@BryanRenbaum

Former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said President Donald Trump’s threat to adjourn Congress to make recess appointments without Senate approval in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic could be a negotiating tactic.

“Difficult to say in light of this president’s willingness to break precedent. He typically does these things to create leverage in order to get a deal,” Ehrlich, a Republican who served in Congress from 1995-2003, told MarylandReporter.com in an email on Thursday.

“As I understand it, he would need a disagreement between the respective chambers to do so — but I believe that would require UC (Unanimous Consent) in the Senate. Such is not likely of course.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called Trump’s threat a “political power grab.”

“President Trump’s threat to adjourn Congress is a political power grab at a time of crisis for our country. His proposal to undercut our democracy and pave the way for more highly-partisan nominees would be an unprecedented abuse of executive power, and we will not stand for it,” Van Hollen told MarylandReporter.com in a statement. “Instead, he should focus on leveraging the power of the federal government to increase testing capacity and working with Congress to support health care providers, states, and small businesses.”

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) echoed simliar sentiments in a statement to MarylandReporter.com.

“The president of the United States should understand, after more than three years in office, that our Constitution creates three co-equal branches of government. His repeated attempts to marginalize all but the executive branch show a blatant disregard for the rule of law. I expect there to be bipartisan pushback to such an autocratic power grab.”

Former Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.)

No U.S. president has ever exercised his authority to adjourn Congress.

Former Maryland Rep. Albert Wynn, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1993-2008, said Trump’s threat is “unprecedented.” Wynn elaborated on that point.

“Apparently there is some construct over appointments that he believes allows him to do it in the midst of the pandemic. I just feel that that’s not the way to go. What we need right now is more cooperation between both parties and the Congress and the administration to get money out the door and to get the testing and all the other things that are needed as a priority.”

Richard Vatz, a professor of political persuasion at Towson University, said Trump’s threat diminishes his credibility because it is likely an empty threat.

“President Trump’s threatening unprecedented and unconstitutional uses of presidential power is rhetorically akin to floating trial balloon after trial balloon: he jeopardizes his support in the Senate and with the public. The Senate would be needed to cooperate in such an effort to adjourn Congress, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already stated in ‘collegial rhetoric’ that the Senate will not be a party to such an action.

Richard Vatz

“This adjournment threat comes on the heels of his empty threat to assume ‘total authority’ in deciding for the country when to attenuate social distancing to reopen the country for business. He then retreated and said his working with the governors should lead to a consensus.”

“Chief Executive power grab intentions, when made serially, not only lose the president support, but they make him look less powerful.  One must husband presidential power or lose it,” Vatz added.

Trump made the threat about Congress during a White House press briefing on Wednesday evening: “The Senate’s practice of gaveling into so-called pro forma sessions where no one is even there has prevented me from using the constitutional authority that we’re given under the recess provisions. The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees, or it should formally adjourn so that I can make recess appointments.”

Trump, who expressed frustrated with Senate Democrats having blocked many of his appointments, elaborated on that point.

“It’s always roadblocks and a waste of time. If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress. The current practice of leaving town, while conducting phony pro forma sessions, is a dereliction of duty.”

Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution — known as the Recess Appointment Clause —gives the president the power to make appointments to fill vacancies when the Senate is not in session. However, those appointments expire by the end of the next session of Congress if the Senate does not confirm the nominee. That means a recess appointee could be in office for almost two years.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states that the president: “may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper.”

However, in this case, there is no disagreement between the two chambers with regard to the recess. Both the House and Senate left town earlier this month for a two-week Easter/Passover recess and both later agreed to extend that recess to no earlier than May 4 because of the virus.

There are 10,784 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Maryland as of Thursday morning, according to the state’s Department of Health, while 392 Marylanders have died from the virus.

The post Ehrlich: Trump’s threat to adjourn Congress could be a negotiating tactic appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

By Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

President Obama signs WIOA with Marylanders Steny Hoyer, the House minority whip, and Tom Perez, the labor secretary at the far left. From the WIOA website

From the Facebook page of Maryland Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation.

