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112 8 Follow the Leaders, Lead the Leaders From 1999 through 2002,as DeMarco and Beilenson developed their Health Care for All! plan, DeMarco was paying at least as much attention to the legislative environment that plan would face as to the polls, the consultations , the Hopkins experts, and the media. Although the chairs of the key committees that would handle health-care legislation would be important players in the plan’s legislative success, the fate of most legislation rests in the hands of the three great Maryland power holders: the governor,the speaker of the House,and the Senate president.Who would they be after 2002,and above all,who would be governor? The DeMarco team was certain that powerful, sympathetic inside leadership lay just around the corner in the person of Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.Maryland’s term limit law would end Governor Glendening ’s tenure, and the popular Townsend, enhanced by the historic aura of her father,Robert Kennedy,was the odds-on favorite to be elected to succeed him. This was grounds for optimism: DeMarco was closer, philosophically, politically , and personally, to Townsend than to Glendening. Her anticipated ascendancy colored all his planning. At critical points in DeMarco’s campaigns, Townsend had been there— serving as the centerpiece for rallies, helping with fund-raising, writing supportive op-ed pieces,and lobbying quietly but hard.During the 2002 elections, because of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative nonprofit legal status, there could be no overt coordination between that effort and the Townsend campaign, but there could be felicitous synergy. There could be a vigorous, nonpartisan election campaign to make voters aware of just which gubernatorial candidates were supportive of health care for all and which were not. Almost all of those opposed would be Republicans,especially the conservative Republican candidate,Robert Ehrlich. Follow the Leaders, Lead the Leaders 113 On July 10, the Sun headlined: “Coalition Unveils Health Care Pledge.” The pledge mirrored the latest coalition-organizing resolution, calling upon candidates for governor to sign on the line to support a thirty-six-cent cigarette tax increase for expanded health-care coverage, to stop the sale of the nonprofit CareFirst health insurer to a for-profit buyer, and to authorize the state to negotiate lower drug prices. Simultaneous with the pledge campaign launch, Health Care for All! released a new poll showing that Maryland voters strongly supported all three measures. Townsend signed the pledge. Her opponent, Ehrlich, said: “We are probusiness . Therefore, we will not be signing this.” By September 12, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance was running a new version of the“Bang! Cough! Ka-ching!”ad, substituting this year’s villain,Ehrlich,for the last campaign ’s villain, Ellen Sauerbrey, as the tool of the gun, tobacco, and casino lobbies . Regarding Ehrlich, nonpartisan DeMarco told the Sun:“Where Kathleen endorsed the tobacco tax, he’s taken $30,000 in contributions from tobacco companies.” This proved to be, as DeMarco lamented,“the only hit” that Ehrlich took during the campaign.Not only was 2002 a Republican year throughout the country, but also Townsend’s campaign fell short. DeMarco’s political eulogy:“She’s a wonderful person who would have made a great governor.” In the wake of the election, on November 12, Sun political commentator Howard Libit and reporter David Nitkin had the last word on the pledge campaign as they tallied up the election’s winners and losers: “Vincent DeMarco: Devoted to progressive politics, he saw his entire agenda go down the drain. Townsend signed DeMarco’s ‘Health Care for All’ pledge backing a thirty-sixcent tobacco tax increase. Ehrlich didn’t. Townsend promised tougher gun laws that DeMarco, an anti-handgun advocate, also supported. Ehrlich said he’d review the gun laws to see if some should go. DeMarco has had notable success in the past,but the next four years could be his toughest.” Grieving According to Schneider, Townsend’s defeat felt like the undoing of the whole campaign: Vinny had been down at the headquarters to celebrate.It’s probably the only night of the year when Vinny stays up past midnight.It’s kind of like his own Christmas.This was where you saw the fruits of your labor; after working on the election for months and months,this was where you got to see what happened.I had a sense of dread going into that evening.I would spend the first few hours with our local Democratic campaign headquarters; I just...

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