Politics

Springtime For Parris

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 12, 2000 / 9:19 AM EDT / CBS

Gov. Parris Glendening is an unlikely figure for the national spotlight.

But Glendening's growing national stature - which got a boost this month from Maryland's passage of America's most far-reaching gun law - has stirred speculation that he is a prime candidate for a cabinet position in a possible Gore administration.

Glendening, a former college professor who sometimes seems awkard in front of cameras, received the ultimate compliment Tuesday as he signed the anti-gun measures into law: President Clinton's hand on his shoulder.

"It's astonishing. In almost everything I have tried to accomplish as president, Maryland has been out there at the forefront of change, ahead of every other state in virtually every area," Mr. Clinton said during the bill-signing in the Maryland State House in the center of Annapolis.

Using the clout of his office, and working the classic tit-for-tat angles that have long defined the Maryland statehouse, which convenes for 90 days each Spring, the second-term governor pushed through the nation's first law requiring built-in locks on all new handguns sold after Jan. 1, 2003 - not to mention "ballistic fingerprinting" of shell casings fired from all new handguns.

"I certainly will be urging (Gore) to consider our governor for a high-level position" if he wins the presidency, said Rep. Albert R. Wynn, D-Maryland. "I think he's got the best record of any governor in the United States."

Gore is a fan of Glendening's "Smart Growth" plan to curb suburban sprawl by concentrating growth in areas that already have been developed. Maryland, a small state which has grown at breakneck speed - along with number of suburban-inclined federal employees and contractors - over the past thirty years, is coping with the disappearance of its once abundant green spaces and forested land. Despite raising hackles among the state's suburban Republicans, for example, the governor has all but killed a plan to build a new highway north of Washington, DC, called the Inter-County Connector.

Finding the limelight has not always been easy. Glendening seemed on the verge of losing office in 1998, with some of the lowest approval ratings of any governor in America. But he rebounded after he launched ads masterminded by political consultant Bob Shrum, who now consults for Gore.

In September 1998, the Monica Lewinsky scandal generated some friction between the governor and president. Glendening criticized Mr. Clinton, canceled a fund-raiser with him and declined to appear with the president at a school in the Washington suburbs. One month later, after President Clinton apologized to the nation, the two made up and campaigned together.

And in 1994, he was widely criticized for running a clumsy race, winning office by the slimmest of margins - about 6,000 votes - in a state which traditionally elects Democrats by wide margins.

Glendening's clumsiness in front of the cameras also has ost him. The National Rifle Association used footage of the governor fumbling with a push-button combination lock on a handgun in a recent TV ad attacking his gun bill. The governor's speaking style seems more suited for lecture halls - he was a professor of government at the University of Maryland before entering politics.

But these days, the man who almost lost to a conservative Republican in one of America's most Democratic states has breathed new life into his political career.

Part of Glendening's success, it must be said, is due to his sweeping budget powers. Few other governors have such complete control over state dollars; the Legislature can remove money but is unable to add a penny or shift money around in the budget. This year, Glendening had a budget surplus of nearly $1 billion at his disposal and admitted that he doled out pork-barrel projects to lawmakers who helped push his gun bill through.

This admission may make him politically vulnerable to budget hawks and campaign finance reformers, but in the old-school ways of the state's politics, the results themselves will also be well looked-upon.