The Maryland Democratic Party slammed Republican Gov. Larry Hogan late Thursday for closing one of three Career Centers in Baltimore as of Friday. But they appear to have been pointing their fingers at the wrong people, since President Obama and Congress may be to blame.

An email from the Democrats noted that on Tuesday, “the Maryland Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation posted an “FYI” on its Facebook page that the Baltimore Career Center on Eutaw Street will be closing on November 13, 2015.” Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Pat Murray came out swinging.

“When Larry Hogan promised a better future for Baltimore, he didn’t say one of his innovative ideas was to eliminate services that connect Baltimore City residents to jobs,” Murray said in the email. “Larry Hogan isn’t holding a press conference to announce this closure because he hoped no one would catch him taking an important part out of Maryland’s economic engine. Public education, transit and now workforce development cuts are all ways Larry Hogan is shortchanging Baltimore.”

Asked about the email, Summar Goodman, deputy director of communications at DLLR, the state labor department, responded: “The new WIOA law which went into effect on July 1st requires state staff to be co-located with local partners within the American Job Centers to better assist the customers and to provide a full range of services. The Eutaw Street staff will be relocated to both the Mondawmin and Eastside American Job Centers to be compliant with the law.”

A quick Google search found that WIOA is the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act,” passed with bipartisan majorities in Congress. On the WIOA website, there’s a video from Maryland’s own Tom Perez, the U.S. labor secretary and former head of DLLR praising the new law, along with Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The post Dems slam Hogan on jobs center, but Obama may be to blame appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: Gov. Larry Hogan presents former Gov. Marvin Mandel with a proclamation, as M.C. Tim Maloney lends a hand.

By Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

If you live long enough in politics, all may not be forgiven, but most is forgotten, and if you’re lucky, only the good stuff is remembered.

That’s certainly true of former Gov. Marvin Mandel, who turned 95 last month and was feted Wednesday at a birthday celebration organized by his old friend and sometimes unofficial ‘chauffeur,’ lobbyist Bruce Bereano.

About 400 people came to the dinner at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. It was an old-timers reunion for a governor who left office 36 years ago. Many of them used to be important and some still are, including Gov. Larry Hogan, Senate President Mike Miller, House Speaker Mike Busch, and U.S. House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer.

MarylandReporter.com has memorialized Mandel’s remarkable career several times, including the run up to his 90th birthday, marked by the publishing of his memoir.

A bipartisan affair

The birthday celebration was a bipartisan affair. The aging Mandel, a product of Baltimore Democratic machine politics, has stayed relatively conservative as the Democratic Party has moved to the left.

He supported both Hogan and former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich, who marveled at the remarkable occurrence to have “every living Republican governor in the same room.”

Mandel became Maryland’s chief executive when the last GOP governor before Ehrlich, Gov. Spiro “Ted” Agnew, was elected vice president with President Richard Nixon. The legislature chose the speaker of the House of Delegates, Mandel, since there was no lieutenant governor.

Agnew was also the last governor to call out the National Guard to quell a Baltimore City uprising — in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Marvin Mandel and Larry Hogan

“No other governor has had such a lasting impact on Maryland,” said Hogan. “Of course I’ve only been governor 110 days. Give me eight years and we’ll see how I stack up.”

Mandel had almost 10 years as governor, though 19 months of that was spent in a federal prison camp in Florida on a mail fraud conviction that was later overturned on appeal.

But there was only vague allusion to Mandel’s legal problems that left Lt. Gov. Blair Lee III as acting governor. There was no mention of the marital drama that had him living on the governor’s yacht while his first wife refused to leave Government House after she found out about the affair with the woman who would be become his second first lady.

Government reform

As master of ceremonies Tim Maloney, the former Democratic delegate and well-connected super lawyer who is a long-time friend of Hogan, put it, Mandel was “the architect of modern Maryland… It wasn’t always easy, and it wasn’t always pretty.”

Mandel over several years created the current structure of the Maryland judiciary, including the district courts and judicial nominating commissions. He took hundreds of disparate state agencies, and put them together under a modern cabinet system. Maryland became the first state to have a transportation department overseeing roads, mass transit, port and airports that he purchased for the state to run.

He instituted state funding for school construction as Maryland’s suburbs grew.

