The political life of Tom Bromwell started and ended in a bar.
He was perched at the bar of his family-owned tavern in Baltimore County, then just 28, reading a book when two politicians walked in.
One represented his district in the House of Delegates. They started talking politics, and, inevitably, started arguing.
“This guy starts jumping up my [expletive] and he said, ?Listen, if you don?t like my opinion, then why don?t you [expletive] run?? ” Bromwell recalls in transcripts of conversations secretly recording during a federal public corruption investigation unsealed earlier this week. “I said, ?Well, [expletive] you. I will.? ”
Bromwell registered his candidacy the next day and, six months later, won.
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The son of a bricklayer without a degree, Bromwell began his public service with apprehension. But in the conversation with two informants decades later, he bragged how he went on to chair the Senate?s finance committee, commanding “all the commerce that comes through the state” and taking credit for Baltimore?s two stadiums and electricity deregulation.
“When we get done [with] this dinner, [expletive] and drinking and carrying on, I want you to call people that you know in Baltimore and you ask them about Tom Bromwell,” he instructed a federal agent posing as a potential business associate.
But the whim that lead to the political glory that Bromwell relished also, he later surmised, lead to his demise.
Bromwell will face trial in the fall on charges he accepted $85,000 in construction work on a new house and his wife?s $192,000 no-show job in exchange for his influence. Seven others have pleaded guilty to related charges and are expected to testify against Bromwell, who said his attorneys advised him not to comment Thursday.
Nearly 38 years after his political career began, Bromwell met with former business associate James Eick in a Perry Hall sports bar where he learned federal agents were coming after him.
He said prosecutors targeted him because of his high-profile political career.
“If I?m guilty of anything, it?s, you know, people thinking that I can do this and I can ? I mean, there?s been millions of times people would say, ?hey, thanks for doing this or thanks for doing that,? ” Bromwell said. “I don?t have a [expletive] clue what they?re thanking me for.”
