Steele shares reasons for running

Lt. Gov. candidate Michael Steele discussed his motivations for running in the 2002 election with the News-Letter.

News-Letter: What made you decide to become Congressman Ehrlich's running mate?

Michael Steele Well, him. He made that decision. I was sitting around minding my own business. He called up and said, "Hey, what are you doing for the next four years?"

Bob and I have known each other for ten years and he's a buddy. We didn't have to go through all the formalities that you normally do in all those situations. We didn't have that formal introduction, sitting there stoically waiting for the question. It didn't happen. We just kind of sat in a room and we talked. And I asked him very pointedly one question: Am I going to be a partner in your administration, or am I going to be a participant? [I meant] am I going to be able to do substantive stuff of real import to the people of this state, or do I just get to go to funerals and cut ribbons? And if it's going to funerals and cutting ribbons, I was not his man. But if it was something else, I would be there.

He looked at me and said, "We're partners and we're going to work to rebuild this state together." So I'm in it for the long haul and I'm really excited to be on the ticket.

N-L: Since you and Congressman Ehrlich will be in this partnership, how do you anticipate working with a statehouse dominated by Democrats?

MS: Oh, it's going to be fun. I can assure you that Bob and I won't be going home in the evening with angina. It'll be the other side What do we have to lose? The governor of Maryland is the most powerful governor in the United States. You know why? Because the governor sets the budget. And the only thing the legislators can do is take from it. They can't add to it, they can't multiply, they can't divide D they can only subtract. And so if you do your numbers right, you have a lot more control over the outcome than you might think. So at budget time, they're going to please the governor, because all their pet projects at home they want to get funded and all the promises they made this year for next year require dollars.

Having said that, the idea is not to go into Annapolis cocky but to go in there to build a relationship with the opposition, in part to create a coalition government so that good things can get done. But at the end of the day, you're still dealing with partisanship. That should not stop us from trying to work in the best interest of the people of Maryland, because that's why we're sent there. In the process of building that relationship, we hope we get along.

But I'm not a big fan of gridlock. I'm just about the people's business. If you're about the people's business, then we'll get along famously. If not, then I'll call you out on it. We have a little amount of time to do a lot of work. So the idea is to build coalitions, to work with the legislators who are willing to work with us, hopefully in the process change some hearts and minds but always focus on doing the people's business.

N-L: Early in the campaign, you received some criticism for maintaining your post as chairman of the Maryland Republican Party while being the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor. How do you respond to that criticism?

MS: A brother's gotta get paid. I'm a workingman. No one's paying my mortgage. I don't have a trust fund. I don't have a lucrative pension. I'm an entrepreneur.

When I became state party chairman, one of the first things I did was put in place a strategic, ten-year plan to grow the party and to win elections this fall.

When I left [to join the campaign], the party leaders came to me and said "We still want you to help us implement this plan."

I said, "Sure, but it will cost you." And so I gave them my number, and they said, "Okay, we can live with that." That's all it was, simple as that. There's no conflict of interest, there's nothing unethical about it, there' s nothing immoral about it, there's nothing illegal about it. But of course, our opponents like to make much more of these things.

Remember, I'm the one who went after [State Senate President] Mike Miller and a lot of Democrats on ethics charges because they behaved unethically. They contacted judges illegally to try to persuade them to draw a map for Maryland that was more favorable to them. That's unethical, that's illegal, that's immoral. And there's a big difference between doing that and consulting to the state party.