Mandel is also remembered as one of the greatest friends of the black community, and appointed many of the first African American judges to serve in Prince George’s and other counties.

Hoyer was a young state senator who voted against Mandel’s election but later become Senate president with his help. He called Mandel, “the best governor I’ve served with for almost half a century,” praising “the generosity of his spirit.”

Mandel, a short man who has grown even smaller with age, still has his wits about him, though his voice is not as strong as it used to be.

“I can’t thank you all for all the kindnesses you’ve shown tonight,” said Mandel in a brief speech.

Maloney said the famous epitaph for renowned English architect Christopher Wren found in the crypt of London’s St. Paul Cathedral could also apply to Mandel’s tenure as governor.

“If you seek his monument, just look around you.”

A story five years ago found that Mandel had some of the biggest spending increases of the last six governors.      

The post Ex-gov. Mandel, 95, feted as ‘architect of modern Maryland’ appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Here are photos of some of the more than 100 people who attended MarylandReporter.com’s happy hour fundraiser at Harry Browne’s Thursday night.

A full list of 2015 contributors to this nonprofit news website is at the bottom of the photos. Gov. Larry Hogan, above, was a guest bartender. Photos by Rebecca Lessner for MarylandReporter.com

Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh, lobbyist Julia Pitcher Worcester, real estate broker Dick Pettingill.

From left: Legislative aide Debbie Yatsuk, Charles Robinson of Maryland Public Television, and legislative aide Erin Neill.

The Lazarick family, from left: nurse practitioner Maureen Kelley, teacher Sarai Gray, teacher Rachel Lazarick, consultant Kevin Ward.

Clockwise from left: lobbyist Jay Schwartz, Misty Wray, lobbyist Pam Metz Kasemeyer, environmental consultant Raj Williams and Christine Krone.

From left: William Pitcher, Marina Hardy, and Brad Rifkin

AFSCME’s Cindy Smalls and Sue Esty, and Sue Weller, president of the Maryland State Education Association.

From the Alexander and Cleaver firm: from left, Kerry Watson, Hannah Garagiola, Moira Moynihan.

Gov. Larry Hogan talks to MarylandReporter.com’s Len Lazarick as he rolls up his sleeves and prepares to get behind the bar.

Comptroller Peter Franchot, right, talks to former Delegate Johnny Wood.

Jessica Cooper of the National Federation of Independent Business and Tommy Tompsett.

Ron Wineholt of AOBA, Kathy Magruder of the Maryland Clean Energy Center, and former Senator Sandy Schrader.

Towson University professor Rick Vatz talks to Gov. Larry Hogan.

Dorie Flynn of the Non-Public Special Education Schools Association, Rebecca Wilson of Save Our Votes, and Delegate Bob Flanagan.

Hogan press secretary Erin Montgomery, Senate Minority Whip Steve Hershey and his chief of staff, John Fiastro.

CAPITAL SPONSORSHIP
The Mikulis Family
Steve Geimann of Bloomberg News
Rifkin, Weiner, Livingston, Levitan & Silver
Konterra
William Collet
Gerry Evans
Alexander & Cleaver
Greater Baltimore Committee

Host Committee
Manis Canning & Associates
Senator & Mrs. Marty Madden
AFSCME
MSEA
Michael & Joanne Davis
Clai Carr
Group Benefit Services, Inc.
Maryland Multi-Housing Assn
SMECO
Schwartz, Metz & Wise
MBRG
Harris Jones & Malone
Ellen Valentino
MAPDA
Perry White Ross & Jacobson
Dr. Richard Vatz
Anonymous
FRIENDS OF LEN
Damian O’Doherty
Jeff Troll of Pinnacle Advisory
Dan Gainor
David Albert
The Hon. Jeffrie Zellmer
Dennis & Sandy Schrader
AOBA
C. Vernon Gray
Delegate Johnny Wood
Strategic Campaign Group
Steve & Lee Sachs
Maryland Petroleum Council
Richard Johnson
Washington Gas
Independent Insurance Agents of Maryland
William Vaughan
Bill Kress
National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
Jewel Rucker
Delegate Chris West
Senator Frank Kelly
Jennifer Bevan-Dangle and Common Cause Maryland
2015 Contributors

