Maryland: The Governor Raiseth

...Although his selection by the legislators was almost assured, Mandel had another debt to collect: as chairman of the Democratic Party during the 1968 election, he had been responsible for the distribution of money for the Humphrey campaign, most of which went to the organizations with which the legislators were affiliated...

...The committees have been better structured to process legislation...

...The land buyer is concerned less with potential competitors for the land than with winning the cooperation of both public and private officials: zoning commissioners, road designers, money lenders, and potential developers...

...The leases, in turn, are to finance approximately $500 million worth of capital improvements at the airport, another major source of contributions...

...Kovens, for example, has a reputation as a man willing to cut others in on a deal...

...They developed what seems to be turning into a standard tactic, the pre-primary testimonial dinner held well before the election...

...delegates vote for or against abortion bills but join forces on insurance matters...

...The success of Governor Mandel’s associates in lining up liberal donors in the old-line camp created a major overlap between Mandel money and Tydings money...

...2) the contractors, developers, consultants, and real estate dealers who gear their activities to state projects...

...The major regulation in Maryland is a blanket prohibition on contributions totaling more than $2,500 in any election by any corporation, individual, or union...

...Cultivating the Constituency The three men who systemized the use of money in the Maryland campaign represent the areas that are most essential to the process...

...Mandel and his associates recognized the elimination of the bloc vote and concentrated on the one variable they could control-money...

...The problem was to assure his actual election in 1970...

...The absorption of the powers of the boss has had an extremely significant effect on the processes and style of state government...

...It is an accepted practice, but Shriver was dependent to a much larger degree than Mandel on the type of contributor who is concerned with maintaining the appearance of propriety and who is, therefore, the most difficult to persuade to use these techniques...

...The three men approached every known “giver” and succeeded in raising adequate funds to conduct a primary before the election began...

...The Monev Vacuum The result of these maneuverings was Mandel’s election to a four-year term in office...

...Governor Mandel’s handling of the Humphrey money in the state in 1968 had been the subject of a federal grand jury investigation, and to avoid any possible complications in 1970, he went beyond the letter of the law and reported all purchasers of tickets to his pre-primary testimonial...

...the fight developed over the Governor’s insistence that he gain ultimate control over the entire process of letting contracts...

...On the surface, the Governor’s position was that centralized control would permit better coordination of the program and the creation of uniform standards...

...and 3) the large banks, law firms, and insurance companies that want to maintain their control over the methods used to sell bonds and to store monies...

...Tydings based his campaign on opposition to the special interests that dominated state government...

...If successful, it creates a steamroller effect: potential backers who are reluctant to support anyone early in a campaign are forced to consider the possibility that further delay could turn them into latecomers...

...Although important as a means of raising money, the testimonial dinner serves other essential functions...

...The vast majority of legislation continues to be unrelated to the needs and interests of the general population...

...he also reduced the resources of potential opponents now holding office in local governments...

...It does not apply to contributions made at fund-raising events held before the politician officially files his candidacy for election...

...Rodgers’ cultivation of contacts through his political activities has turned Tidewater into one of the leading insurance companies in the state...

...Sargent Shriver, the former ambassador to France, who was considering making a challenge, discovered that the available sources of money had been dried up before he was able to announce his candidacy...

...The Triangle Trade ~ ~~ The political boss was, then, the third point in the triangular relationship between the financial interests and the candidates..He was the vehicle to the vote, particularly in a predominantly Democratic state where a guarantee of a large turnout for a specific candidate in a primary election often assured final victory...

...the participation of the attorney general and chief judge of the state district court system in a Florida land investment scheme...

...In the recent elections in Baltimore city-the largest political entity next to the state-Kovens raised the funds for the successful campaign of the man who will probably be the city’s last white mayor...

...He is a real estate speculator who profited from advance knowledge of pending decisions of the state roads commission...

...The money, in turn, financed the printing of ballots and the “walking around” expenses of precinct and ward workers...

...at another level, the Governor was that corporations donate to the campaigns of the politician who has the final say over their business activities...

...In the pre-primary period, there is a specific group which can be drawn on for support...

...In the past the contributors usually played an essentially passive role, permitting local bosses and organizations to select candidates, and then giving to whichever candidate appeared most likely to win, hedging their bets in close contests by backing two or more candidates for the same office...

