WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “Hogan a Nonpartisan? History Tells a Different Tale” & “Hogan could be the 51st vote, giving the GOP control”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 1, 2024

CONTACT:  Lindsay Reilly, [email protected]

 

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “Hogan a Nonpartisan? History Tells a Different Tale” & “Hogan could be the 51st vote, giving the GOP control”

A pair of editorials published over the weekend by the Baltimore Sun and Frederick News-Post highlighted how Republican U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan’s “hewed to the conservative party line” as governor and that the race “may turn on the third critical issue in this race, which may be the most important of all: control of the Senate.”

See for yourself:

Baltimore Sun: Hogan a Nonpartisan? History Tells a Different Tale

By: Baltimore Sun Editorial Board

• Our crack team of fact checkers went to the archives to uncover these five notable examples of Governor Hogan’s somewhat-less-than-nonpartisan behavior in Annapolis, which clearly must have slipped his mind when he was recording his ad.
• As Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s appointments secretary, Hogan… caused a stir by aggressively stacking state agencies with workers personally loyal to the Republican governor. Democrats investigated and found a trail of thousands of emails.
• Hogan quickly made it clear that he wouldn’t be negotiating with Democrats over their spending priorities… His unwillingness to negotiate on a host of matters became standard operating procedure with a promise to consider bills only when they landed on his desk.
• As governor [Hogan] hewed to the conservative party line, vetoing expanded access to abortion, opposing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in the state and refusing just two years ago to release budgeted funds to train abortion providers.
• Oh, and there were the petty grievances like vetoing a $2 million grant for the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in 2015 because it was in the district of late House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat. Not long after he was busy trying to embarrass Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, also a Democrat, at a news conference… Then there was the “Drive for Five” effort in 2018 when he tried without success to defeat five incumbent state senators at the ballot box to take away the Democrats’ veto-proof majority.
• Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland and the area with the highest concentration of Democratic voters, got little love from Hogan. In 2015, the city was literally left off the map when the GOP governor announced $2 billion in transportation projects his first year in office… That was also the year he canceled the Red Line even though it meant returning $900 million to the federal government.
• So how can Hogan — with a straight face no less — claim he was a nonpartisan governor?

Frederick News-Post: It’s a Bumpy Path for Hogan’s Senate Bid

By: Frederick News-Post Editorial Board

June 29, 2024

• A voter looking to choose a senator — particularly in these hyperpartisan times — wants to know what side of the fence the candidate stands on for a host of national issues, especially abortion, Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and control of the Senate. For different reasons, Hogan has problems with all three.
• In 2022, [Hogan] vetoed a bill that would have expanded abortion access.
• For both Republicans and Democrats, the choice may turn on the third critical issue in this race, which may be the most important of all: control of the Senate.
• Hogan… was convinced to run by the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell. With control of the Senate expected to be very close, Hogan could be the 51st vote, giving the GOP control.
• Control of the chamber gives either party the right to name all of the committee chairs, the power to set the agenda of the body and the power to confirm judges.
• That single fact could well be all the incentive Republicans and Democrats would need to make their Senate vote strictly based on party.