Marylanders mull Lt. Gov. options if Brown joins Obama’s Cabinet

President-elect Barack Obama is considering Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown for his Cabinet, leaving Marylanders to figure out who could fill Brown’s shoes at home.

Reports surfaced last week that Brown, an Army Reserve colonel who served in Iraq, was on Obama’s short list for secretary of veterans affairs, just days after it was announced he was co-chairman of Obama’s transition team for the department.

“I think that speculation is natural given his talents and given his military service,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said Monday night on Maryland Public Television.

Brown is the highest elected official in the country to have served in Iraq.

If he leaves, the governor must nominate a successor, subject to the confirmation of the General Assembly.

Brown brings both geographic and demographic balance to the O’Malley administration: He is the only sitting black lieutenant governor in the country, and he hails from Prince George’s County, giving the Washington suburbs access to the former Baltimore mayor’s ear.

University of Maryland professor Ronald Walters, an expert in both Maryland and African-American politics, said if O’Malley has to fill Brown’s spot, he should tap another black leader.

“There is an issue in Maryland about African-Americans not being able to move up in the political structure,” Walters said.

He sees Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey as those best-positioned to take Brown’s job.

“Ike Leggett would be the highest on my list,” Walters said. “He’s been head of the statewide [Democratic] Party, head of Montgomery County, and he’s been there for the governor on important issues — not the least of which is [Leggett’s] recent turnabout on the issue on slots.”

Neither Ivey nor Leggett, however, seems interested in being lieutenant governor.

Ivey is rumored to be planning a run for Prince George’s County executive, since term limits prohibit County Executive Jack Johnson from running again.

And Leggett? “He’s not interested,” Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said. “He is happy here, challenges and all,” alluding to the county’s $500 million budget shortfall.

But another local name has popped up: E-mails are circulating and at least one local blog is lobbying for Montgomery Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, the county’s first black female council member.

“I never thought about it,” Ervin said. “But I’m honored to be put in that category.”