Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown addresses family and friends at his primary campaign party at the University of Maryland’s Riggs Alumni Center on June 24, 2014.
The two candidates for governor clashed last week when Republican Larry Hogan demanded television stations stop airing an advertisement from Democrat Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown claiming Hogan “supported massive college tuition increases.”
The ad, which was the first televised campaign ad in the general election race, began airing on Baltimore network stations on Aug. 22.
Hogan’s campaign sent a letter to the television stations the following day calling the accusation “demonstrably false” and demanding the ad be pulled off the air.
“Hogan has never had any involvement in tuition hikes and has never supported any tuition hikes whatsoever,” the letter read.
As of Sunday, none of the stations had stopped airing the ad.
The Maryland Republican Party released a poll on August 22 showing Brown holding a slim lead, 45 percent to 42 percent. Hogan said he believes Brown’s attack ad was a response to the recent polls.
The ad cites a Washington Post article from October 2003 when making the claim against Hogan. At the time, Hogan was serving as state cabinet secretary under former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, and was responsible for making state government appointments.
The 2003 article does not mention Hogan. It says one of Ehrlich’s appointments to the Board of Regents, Richard E. Hug, was urging his colleagues to consider tuition hikes for all Maryland state schools and an $8,300 tuition increase at this university, more than doubling the 2003 cost of attendance over five to six years.
Hogan campaign spokesman Adam Dubitsky said Hogan’s job in the Ehrlich administration was in no way related to education or tuition costs. He said Hug was not speaking on behalf of Ehrlich or anyone in his administration when he advocated doubling tuition.
“It’s really just cynical for him to pander to younger voters by lying about Larry’s record when it comes to tuition,” Dubitsky said. “We can have honest disagreement about policy, about issues, about education, about taxes, about growing the economy, but to run an ad saying that Larry Hogan supports a tuition increase when he’s never said any such thing … is entirely false and it’s dishonest.”
Meanwhile, the Brown campaign argued that, as part of the Ehrlich administration, Hogan should take accountability for the policies that were enacted.
“Larry Hogan was a senior official responsible for appointments to the Board of Regents and he doesn’t get to hide from his record,” said Brown’s campaign manager Justin Schall. “Hogan wants to have it both ways by taking credit for policies when they are popular and distancing himself when they aren’t. But in this case, Larry Hogan’s job was to lead the effort to appoint the majority of members of the Board of Regents where they increased college tuition rates by 40 percent.”
Hug’s proposed tuition hike in 2003 was not approved, but tuition and fees for in-state students at this university did grow by more than $1,500 during the four years Ehrlich served as governor, according to the university’s budget records.
In the two terms Gov. Martin O’Malley has served with Brown as lieutenant governor, in-state tuition and fees have increased slightly more than $1,000, according to budget records.
O’Malley froze tuition between 2007 and 2010, following the nation’s economic recession, and has made 3 percent increases each year since 2010. Brown has pledged to continue the 3 percent annual increases and not make any additional tuition hikes.
Hogan has not publicly voiced his stance on college tuition, but Dubitsky said keeping costs down is a priority for the candidate.
Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s) was a member of the Board of Regents in 2003 and was opposed to Hug’s proposed hikes. He said he fully supports the O’Malley-Brown administration’s actions on tuition prices.
Rosapepe endorsed Brown for the November election, saying he represents the better choice for students.
“This is not an idle promise by someone that doesn’t have a record,” he said of Brown’s pledge to keep tuition rates down. “This is a promise of someone who, as part of the O’Malley administration, was an integral part of a very successful strategy to make college more affordable.”
Hogan debuted his first television ad on Aug. 25 but made no mention of college tuition. The ad laid out the candidate’s plan for bringing jobs to the middle class by reducing government spending and cutting taxes. It also criticized the O’Malley-Brown administration, saying, “They never met a tax they didn’t like, or at least one they didn’t hike.
Student Government Association President Patrick Ronk said the “controversy” surrounding Brown’s ad isn’t how he hoped the discussion of tuition would be brought up, but he said he said he is pleased to see the candidates debating the issue.
“It can now become a seminal moment of the campaign and it’s around the issue of college affordability,” Ronk said. “Now both candidates are saying they want to keep college affordable; they want to keep tuition low, because of this so they’re kind of fighting over who would be better for students, which is never a bad thing.”
Due to an editing mistake, a previous version of this story stated incorrectly that Richard E. Hug urged his colleagues to consider a 33 percent tuition increase at this university from fall 2002 to fall 2003, according to an article in the Washington Post. That percentage increase has been corrected to “an $8,300 tuition increase at this university, more than doubling the cost of attendance ….”