...Mandel’s election is the first in the state in which the vacuum of power created by the decline of the boss has been recognized and filled by those who understand the consequent increase in the importance of money...

...Much of the financial establishment tends to be very close-mouthed about any questionable activities in government, largely because it is in their interest to see that whatever problems arise are settled “in house” without any public controversy...

...special interests were provided the advantage of dealing with a private power over public questions...

...These interests can be broken down into three general categories: 1) the stateregulated industries, including liquor outlets and manufacturers, nursing homes, race tracks, and finance companies...

...The reasons for the decline of the machine are well known: civil service replaced patronage, television appealed directly to the voter, the ethnic vote began to dissolve as education improved and as people moved to the suburbs...

...State officials have encouraged the process of permitting local and federal governments to become focal points for social questions while issues at the state level remain isolated from the public...

...Hess’ real estate ventures have been so lucrative that they have been submerged in a myriad of corporations...

...Tydings became the advocate of unity and cooperation within the Democratic Party, counseling Shriver behind closed doors not to run, telling his supporters not to help Shriver even indirectly, opposing a reform challenge which would force him into the conflict not only as a candidate seeking votes but also as a candidate seeking cash...

...But within their present political world-those who feel the need to protect their interests through contributions-business and the techniques used to achieve it are respected...

...The boss was rarely interested in broad policy questions and could often control his constituency with the promise of jobs...

...In fact, they represent only the imposition of corporate efficiency on institutions which are now more directly attuned to the needs of business...

...More than any other level of government, the state has remained insulated from pressures to go beyond the role of arbiter of demands for wider markets and increased profits by various industries...

...By refusing to work within the confines of the Democratic Party, Mitchell has become a threat to the ability of Mandel and Kovens to insure that their political dominance will continue to extend into the black community...

...He avoided taking stands on public issues, specializing instead on the manipulation of votes and legislation...

...The magnitude of this decline can be seen in the fact that in 1950 a powerful Democratic boss in Maryland, Jack Pollack, threw the gubernatorial election to the Republican candidate in retaliation for the ousting of one of his associates from the state central committee...

...Mandel had never been a major vote-getter in his own legislative district, the fifth, a predominantly Jewish section of Baltimore...

...Men like Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr., Frank Kelly, and Jack Pollack of Baltimore began as city workers, prizefighters, or laborers...

...Mandel’s supporters also used the state election law to advantage...

...and the present lieutenant governor’s extensive landholdings in the suburban Washington area...

...The press is neither equipped nor inclined to raise the general question of the obligation of officials to their constituents...

...The sources of cash for the candidates have been...

...The election represented the resurgence- within the Democratic Party of most of the financial interests which had been influential through the 1950s and early 1960s...

...Since his retirement from the House, Hess has taken over public relations for Tidewater...

...The combined effort of Kovens, Hess, and Rodgers to raise money for Governor Mandel effectively put Mandel over the most critical phase of his 1970 campaign...

...it also exemplified the resurgence of money as the controlling factor in elections...

...The maneuver forced him to run with the descendants of those he had defeated...

...In Maryland, this was typified by the election in 1964 of Joseph Tydings to the U. S. Senate...

...A Speculative Investment If the initial phase is successful, as it was in the case of Mandel‘s testimonial, when he raised over $600,000 nine months before the primary, the pressure is applied to swing the more secure potential contributors into line...

...The natural guideline used by the secure group to determine a candidate’s chances is the amount of money already collected...

...the same forces behind the decline of the machine are acting to prevent the formation of black organizations with any degree of independence from predominantly white sources of financial support...

...Rodgers, Hess, and Kovens have developed the ability to identify and cultivate the “constituency” from which money can be raised...

...Although rural political brokers often grew out of local elites, in urban areas the boss often rose directly from his own constituency...

...Despite whatever assurances they may have received, those who had already given to the Mandel testimonial were reluctant to contribute to anyone else, since there was some apprehension that the second donation might be illegal...

...But whatever his inclinations, it was necessary for the boss to force compromises or he would be treated as easy game...

...The knowledge is shared, particularly among the ambitious, of the strength of controlled political money...

...This group is composed of the contractors who have dealt so long with state officials that they know the middle-level bureaucracy cannot turn against them...