Association of American Pilots
Alice l. Altstatt
Ann Ciekot
Bill Graeff
Bob Flanagan
Bob Johnston
Bonnie Jones
Carissa Ralbovsky
Charles Robinson
Charles Thomas
Chris Costello
Claire Merrick
Courtney Block
David Brown
David Nemazie
David Owens
David Soule
Diana Philip
Dick Johnson
Dick Pettingill
Dick Story
Dorie Flynn
Elizabeth Carven
Emily Hollis
Erika Jones
Ethel Hill
Glynis Kazanjian
Harry Novak
Henry Fawell
Holly Joseph
Ian Sims
Ice Planter
Jack Andryszak
James Burton
James Tarlau
James Williamson
Jamie McGuirk
Jean Moon
Jeff Troll
Jeffrey Schiz
Jim Beauchamp
Jim Happel
Joe Willmott
Johanne Greer
John Bernhardt
Karl Pfrommer
Kathy O’Donovan
Kent Krabbe
Kevin Ward
Linda Pohuski
Lou Campion
Marc Korman
Mark Smith
Mark Yost
Michael Hethmon
Mike Galiazzo
Miranda Bond
Misty Wray
Nancy & Henry Yee
O. James Lighthizer
Peter Brunner
Philip Grantham
Rajeshwari Williams
Randolph May
Raymond Goodmuth
Richard Berman
Richard Johnson
Rosa Mintz-Urquhart
Russell Gunter
Sharonlee Vogel
Shelley Tinney
Shelly Hettleman
Spear & Dee Lancaster
Stan Doore
Stephanie Barry
Tamara Shay
Tanzi Strafford
The Law Offices of William J. Pitcher
Theresa Goddard
Therese Yewell
Tim Robinson
Tommy Landers
Tracey Heibel
Vinny DeMarco
Virtually Everything, Inc.
William Schaub
William Tarr, Jr.
Bruce Myers
Richard Pettingill
John Fiastro
Mary Beth Carozza
Lou Davis
Grace Kubofcik
Jeffrey Hooke
Dave Collins
Betty & Alex Adams
Len Lucchi
Ruth Crystal

The post Supporting news coverage at State House: We’ll drink to that appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

More than 100 people packed the upstairs bar at Harry Browne’s across from the State House Thursday night for MarylandReporter.com’s third annual happy hour fundraiser that raised close to $25,000 to support the daily State Roundup of news.

This year’s guest bartenders were Gov. Larry Hogan, Senate Majority Leader Catherine Pugh and Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings shown in photo above. We’ll post more photos from the event later today.

MarylandReporter.com’s founding editor and publisher thanked the members of the host committee and sponsors for their support of comprehensive coverage of state government and politics.

Here is the list of major donors and sponsors.

Capital Sponsors

The Mikulis Family
Steve Geimann of Bloomberg News

Rifkin, Weiner, Livingston, Levitan & Silver
Konterra

William Collet
Gerry Evans
Alexander & Cleaver
Host Committee
Manis Canning & Associates
Senator & Mrs. Marty Madden
AFSCME
MSEA
Michael & Joanne Davis
Group Benefit Services, Inc.
Maryland Multi-Housing Assn
SMECO
Schwartz, Metz & Wise
MBRG
Harris Jones & Malone
Ellen Valentino
MAPDA

Perry White Ross & Jacobson
Dr. Richard Vatz

Friends of Len
Damian O’Doherty
Jeff Troll of Pinnacle Advisory
Dan Gainor
David Albert
The Hon. Jeffrie Zellmer
Dennis & Sandy Schrader
Alice Neily Mutch
AOBA
Dr. C. Vernon Gray
Delegate Johnny Wood
Strategic Campaign Group
Steve & Lee Sachs
Maryland Petroleum Council
Richard Johnson
Washington Gas
Independent Insurance Agents of Maryland
William Vaughan
Bill Kress
National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
Jewel Rucker
Delegate Chris West
Senator Frank Kelly
Common Cause Maryland

At the end of the evening, Gov. Hogan explained to Len Lazarick and Glynis Kazanjian of MarylandReporter.com how the campaign ad starring his daughter Jaymi Sterling, far right, was crucial in responding to attacks on him over women’s issues.

