SOMEONE SHOULD REMIND Parris Glendening he’s already number one. The Maryland politician seems determined to burnish his reputation as the nation’s least popular governor before he leaves office this week.
On Monday the Washington Times reported that Glendening would top off his scandal-ridden career with a last-minute attempt to reward 13 of his friends and political allies with plum state jobs. The original wish list contained 150 names, but Glendening worked with Republican leaders and Democratic Senate president Mike Miller to shave the list to 13, in order to secure an uncontested confirmation, which it received Monday night.
How corrupt is the list? Positioned to take a $97,344 job on the state Board of Contract Appeals is former senator Michael J. Collins. Records show that Collins contributed the maximum legal amount–$6,000–to Glendening’s still-active political fund last year. Collins also donated $10,000 to the Democratic Governors’ Association that Glendening heads.
Former senator Perry Sfikas was named to an $81,000 a year job on the Parole Commission. Sfikas, who did not seek reelection in November, also donated $6,000 to Glendening–drawn from money he had leftover from his own hefty campaign fund.
Maureen Quinn, the live-in girlfriend of Democratic Delegate Kumar P. Barve is another surprise appointment. Glendening wants Quinn to be named to a post as a workers’ compensation examiner earning over $100,000 a year.
Senate minority leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus indicated that while Republicans are not pleased with the appointments, they cooperated to help create a smooth transition for governor-elect Bob Ehrlich. “Initially many of us were very uncomfortable with this, and we still are,” Stoltzfus told the Times. “Governor Ehrlich should have been able to select his people for these key positions.”
Ehrlich’s camp says he knows about the appointments, and although he did not call on Republicans to block them, he will review them once he takes office. “Clearly, he will want to appoint people who will carry out his plan for the state,” Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said.
These eleventh-hour appointments don’t mark the first time Glendening has used jobs to reward his allies.
The state’s chief administrative law judge, Thomas E. Dewberry, got a $101,000 a year job last May. Dewberry has maintained that he gave $5,000 to Glendening after being solicited by one of his deputy chiefs of staff–an illegal act in Maryland.
Shocking? Not really. Not in Parris Glendening’s Maryland.
Rachel DiCarlo is a staff assistant at The Weekly Standard.
