Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) and current Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) have more in common than you might think.
Both are graduates of Florida State University. And both got their starts in Prince George’s County politics — Glendening as a member of the Hyattsville City Council, and Hogan as an aide to his late father, former congressman and Prince George’s County executive Lawrence J. Hogan Sr. (R). Glendening served on the Prince George’s County Council when the elder Hogan was county executive, and was elected to succeed him when Hogan ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1982.
Later this year, Hogan will become chairman of the National Governors Association. The last Marylander to hold that office? Glendening. The two, according to Glendening, speak “fairly often.”
So what does Glendening think about the current speculation that Hogan could run for president in 2020? Here is the text of Glendnening’s remarks, recorded just before Hogan delivered his annual State of the State address on Wednesday:
“Does it make any sense to speculate about and for the press to write about it? I think the answer is yes. I think it’s actually good for the Republican Party as well to have a more moderate alternative [to Trump]. I mean — is their alternative going to be someone who has gone off the deep end on just about every issue or a Democrat that they may disagree with intensely? So a lot of Republicans ought to applaud this.
“At this time you have to give him a certain amount of credit.
“He and I talk fairly often, on policy issues. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he just says no. But on most of the things, he’s been somewhat center, not a real problem in terms of my ideology.
“For our little state it’s nice to have someone considered who is taken with some degrees of seriousness about it as well.
“The second part is: Can he succeed in the primary? My guess is no. Primarily because of who the [GOP] primary vote is across the country. Given that, I think it would be awful hard. But I always caution people when they were looking at the primary in 2016 and every analysis, every person, every time I would watch the Republican debates, everyone would say, ‘Trump can’t possibly win this.’ And there were people there like [former Florida governor] Jeb Bush who were good, solid [candidates] and would have been a good president. So when they say Hogan can’t possibly [win], I say, ‘That has a ring to it.’
“So the big issue, if somehow or other they through level one and level two, could he win? And I think that the answer there is almost certainly no. But not entirely so.
“And the reason I say ‘not entirely so,’ is it does depend on who [the Democrats] nominate.
“If, given the gaggle of people who are running [in the Democratic primary], if we end up with the most extreme left that is not really accepted by let’s say the Midwest, he (Hogan) could have a door, an opportunity.
“On the other hand, given the mood of the country I think we’ll win and win easily. Any left-of-center to center Democratic candidate will win. And win comfortably.”