ANNAPOLIS — Coming soon, to your television set — Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. selling hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant and wiping down vehicles as they emerge from a car wash.
Tune in on the radio and you might catch the governor cracking jokes or answering telephones alongside a disk jockey on a talk show.
Mr. Ehrlich, to a degree much greater than any of his predecessors, is going beyond the traditional news media outlets to reach Maryland voters to promote himself and his programs.
The governor writes a column that is printed by some weekly newspapers and offers exclusive interviews in his Annapolis office to reporters from daily newspapers outside the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
He also drops in for interviews at radio and television stations and meets with editors at newspapers as he travels through rural areas of the state, said Paul Schurick, Mr. Ehrlich’s communications director. The goal is to reach reporters who are not in Annapolis and don’t have access to the governor on a regular basis.
“What he has always done is down-to-earth communication with the voters,” Mr. Schurick said. “He feels that the closer he gets to the voters, the better his message is communicated.”
Mr. Ehrlich’s personality and style are a good fit with his nontraditional use of the media. He is an articulate and self-assured man who loves to clown around and crack jokes, sometimes at his own expense.
He had no qualms about taping sequences for a locally produced humorous show that is scheduled to begin running some time this fall on WMAR-TV in Baltimore.
In one episode, viewers will see Mr. Ehrlich drying cars as they emerge from a car wash. In another, he waits on customers at the drive-in window at a fast-food restaurant.
“We had him sitting [in the restaurant] as an alleged trainee,” said John Ehrhart, one of the producers for Adventure Productions, the Baltimore-based company that produces the show.
“People picked up their food. They see the governor there,” Mr. Ehrhart said. “I don’t think [customers] believed their own eyes. They were quite stunned.”
Mr. Ehrlich joked with customers that “the first lady’s going a little wild on spending, and I need a little extra cash for the household,” Mr. Ehrhart said.
Mr. Ehrlich’s frequent appearances on radio shows began when he was a member of Congress.
He has been a frequent guest on Ron Smith’s talk show on WBAL Radio. Now he’s on every other Thursday.
“Over the years he’s been on my show a lot,” Mr. Smith said. “He’s as comfortable doing radio as he is getting lunch.”
Mr. Ehrlich also is a frequent caller to the “Rouse and Company” morning show on WQSR Radio in Baltimore, engaging in banter with host Steve Rouse and even invited the show’s crew to Annapolis to broadcast a show from the governor’s mansion earlier this summer.
“He and Steve Rouse share the same funny bone. They tell a lot of jokes, often at each other’s expense,” Mr. Schurick said.
But they also sometimes engage in serious discussion of public policy issues, he said.
Mr. Ehrlich also calls in regularly to other talks shows, Mr. Schurick said.
“He’ll decide one minute to pick up the phone and call,” Mr. Schurick said. “He does it from the car. He does it from home.”
Frequent radio appearances allow the governor “to talk directly to the voters without being filtered through the mainstream media,” Mr. Smith said. “He talks to his base and talks to his base directly in that way.
“It’s just been a sound strategy, and he’s very comfortable doing it,” Mr. Smith said.
Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists based in St. Petersburg, Fla., said Mr. Ehrlich is part of a national trend in which candidates and elected officials are going beyond newspapers, radio and television newscasts to spread their message.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement of his candidacy for governor of California on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” is the latest example, Mr. Clark said.
“Did he show up at the door of the Los Angeles Times with a copy of a platform in his hand? No, he showed up on the set of the Jay Leno show,” Mr. Clark said. “Is Jay Leno going to be the one who asks Arnold Schwarzenegger very tough questions about his personal background and his political ideas? There’s little chance of that.”
Mr. Ehrlich’s predecessor, Parris N. Glendening, relied more on traditional news media formats to get out his message. His staff sometimes planned events at scenic locations that would look good on evening television newscasts, especially waterside locations that underscored his emphasis on protecting the environment.
But Mr. Ehrhart said it would be hard to imagine Mr. Glendening selling burgers at a fast-food joint.
Mr. Schurick said Mr. Ehrlich will continue to use the full range of media outlets available to him.
“In his 17 years in politics, that is what he’s always done,” Mr. Schurick said. “It’s an easier, quicker and better way of communicating with the voters.”
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