...Faced with a primary fight, the opposition of the gun lobby, the suspicion of liberals over his sponsorship of preventive detention legislation and a possible split within his party, Tydings chose to line up on the side where he shared financial support-with Governor Mandel, the heir of the machine he ran against in 1964...

...They knew that the increased cost of campaigns made that variable even more important...

...Incidental complaints are made, but the overall view of the press is favorable towards the changing face of state government...

...But equally important was the fact that Tydings permitted himself to be outflanked by the same interests he opposed in 1964...

...As the machine leaders developed their own interests, such as construction firms or real estate, the bargaining often expanded to include the promise of contracts for beneficial land deals...

...The vulnerable money sources in Maryland have developed a unity of interest with a major element of the Democratic Party, a unity which is based on land speculation and the ancillary means of profit: insurance, marginally regulated lending companies, legal fees, and contracting...

...Yet in 1971, the same boss was only able to deliver enough votes for his candidate for the presidency of the Baltimore City Council to run a weak fourth in the Democratic primary...

...This has proved to be to the advantage of Governor Mandel for several reasons...

...Kovens’ backing of Russell is an attempt to capitalize on this weakness within the black community while internal competition still makes it most vulnerable...

...Without the advantage of incumbency, Mandel would have been an unlikely candidate...

...There was no real opposition to the concept of the proposal...

...The doubt, in turn, was reflected in newspaper stories...

...This forced the boss, who was caught between the two, to at least compromise...

...The business community, including the newspapers, has always viewed with distaste the necessity of dealing with the political hacks who filled city councils, legislatures, and the governor’s office...

...the governor has centralized control over the chaotic complex of agencies through the creation of cabinet-level posts to oversee the various functions of state government...

...He not only developed a new area to finance a 1974 campaign...

...The difference, however, is that these interests, through the guiding hands of Kovens, Hess, and Rodgers, are no longer dependent on the bosses and organizations as they were 10 years ago...

...If these men had been bosses, their activities would have damaged their credibility within their constituencies, particularly if the outward signs of their success were as visible as, for example, Kovens’ chauffeur-driven Cadillac...

...TWQ of the bills Governor Mandel fought hardest for in the state legislature last winter combined his interest in maintaining control of political money with his concern for increasing the appearance of efficiency...

...Unlike the Irish and Italians, blacks are at the point of winning majority political power at a time when they must depend on money to finance television campaigns...

...The importance of money in 1972 is not particularly noteworthy in itself, since politicians, with rare exceptions, have always depended on cash to win elections...

...There is in Maryland what might be described as a residue of liberal givers, centered in Baltimore and suburban Washington areas...

...They also like to avoid any major misuse of money, which becomes public knowledge, thus jeopardizing the state’s bond rating, and consequently its ability to finance new construction...

...They include men like Jerold Hoffberger, whose decision to back a candidate is significant not only in itself but also because it will prompt lesser liberal money to flow in the same direction...

...To prevent the development of significant opposition well before the 1970 Democratic primary, Mandel’s associates began immediately to line up the support of the approximately 1,000 corporations and officials of corporations who can be depended upon to kick in $500 or more to state campaigns...

...the inclusion of former Governor Agnew in a limited partnership investing in the Virgin Islands...

...W. Dale Hess is the former majority whip of the House of Delegates...

...The legislators now look less like ward heelers and more like department store managers...

...The vulnerability of this group is one of the major advantages held by an incumbent running for reelection...

...rank and file of the Democratic Party...

...In the cities, these voters were most often working class, and their concerns-the right to organize, minimum wages, and even the right to a fair deal at the race tracks-often conflicted with the monied interests...

...In most cases, however, the local machine merely bargained with various candidates over the price of votes, and the votes were paid for with money and jobs...

...The make-up of the constituency is always changing, depending upon a number of factors, the most important of which is the time period of the campaign...

...These institutions haye now been made more acceptable, and the lines of authority and responsibility have been defined in patterns following systems developed in private enterprise...

...In the one-sided competition for financial support between Mandel and Shriver, another factor working in Mandel’s favor was the fact that the ceiling on contributions has a built-in loophole: anyone who wants to exceed the ceiling can give additional money to his wife, child, or secretary, who in turn gives it to the candidate...

...If the law were tightened up to cover the period before the formal announcement, the incumbent would continue to have a major advantage in that he could bring more pressure to bear on donors to give the maximum well before the campaign begins, thereby eliminating them as potential sources of support for his opponent...

