O’Malley, too, deflected questions about a possible rematch in 2010.
‘‘Tonight is a night when we honor history and we honor tradition,” he said. ‘‘When you’re fortunate enough to be able to hold a high office that serves the people of our state, you have to appreciate the fact that that comes with a tremendous amount of tradition and history.”
Kendel Ehrlich, whose portrait will hang in Government House with other former first ladies, is depicted standing on a staircase in a strapless green gown with portraits of sons Drew and Josh over her left shoulder. Annapolis artist Moe Hanson, the first female to ever paint an official state portrait, called her ‘‘the dream subject” for allowing her almost infinite latitude.
Bob Ehrlich’s elementary school classmate Will Wilson painted the governor’s portrait, which shows him perched on his office desk next to three bills that Ehrlich considers his greatest legislative victories. One created the cabinet-level Department of Disabilities, another authorized the establishment of public charter schools, and the third is the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, which several wags considered an odd choice given that it’s so often referred to as the ‘‘flush tax.”
Ehrlich specifically thanked Miller, the Senate president, for helping to shepherd some of his agenda early in his term. ‘‘Without him, we couldn’t have gotten a lot done, and that’s the truth.”
— Alan Brody
We couldn’t resist noting ...
Norris was an eyebrow-raising pick for emcee.
With O’Malley and Ehrlich in the same room and the possibility of a rematch in 2010 hovering, maybe organizers figured they needed an ex-cop with little to lose to keep the peace.
What left us scratching our heads, however, was how Norris’ resume was described by our sister paper, the Washington Post. Those scribes detailed his high points — police commissioner for O’Malley, state police superintendent for Ehrlich — leaving out his conviction for misusing a Baltimore police discretionary fund to romance women other than his wife.
In any case, kudos to the Ehrlichs on living, not just talking about, their belief in redemption. And to the O’Malleys for civility.
— Margie Hyslop
Goin’ to the chapel
There’s been a lot to celebrate in the Ehrlich clan of late.
During a trip to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge several weeks ago, press secretary Henry Fawell popped the question to longtime girlfriend Jamie Smith, a former aide to budget secretary Cecilia Januszkiewicz.
‘‘There is to be no doubt as to who will be in charge of the family budget,” Fawell cracked.
The couple, who are planning a September 2009 wedding, celebrated in true Maryland style with soft-shell crabs and beer. ‘‘We would be the poster children for Maryland tourism,” Fawell said.
— Alan Brody
All hail Caesar?
On Wednesday, Miller held a 3:30 p.m. news conference to announce that he would run for re-election in 2010, despite hinting to the contrary early in this, his ninth term in the Senate.
As Miller made the announcement to reporters gathered in the Senate office building in Annapolis named for him, severe thunderstorms rolled across the state.
One of the hardest-hit areas was Miller’s hometown of Chesapeake Beach, where what could have been a small tornado pulled a roof from Traders Seafood Steak and Ale and damaged other buildings.
Was it a roaring endorsement from Mother Nature or something to the contrary?
House Minority Whip Chris Shank wasn’t sure.
‘‘I am a student of Roman history these days, and I know that the Roman Senate prior to going into any type of legislative activity would always check out the omens and have people check out the clouds and the patterns of the birds prior to any work they would do,” Shank said. ‘‘One could draw any conclusion that one wants from the meteorological phenomenon surrounding Sen. Miller’s announcement.”
— Sean R. Sedamand Alan Brody
What can Brown do for you?
Without a job description in the constitution, Maryland’s looie is truly the Jack (or Anthony, as the case may be) of all trades.
On Wednesday, Tony Brown met with Mamoon S. Rashid Al-Alwani, governor of Al Anbar Province in Iraq, and a delegation of Iraqi officials.
The delegation was visiting as part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, hosted by the World Trade Center Institute.
An Army reservist, Brown deployed to Iraqi in 2005. As a senior military advisor in the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office of the U.S. Embassy, he worked with local, military and diplomatic officials to bring humanitarian assistance to Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk and Basra.
Brown, who had met Al-Alwani during the Iraqi governor’s November 2007 visit to the United States, discussed the relationship between federal, state and local governments with the delegation.