The post Packed house for MarylandReporter.com fundraiser appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: House Speaker Michael Busch at the desk of House Minority Leader Nic Kipke

A little April Fool’s spirit floated in the State House Wednesday, but not everything was a laughing matter.

The speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates is from Anne Arundel County, and on April 1 wielding the gavel at the rostrum at the start of session was Del. Nic Kipke of Pasadena , alias the minority leader. At Kipke’s desk in the front of the House chamber was Del. Mike Busch of Annapolis, aka The Speaker.

Kipke led the chamber in the Pledge of Allegiance as happens each day and introduced Del. Sally Jameson to lead the prayer. “Thank you, Not the Speaker,” she said.

When Kipke announced “Quorum call,” Busch stood and complained “My button’s not working,” a typical complaint from delegates who vote red and green thousands of time a session with the buttons at their desks.

“Move to adjourn, Sine Die,” said Kipke as he slammed the speaker’s’ gavel, the motion that closes the legislature for the year.

The delegates laughed.

At the same time, upstairs in the governor’s reception room at the Board of Public Works meeting, Gov. Larry Hogan made the announcement that he was running for president of the United States.The audience laughed and applauded.

“Over the past few months, my administration has been applauded for its bipartisan approach to governance. It seems to me that approach is something that is desperately lacking in Washington, D.C.” Here’s a video clip of the announcement.

“There are already two Maryland governors running,” said Hogan, referring to Martin O’Malley and Bob Ehrlich. “Why not one more?”

First last ‘insulted’

No joke was Hogan’s reaction to a letter from Sen. Rich Madaleno, the openly gay Montgomery County Democrat who asked Hogan to ban travel to Indiana because of its new religious liberty statute.

In that letter to Hogan, Madaleno says: “Your family could be denied service due to a random business person, waiter or clerk’s objection to the First Lady’s previous divorce.”

After the Board of Public Works meeting, Hogan told WBAL’s Robert Lang (click here for audio) :

“First of all, I’m against discrimination of any kind. But I didn’t get very far in Senator Madaleno’s letter after he insulted the First Lady. I didn’t bother reading the rest of the letter. He should be ashamed of himself.”

Madaleno was unapologetic, telling Lang (audio on the same WBAL page): “I think it’s interesting the governor is learning for the first time what so many of us have had to deal with for a long time that our families are put at risk by these sorts of laws.”

–MarylandReporter.com

The post Speaker Kipke, President Hogan, and no joke, governor hot over ‘insult’ to First Lady appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: Senate President Mike Miller, left, talks to Orioles manager Buck Showalter with former Sen. Sandy Schrader.

By Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

How do you get Orioles manager Buck Showalter to quit sunny Sarasota, Fla., on the first week of spring training to come to Annapolis on a snowy Thursday and address an aging group of senators, ex-senators and their friends?

You get longtime Orioles owner Peter Angelos to fly him up on a charter jet, put him in a suit and tie, and make it look like it was the most normal thing in the world for this Mississippi boy to schmooze and pose for pictures with a bunch of pols.

Showalter, the American League’s Manager of the Year, was the draw for the annual meeting of Society of Senates Past — an excuse for former and current senators to get together, share a few drinks and swap war stories of the good old days.

Senate Secretary Billy Addison reported that this year’s fete had one of the best attendances in years, with 150 signed up for the event at $80 a pop. (No taxpayer dollars were spent on the food and beverages at the event in a large conference in the Miller Senate building.)

A run-on hearing upstairs in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on changes to the Police Officer Bill of Rights kept some current senators popping in and out of the dinner.

Inside baseball

Showalter had few prepared remarks but spent most of 45 minutes answering questions about the kind of real inside baseball that Orioles fans eat up. Despite his stern demeanor in the dugout, the manager has a casual dry humor that had the crowd laughing and applauding.

Showalter explained why Orioles outfielder Adam Jones wasn’t with him as originally planned. Jones was at the birth of his first child.