...instead, the measures are most often directed to the profit relationships of two related business endeavors: should the savings and loans be given a rate advantage over the commercial banks, should changes in the insurance legislation benefit the agents, the underwriters, or, best of all, both...

...Another more subtle limitation was the background of the boss himself...

...As a legislator, he developed wide contacts with the state’s lobbyists...

...Seeking the Cash The talent that Rodgers, Hess, and Kovens bring to this scene is an extension of past success in their own business ventures...

...The dinner is held while the incumbent has at least six months, and preferably more, to go in his term so that all those firms with interest in the day-to-day decisions of current government-contractors with pending “extras,” for example-will be more inclined to line up behind him...

...Maryland: The Governor Raiseth by Thomas B. Edsall With the decline of organization control of large blocs of votes and a waning reform movement in the Democratic Party, a quiet transfer of power is taking place in Maryland politics, a transfer based on the use of money as an exclusive force in winning office...

...Harry Rodgers, 111 is the president of Tidewater Insurance Company, a firm providing coverage to government employees and corporations that do business with the state or are concerned with state regulatory activities...

...the jobs kept the workers employed between elections...

...While the defeat of Tydings shows the negative effects of political money, the use of the same force to win is reflected in the 1970 election of Governor Mandel...

...he was associated in the public mind with the secretiveness characteristic of the legislative process in the state capital...

...Cementing Control Governor Mandel has portrayed himself as an integral part of this change: a northwest Baltimore political functionary who learned the ropes and developed the skills to outgrow the machine...

...and continue to Thomas B. Edsall is a political reporter for The Baltimore Sun...

...Hess had already been active in Mr...

...Perhaps most important of all is the necessity of giving the incumbent, particularly an untested one such as Mandel, credibility within the financial community-to make it appear that his stock is rising and that now is the time to buy in before the price becomes prohibitive...

...It is composed of the corporations and men who are financially dependent on the discretionary powers of state officials: consulting engineers and architects who do not bid competitively for contracts, real estate dealers whose investments depend on road routes and interchanges, liquor people concerned with the diligence of inspectors, insurance companies seeking higher rate scales...

...This was a major blow toshriver, but it also was a big factor in the decision of Senator Tydings to make an about-face from the style of his campaign of 1964...

...government bureaucracies were overloaded with incompetents appointed for their loyalty rather than their ability...

...Aside from lining up contributors, candidates had always been required to seek out the support of the local political machines, which also had to be paid off...

...Kovens recently sold his race track for a profit of $5.7 million...

...This gives the incumbent running for reelection leverage to collect twice from those who think it is economically wise to contribute: once (or more) during the pre-announcement phase, and secondly after the formal campaign begins...

...he has a ready source available to try to create the steamroller effect at the appropriate moment...

...Iivin Kovens is the former owner of the Charlestown, West Virginia, race track, which draws heavily on Maryland racing enthusiasts, and the operator of M. Kovens Company, a large installment sales company...

...This shift in the superficial appearance of state leadership has insulated the politician from some criticism in the press...

...Contrary to the expectations of those who were optimistic following the decline of the political machine, these techniques have given a small number of people even greater influence, without the restrictions that applied to the power held by bosses in the first half of the century . An examination of this transfer requires some history of power centers in elections and an explanation of the failure of efforts in the 1960s to reform state politics, a failure based in part on the internal contradictions between the claimed aims of the reformers and their sources of financial support...

...The degree to which this atmosphere has absorbed public officials is reflected in the Governor’s former ownership of a real estate company and savings and loan firm, both of which were used for speculative investment...

...The encouragement of cooperation within the ethic of speculation has served to increase its attractiveness to contributors and politicians alike...

...But the significance of recent developments lies in the techniques that those with money, or with access to it, have developed...

...The second measure had the identical intent: it gave the governor veto power over the leases to be arranged with the airlines using Friendship International Airport...

...The first bill provided for the state takeover of the cost of local school construction...

...Lining Up The Cast This decline coincided with the focus in the 1960s on such issues as civil rights and poverty...

...These changes are portrayed by the elected leaders and by the press as if they represent major alterations in the function and direction of state government...

