Credit Christopher Connelly/WYPR

Pocketbook issues dominated Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate, the first time the Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Republican Larry Hogan shared a stage in this contentious race for the governor’s mansion. The two laid out very different assessments of Maryland’s economy over the hour-long debate, and criticized each other’s plans.

In Anthony Brown’s Maryland, the state has weathered a terrible recession while preserving strategic investments. There’s room for improvement, sure, but the fundamentals are strong.

“We’ve built the best in the nation public schools, we lead the nation in college affordability,” Brown said. “We’ve driven crime down to levels we haven’t seen in four decades and we’re one of only six states that have come through the great recession with a AAA bond rating.”

Larry Hogan sees a state hemorrhaging jobs and small businesses, a state with runaway spending that’s been leveraged on the backs of taxpayers.

“I’m running because I want to get the government off our backs, out of our pockets so we can grow the private sector, put people back to work and turn our economy around,” Hogan said.

So whose version of the state’s economy is right? Todd Eberly, a political scientist at St. Mary’s College, says they both are, partially.

“Both of these men are sort of choosing to look at the aspect of the economy that best suits their message. Neither are being disingenuous or dishonest,” Eberly said.

Recent polling shows pocketbook issues are at the top of voters’ minds this year, says Melissa Deckman, a political scientist at Washington College. She says post-recession uncertainties surrounding the largely jobless recovery and stagnating wages are pervading political races across the country. “American politics is sort of infused with this sense of economic anxiety, which is playing out even in a state like Maryland that I think has done better in terms of the economic recovery than other states have,” Deckman said.

Goucher University’s Mileah Kromer says Marylanders feel like they’ve been losing ground. Her Goucher Poll found about three quarters of Marylanders think their personal finances have stagnated or worsened in the last year. And she says people are split over which party has better ideas for fixing things.

“This really does indicate that there is some sort of backlash against some of the democratic policies here in the state right now,” Kromer said.

At the same time, Kromer’s poll shows people are cautiously optimistic about the state’s economic future. But she says voters often look backward to decide who they want to elect, which might give Larry Hogan a chance to chip away at Brown’s built-in advantage in this very blue state.

“They look back and they think about their economic stance in the past. And if things are not better than they were years ago, they might turn around and look for something new and something fresh -- and that might be voting Republican in the upcoming election,” Kromer said.

So it makes sense that Brown some variation of this a number of times: “Under a Brown-Ulman administration, we will not raise any taxes,” Brown told the audience.

The line drew ire from Hogan. “The last time that you said there’s not going to be any taxes…was in the last election, when you and Martin O’Malley said exactly the same thing.” Hogan retorted. “And then you raised 40 taxes in a row, which crushed Maryland families and small businesses.”

Todd Eberly says tying Brown to Gov. O’Malley is a smart move for Hogan because it puts Brown in a bind: “He cannot talk about what he would do without opening himself up to Hogan then coming and saying ‘You were the Number Two man for the last eight years, where were all of these ideas then?’”

But Melissa Deckman says she thinks Brown shouldn’t be careful not to ignore the good things from the last eight years.

“The electorate in Maryland is very Democratic and it tends to be more left of center than right of center so I think lots of Marylanders would be willing to make the trade off to pay more in taxes and fees if it means keeping the best schools in Maryland, if it means having the most successful workforce,” she says.

Deckman says Brown just has to remind voters of the things the state has accomplished while he describes his plans for the future.

Copyright 2014 WYPR - 88.1 FM Baltimore