In a statement, Brown said that his Iraq service allowed him ‘‘the honor of working with the men and women who will be remembered as the founding fathers and mothers of Iraq’s democracy.”
‘‘I am particularly proud to sit with Governor Al-Alwani and his delegation again this year in what I hope becomes a regular exchange of ideas between our great state and the young democracy in Iraq,” Brown said.
— Sean R. Sedam
Independent not unaffiliated
When we last checked in with Rockville resident Steve Schulin, he was working to get the 10,000 signatures required to put his name on the ballot as the Maryland Independent Party candidate for the special election to replace Al Wynn in the 4th Congressional District.
‘‘We did not get any signatures,” Schulin said this week. ‘‘I am listed as a write-in candidate.”
That means his name will not be pre-printed on the June 17 ballot. Schulin’s name appears on the list of candidates on the state elections board’s Web site, but he is not listed as a candidate of the Maryland Independent Party.
Schulin said he is still working on meeting the 10,000-signature requirement to get the Maryland Independent Party on the ballot in November. The new goal is the Aug. 4 deadline for the general election, where the party hopes to run Alan Keyes as its presidential candidate.
‘‘Maryland Independent Party has not yet fulfilled the requirements to have our candidates pre-printed on the ballot,” Schulin said in a statement late last week, ‘‘but for the state to publicly say that I am unaffiliated is wrong.”
Maybe wrong, a state elections official said, but also legal.
— Sean R. Sedam
Funding for the 1st
The big guns are flexing their muscles for Frank Kratovil.
Steny Hoyer is hosting a Capitol Hill fundraiser this morning for the 1st Congressional District hopeful, and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen will follow suit later this month with a reception in Potomac.
Today’s $250-a-head do is the latest signal that leading Democrats are targeting the seat and are willing to dump substantial moolah into Kratovil’s campaign against GOP nominee Andy Harris.
‘‘I think one of the reasons why the majority leader and the DCCC are being as active as they are is because they know we can win,” Kratovil said. ‘‘We’re excited about the help from the party and we’re looking forward to a good race.”
An earlier fundraiser with Van Hollen netted about $30,000.
Other heavy hitters are also going to bat for the Queen Anne’s County prosecutor.
John Sarbanes and Mike Busch are hosting a fundraiser on Sunday in Arnold, while ex-senator Joe Tydings and AG Doug Gansler are doing the same on Thursday in D.C. The soiree with Van Hollen on June 22 is one day after a Salisbury funder with former Wicomico County Councilman Tony Sarbanes, John’s uncle.
The Harris camp says the VIP appearances for Kratovil play right into its hands.
‘‘It just solidifies what we’ve been saying, that Frank Kratovil will go to Washington and just be another liberal Democrat,” Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins said. ‘‘The fact is that he is now beholden to liberal Democrats from Washington who support higher taxes and more wasteful government spending, and that’s not what voters in the 1st District want.”
But Kratovil said Harris isn’t winning many hearts in accepting gobs of dough from conservative movements like Club for Growth and the Eagle Forum. He touts a recent internal poll showing Harris’ lead in the single digits as proof that the race is not a runaway.
It’s still to be seen whether vanquished incumbent Wayne Gilchrest will buck the party line and back Kratovil, who has been privately angling for Gilchrest’s support since the primary.
— Alan Brody
O-U-C-H
Nancy Grasmick likes to tout Maryland’s No. 3 ranking among U.S. school systems by Education Week, but the state may want to beef up its spelling curriculum.
Only one of the eight Free State word wizards participating in last week’s National Spelling Bee made it to the quarterfinal round. And that one, 14-year-old Megan Ring of Hanover, is home-schooled.
Ring made it to the fourth round, where she was felled by cancha, the court on which jai alai is played.
— Alan Brody
Deal or no deal?
By now, you’d think O’Malley would have the art of negotiation all figured out.
Between last year’s special session and several of his bills that ran into some speed bumps during the regular session, he’s spent a lot of time at the bargaining table.
But how to barter with merchants in the Jerusalem market isn’t in the governor’s handbook. So he turned to repeat Israeli visitor Sandy Rosenberg for guidance.
‘‘Like legislators,” Rosenberg wrote in his blog, ‘‘they all have a price.”
— Alan Brody