“We’ve got the most fertile team in baseball,” Showalter said, observing that the team lost two games last year due to the absence of players for childbirth.

He told of a calendar on the clubhouse wall showing the winter months that they were “allowed” to have children, and the months they should aim to conceive those children. “Do the arithmetic,” said Showalter.

Showalter’s remarks were all over the ballpark with no particular theme.

“We spend more money on food preparation than any team in baseball,” he bragged. This kept the team healthier and leaner than others.

Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a rabid Orioles fan who participates in the team’s annual Dream Week for Major League wannabes (he’s a catcher), asked Showalter who his role model as a manager was.

“My role model is my mom and dad,” said Showalter, who also had been manager of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. He said in assessing players he’d just as soon meet their parents as seeing their playing records.

“I love to beat the Yankees,” Showalter said, music to the ears of any Orioles fan. He describes how he tries to psych out the high-budget team when the Orioles play at the House that Ruth Built in the Bronx.

“It’s a short distance between the penthouse and the outhouse,” he said, describing his attention to detail and the attitude of his players. “There’s an excuse around every corner” when you lose.

Showalter’s appearance was the brainchild of former Howard County Sen. Sandy Schrader, this year’s president of the Society of Senates Past.

Senate President Mike Miller and lobbyist Gerry Evans, who counts Angelos among his clients, helped engineer the deal and the Orioles owner himself showed up still basking in the afterglow of the team’s first post-season showing in many years.

Full of notables

The room in the Miller Building was full of notables, including ex-Gov. Marvin Mandel, who will turn 95 later this year. (Lobbyist Bruce Bereano is organizing another big birthday party in May.)

One table in particular had a distinguished group of ex-everythings:

Former Gov. Harry Hughes, an ex-senator from the Eastern Shore and reportedly once offered a contract to pitch for the Yankees; former Lt. Gov. Mickey Steinberg from Baltimore County, a former Senate president who just retired from a Rifkin law firm; former Budget & Taxation Chairman Larry Levitan of Montgomery County, who has told MarylandReporter.com this will be his last year lobbying from the same firm; former Baltimore City Sen. Jack Lapides, sometimes referred to as the conscience of the legislature for his work on ethics; former Republican Sen. Jervis Finney, Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s general counsel and the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Mandel four decades ago; and Sen. Tim Ferguson of Carroll and Frederick counties.

The post Senates Past gets the inside baseball about the Orioles present appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: Sen. Andrew Serafini and Justin Ready on the House rostrum.

Republican Dels. Justin Ready of Carroll County and Andrew Serafini of Washington County got appointed by the governor and sworn in to their new Senate seats so fast on Monday that they didn’t have time to bid farewell to their former House colleagues till Tuesday.

Over in the House, Speaker Michael Busch teased the late-to-arrive senators about their tardiness as delegates awaited their arrival.

“Unfortunately they’ve been in the Senate one day and they can’t find their way back,” said Speaker Busch, bringing a round of laughter from delegates.

Sen. Serafini went first.

“Thank you all, you won’t believe this, but we were late because there was a really long prayer over there and it wasn’t me,” Serafini joked, going on to thank God and his former colleagues for a great six years serving in the House. (He was initially appointed to his House seat as well, replacing a delegate who went to prison on child pornography charges.)

Sen. Justin Ready echoed Serafini’s thanks to the chamber, going on to tell the freshmen delegates how his experience with the House helped to mold his political values.

“You have an opportunity in this body to really craft your own identity,” Ready said. “We talk a lot about bipartisanship and I believe in it. It’s really about trying to do what’s right by the people of Maryland. If you work hard and sink your teeth into each milestone you can really make a difference in ways that are both big and small.”

“Why they would want to leave is beyond me,” quipped Busch, who has served 28 years in the House, 12 of them as speaker.

Serafini and Ready replaced two senators now serving on Gov. Larry Hogan’s staff. Serafini replaced Sen. Chris Shank, now head of the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention. Ready replaced Sen. Joe Getty, now Hogan’s legislative and policy director.

Both their House seats will now need to be filled with nominations by the Republican Central Committees in their counties.

