorial debate of this election, but, like old generals, somehow found themselves re-fighting their last campaign.
"None of us has aged a bit," moderator Denise Koch said dryly as she took her place once again between O'Malley and Ehrlich.
Maybe, but those of you who can barely remember four days ago — let alone four years ago — might need a recap of just one of the issues from 2006 that would make a reappearance: The state, led by then-Gov. Ehrlich, tried to take over of 11 failing schools in Baltimore City, headed by then-Mayor O'Malley. The legislature ultimately thwarted the effort and, in any event, as a campaign issue it didn't help Ehrlich get re-elected or prevent O'Malley from unseating him.
Why Ehrlich brought this dead horse back to beat it some more is a mystery to me — and prefacing his point by saying he didn't want to "re-litigate those 11 schools" only called more attention to the fact that he was doing just that.
I'm not sure that was the exact turning point of the debate, but it seemed to open the floodgates to a more backward- rather than forward-looking approach — not exactly the direction you'd think the guy who lost the last election would want to take.
The format initially seemed like it would help Ehrlich; he tends to prefer a more conversational forum rather than a strict, by-the-books debate against the wonkier O'Malley. And indeed, Ehrlich seemed relaxed and amiable initially, calling O'Malley "guv" in a way that seemed almost friendly, as if to say, "Hey, we're among the few who know what it's like to answer to that."
He also got in a pretty funny coin-toss joke, having won it to give his opening statement first. He joked that Koch must have lost a coin toss of her own to get stuck with moderator duty.
But somewhere along the way, the mood darkened on Ehrlich's side of the desk. "Guv" started to sound less familiar and more dismissive. It was probably unintentional, but when you're accusing someone of violating children's constitutional rights (with bad schools) or engaging in class warfare (by lowering taxes for some groups and raising them for others), it's probably time to dispense with "us-guys" speak.
He was landing some talking points, claiming no net jobs had been created under O'Malley's watch, and that, basically, his opponent was a typical tax-and-spend Democrat. O'Malley countered, saying jobs were growing twice as fast in Maryland as the national average, and that Ehlich himself had raised property taxes and other fees and tolls.
It went back and forth like that for most of the debate, and, unless you've studied state politics to a fairly fine degree, it was hard to sort out who really did what on a host of issues that they squabbled over, from charter schools to a backlog of DNA samples.
Still, for all the charges and counter-charges, some clear lines of demarcation occasionally emerged: Ehrlich, for example, denounced state employee furloughs as "demoralizing;" O'Malley characterized them as a way of sharing the pain of necessary budget cuts. Ehrlich said O'Malley relied too much on federal stimulus dollars that soon would be drying up; O'Malley hit at Ehrlich's plan to cut education funding to rollback the sales tax increase.
The contrast was stark, not just between the two men's governing philosophies but in the way they come off as people. I kept thinking of Goldilocks turning away from her porridge to watch Monday night's debate and saying, "This candidate is too hot." And: "This candidate is too cool."
If Ehrlich sometimes seems to be seething over built-up grievances, O'Malley can come off as overly packaged, inauthentic even. He'll narrow his eyes in reaction to an Ehrlich charge, or insert a smile out of nowhere when he talks about, say, the Chesapeake Bay.
At the debate, though, he did notch up the passion when Ehrlich criticized the performance of city schools during O'Malley's mayoral administration. O'Malley questioned why Ehrlich focused only on the problems of city schools rather than their progress, and challenged him to come see a Patterson Park school that has been making strides.
That should play well in the city, where O'Malley will need a strong turnout to counteract the conservative voters who are considered more motivated this year. And those were the voters Ehrlich seemed to be targeting in the debate, by hitting hot buttons like federal spending and immigration.
In a race where there are relatively few undecideds, maybe returning to their bases — like their old arguments — seems like the safest thing to do.
jean.marbella@baltsun.com