By-Passing the Jury Through Mediation or Arbitration - Venable LLP

We can create incentives to encourage businesses to adopt certain
this writing, those adjectives still apply.
The practice of forming “exploratory committees” has become de rigueur in
recent years for individuals seeking public office and it is almost always a prelude to
an official announcement. Nevertheless, the practice allows candidates to do a preliminary
beating of the bushes to assess their chances. As importantly, it can give
indications of how much it will cost to run a competitive campaign. Listening to Lt.
Governor Steele, it sounds as if his mind is made up.
“I’ve judged so far that this opportunity is worth an exploratory committee. It’s
an opportunity to get some face to face feedback from people. As I travel around
doing my job as Lt. Governor, people have volunteered their impressions of this race
and their thoughts on it. It’s been very encouraging.”
The man Michael Steele works for has been supportive as well. Robert Ehrlich
has given no public indication that he is uncomfortable with his Lt. Governor bolting
for the U.S. Senate. In fact, some Republican strategists suggest it might present
another positive opportunity. A Steele run for the senate might allow Ehrlich to
widen the Republican base in Maryland by choosing a running mate not seen as a
right wing Republican, a woman perhaps. Additionally, the name recognition conferred
by an Ehrlich-Steele combination atop the Republican ballot could trickle
down to Republicans running for lower offices.
There are flies in the ointment however, and not just from the Maryland Democratic
Party. Even before the Ehrlich administration took office in January 2003, it
had two very vocal public critics, the area’s two major print media organs, The Baltimore
Sun and Washington Post. In the ensuing years the relationship between the
administration and the two papers has, to put it mildly, not improved. Given the
influence of these entities locally and nationally and the antagonism which has existed,
how does the Lt. Governor view them as he prepares for what looks to be a tight race?
“That is what it is. The Baltimore Sun doesn’t vote, people do. The people who
run the Sun vote and that’s fine but as an entity, it’s a newspaper, nothing more. The
[Washington] Post is the same thing. I don’t have hostility to the press at all. Some
would say they are a necessary evil, I would just say they are necessary. Some are in
the business of conveying, others are in the business of displaying. It depends on
what your situation is. I believe in direct communication.”
“I’m not going to sit back and wait for a newspaper reporter or magazine
reporter to come and sit down for me to tell people what I think or believe about
the opportunities for our state. I’m going to go directly to the community. That’s
what I’ve been doing since the day I swore the oath of office. I’ve gone directly into
the communities of Maryland and to businesses. Whether it’s a small ‘mom and pop
shop’ or a large corporation doesn’t matter. Today for instance, I helped christen the
opening of a new car wash here in Annapolis. Next week I could be at Under
Armour. I don’t believe in waiting for people to come to me. I’ll go to where the
people are and tell them what our administration’s trying to do.”
Steele also gives the impression that he will not stop working in support of Governor
Ehrlich, even while he runs his own campaign. Quoted in a June 16 Washington
Post article, he says, “The Governor’s my homeboy. I’m always going to take care
of my homeboy.”
According to the Lt. Governor, the historic and national impact of a successful
candidacy is not something he thinks much about. He ascribes to the down-toearth-view
that “history has a way of making you a footnote.”
Still, he clearly recognizes the potential of the open seat. It’s a golden opportunity
to turn Maryland purple.
“I hope to win the election if we decide to push forward and run. If we did it
would be huge. It would be a paradigm shift. Republicans are more than for real in
Maryland. We’re in a position to present options, to give Maryland citizens the
kinds of choices they have not had for more than a generation.”
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policies, given circumstances.
But when you go beyond that, whether
at the federal or state level,
that’s when businesses tend to
contract and people lose jobs.
”
www.smartceo.com August 2005 Baltimore SmartCEO 39