...The threat has been increased by the growing evidence of Mitchell’s willingness in local elections to support candidates running against those put up by the established black clubs...

...Until 1970, this process had still not been altered in recognition of the reduction of the organization-controlled vote...

...be, the various interests affected by the actions of state government...

...The continued control of elective politics by the small group of men who can manipulate existing sources of money is unlikely to be altered as long as state government remains in large part an appendage of the business community...

...As Governor Mandel continues to expand his resources for reelection, the men behind him are in the process of acquiring an interest in an increasing number of politicians...

...Although his opponent in the Democratic primary was Louis Goldstein, he campaigned against the incumbent governor, J. Millard Tawes, and a beer lobbyist influential in the Tawes administration, George Hocker, treating Goldstein as a tool of the “Hocker-Tawes machine...

...Tydings’ failure to win reelection in 1970 can be attributed to a number of factors: his support of civil rights, the opposition of the gun lobby, his failure to build up a reform element within the...

...Clearly, in the two-stage process of winning first the vulnerable money and then the secure money, the first step is the more important...

...Mandel’s elevation to the governor’ship was unremarkable except in its long-term significance: the special interests that once had depended on Agnew, whose political future within the state was tenuous, now had a member of the majority party in office...

...instead, he needed only a majority of the 185 senators and delegates who depended on him, as House speaker, for passage of their legislation...

...The system, however, provided one major limitation on the ability of the boss to influence public decisions with impunity: he had to maintain the allegiance of those who would go to the polls every election and vote the way they had been told...

...The elevation of Mandel to the governor’s office in 1969 had been the result of a political accident: the selection of Spiro T. Agnew as the Republican vice-presidential candidate...

...The elimination of the old-style boss control of politicians has given an air of propriety to what remains the same legislative process...

...Passage of the bill meant, in effect, that Mandel had shifted a major source of contributions-school architects and contractors-from the level of mayors and county executives to the gubernatorial level...

...In addition, they proved that stricter elections laws made it easier, rather than more difficult, to corner the market on contributions...

...Although Mandel might well have been the choice of the machines of earlier days, the power of giving initial approval to his candidacy would have rested with the bosses instead of the money brokers...

...Orlinsky’s campaign . This steady acquisition of politicians has created a forced unity among elected officials which supersedes conflicting ideologies and differing constituencies...

...the banks and bonding companies so prestigious that no governor would attempt to offend them...

...In local elections the machines often tried to win seats, and in isolated cases a particular machine’s candidate might run for statewide office...

...the law firms with former partners secure on the civil and criminal benches...

...city councilmen differ over free school lunches but back each other’s zoning bills...

...Mandel did not have to win a general election to become governor...

...Assured of maintaining their income sources from the state, these groups are primarily interested in preventing any tampering with the overall system of state budgeting...

...it was a period when a vacuum of entrenched power permitted the development of a political climate appropriate for the election of what were considered reformers...

...Hoffberger, as president of the company producing National Beer and Colt 45 and as the owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, is not in a position to completely alienate influential state politicians, and once the Mandel campaign began moving, he joined the supporters...

...There he had been able to depend on his religious identification and the support of the two major political factions...

...Aware, however, of the growing political strength of the blacks, who now comprise just under 48 per cent of the city, Kovens has offered his money-raising talents to the black candidate defeated in the 1971 mayoral election, George L. Russell, Jr., who is considering a 1972 challenge of Parren J. Mitchell, the state’s first black congressman...

...One of the characteristics of this speculative atmosphere is that those who operate within it encourage cooperation as much as, if not more than competition...

...On the surface, the legislative and executive branches have been made more efficient...

...The boss also became the intermediary between the money and the men who ended up winning the elections-the city councilmen, state delegates, and state senators whose votes were essential on zoning, bond, and budget questions...

...There are obvious criticisms to be made of this system, all justified...

...Kovens was unsuccesful in his effort to control the election of the Baltimore city council president, but he has recouped the loss by volunteering to help raise the money to pay off the $33,000 debt incurred by the winner, Walter S. Orlinsky...

...the boss, through his business activities, often became a special interest himself...

...At the same time, however, his aides encouraged reporters to believe that there was some doubt about the interpretation of the law...

...Although the successful boss had always been inclined to join ranks with the bankers and contractors, he also enjoyed compelling privileged classes to seek out the favors of the urban minorities...