Today?s swearing in of Peter Franchot as comptroller means all the new statewide officials are now in place, and ready for the first meeting of the reconstituted Board of Public Works on Wednesday.
The first meeting comes just in time for the annual “begathon” by local elected officials for school construction money. O?Malley has already tossed a record $400 million in the pot to build and renovate schools, but locals will come pleading for billions more. Baltimore City alone is asking for $145 million.
Active Shredders
The packing boxes of departing staffers are gone, and the new boxes have arrived. New faces walk the halls of the State House, looking for the bathrooms and the tunnels that connect some of the buildings. Scattered on the floor of the governor?s press office were the stray flecks of paper from an active shredding operation by the ousted occupants. In the book case were three-ring binders, some labeled “Capital Projects,” “Energy Policy,” ” Local Aid” and so on. All were empty.
The Law of Rules
Senators got a fresh copy of the Senate?s little rule book Wednesday, and Senate President Thomas Mike Miller advised them to read it, but “don?t read it too closely.”
“There?s all kinds of wild stuff in there we don?t want to see too often,” Miller said, such as tabling bills. Close attention to the rules would also mean that Miller?s own flexible rulings from the rostrum might get challenged more often.
Prayer and Politics
In his invocation, O?Malley?s priest Monsignor William Burke mentioned “respecting life from its conception to natural death,” the standard Catholic formula opposing abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and the death penalty. The next day, O?Malley proposedincreased funding for stem cell research. But he and fellow Catholic Brown do appear in agreement with one church teaching, opposition to the death penalty.
Star Power
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn?t outshine O?Malley, but for Democrats, the unexpected attendance of the first woman speaker brought real star power to the event. Legislators jockeyed to have their pictures taken with her.
The Baltimore native also misplaced where she was on this chilly day, telling O?Malley he was a great mayor of Baltimore ? like her father and brother ? and “will be great governor of California.”
“I feel like I?m at home,” she joked.
This Week
The celebrations are over, the pace heats up this week on State Circle. O?Malley hosts the congressional delegation for breakfast today.
Committees begin grappling with the budget. Some of O?Malley nominees get their Senate hearings. And hundreds of seniors hit the legislative corridors for their annual lobbying drill on Tuesday.