New Frederick County delegate Barrie Ciliberti was sworn in Wednesday morning to replace Del. Kelly Schulz, the new secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

The post Goodbye House, hello Senate appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: Screen capture of video at Executive Nominations Committee as Sen. Mike Hough and Budget Secretary David Brinkley shake hands.

The legislature has taken another small step for transparency in its proceedings this year. Senate committees are now video live streaming their hearings online, and saving them for later viewing.

That includes the Executive Nominations Committee which streamed its very first hearing Monday night. Like all the other hearings of committees in both House and Senate, that hearing is archived and can be watched online.

As with most hearings of Executive Nominations, chaired this year by Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, the hearing was a virtual love fest for 15 judges appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley and five cabinet secretaries appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan.

As is customary, the appointees were introduced by the senators who represent the districts in which the nominees live.

This led to the slightly awkward situation in which Sen. Mike Hough introduced Budget Secretary David Brinkley, the former Senate leader Hough beat in last year’s primary, accusing him of being too liberal, as evidenced by voting for O’Malley’s budget.

But Hough praised Brinkley for his ability to work “across the aisle” in a bipartisan manner, saying he would do a good job for Hogan. The two men shook hands.

Miller praises Hough

The display of comity by Hough was praised by Senate President Mike Miller, sitting next to the committee chairs.

“It speaks well of both of you,” Miller said. “I’m very happy.”

Hough also introduced Del. Kelly Schulz as secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and praised her work on the House Economic Matters Committee. Schulz had run on a ticket with Brinkley against a slate that Hough put together.

The five Hogan nominees got an easy time from the committee. Besides Brinkley and Schulz, they were David Craig for Planning Secretary, Van Mitchell for Health Secretary and George Owings for Veterans Affairs Secretary. All five had been members of the legislature, serving with some members of the committee.

Urged by Miller to keep the questioning and positive comments to a minimum so they could get to a swearing in of two new senators, Justin Ready and Andrew Serafini, the committee wrapped up its work in about an hour. There was a motion to approve all 20 nominees, and with a voice vote, all were approved unanimously.

You can watch the entire process online, but once the nominations get to the Senate floor, you’ll just have to rely on the usual audio with no pictures and minimal identification of who is speaking.

There are no plans to live stream the Senate sessions.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

The post Some more transparency in Annapolis: Senate committees video live stream hearings appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Photo above: At their first Board of Public Works meeting together, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, Gov. Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot

When Larry Hogan walked out of his office door at exactly 10 a.m. Wednesday into his reception room full of people awaiting his arrival, it was one of the many firsts for the new governor in his first week.

“This is the first time in 12 years that the Board of Public Works has started on time,” Hogan declared.

His predecessors Martin O’Malley and Bob Ehrlich were notoriously late by 15 or 20 minutes or more for the meeting of the powerful board that approves billions in state contracts every year.

The session itself was another first for Hogan. He said he had never attended one of the meetings of the board that generally meets twice a month on Wednesdays throughout the year.

“I’ve still got my training wheels on,” Hogan joked.

He was clearly very tentative about procedure, but he soon figured out that he could run the show pretty much the way he wants — as long as Franchot or the State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, the other two board members — go along.

Hogan also made a largely symbolic rejection of an item on the agenda to send a message to state agencies.

He rejected a report of a $40,000 contract for providing consulting services and assisting with public relations and communications in response to the influx of unaccompanied alien children from Central America last July.

Hogan’s objection was this was emergency procurement that had already happened and the money paid out.

“I think an emergency should be an emergency,” Hogan said, and Franchot concurred over what had been one of his pet peeves — agencies asking for retroactive approval for contracts already done.

“I want to applaud the governor for making this point,” Franchot said. “It’s wrong. It’s not the right way to do business.”

The Department of Human Resources blamed “extended sick leave and vacancies of key personnel” for the delay.

Hogan, Franchot and Kopp spent much of the rest of the day hearing from most of the counties requesting school construction funds in an event that used to be called the “beg-athon” before the O’Malley administration renamed it the “hope-athon.”

A video about the school construction portion of the meeting and Hogan’s focus on school maintenance is below this story.

Hogan told MarylandReporter.com that he had not yet started work on his State of the State address he will give next Wednesday.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

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