William Donald Schaefer, the longtime mayor of Baltimore who also served as governor and comptroller of Maryland, has died at the age of 89. The big-spending Schaefer was mostly liberal but he was also a character:
He addressed a newspaper editor with “Dear Edit-turd.” He answered one angry taxpayer’s letter with, “I’m glad you have recovered from your lobotomy.” He likened the conservative, rural Eastern Shore – which had not voted for him as governor – to an outhouse. He taunted his gubernatorial successor, Parris N. Glendening (D), by clucking and flapping his arms and calling him a chicken.
In Baltimore and Annapolis, he never tolerated dissent and rarely consulted legislators. He likened compromise to indecision. He was perpetually unsatisfied, once saying he thought himself a legislative failure “unless we get 105 percent of what we have proposed.”
He lost his last race for comptroller in 2006 when he called a female Democratic primary opponent “Mother Hubbard” and said she was ugly. Though a Democrat, he endorsed President George Bush for reelection in 1992 over Bill Clinton and was an ally of Robert Ehrlich, the state’s first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew.
