Twenty days down, 70 to go: Time flies when you?re not getting much done at the General Assembly.
As they wait for bills to land in the hopper, committees have been getting briefings on a host of perennial subjects. Even though Gov. Martin O?Malley officially got started a week after the legislators were sworn in, he?s got his budget done, his legislative package introduced, and Wednesday he delivers his State of the State address.
Two weeks is hardly enough time to assess what?s going in the sprawling state government. Yet there are stillcomplaints “they?re off to a slow start,” as Sen. Delores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, told a group of senior citizens Tuesday. She chairs the Executive Nominations Committee that must confirm O?Malley appointments.
Contrary to last week?s column, those confirmation hearings begin today. It?s not clear who?s off to a slow start.
Labor of Love
Early backing by union officials ? and environmentalists ? was a key element of Comptroller Peter Franchot?s surprise victory over Schaefer. At his swearing in, as at O?Malley?s, Fred Mason, president of the state AFL-CIO, and John Sweeney, head of the national labor coalition, had places of honor. On Monday, Sen. Ben Cardin chose to sit with them, rather than at a front-row seat.
“We think it?s a good team,” Mason told The Examiner. Franchot “certainly brings a fresh perspective to the office” and to the Board of Public Works especially on procurement and contract negotiations, bringing “not just a progressive attitude but also a sense of fairness.” “Progressive” is Dem-speak for “liberal.”
Lefty Franchot
The new comptroller now sits on the left side of the governor at the three-member Board of Public Works meeting, and not because Franchot is left-handed. State Treasurer Nancy Kopp now has more seniority, and gets to sit at the governor?s right hand.
The names of the three board members clearly got the better of some of the nervous local officials who came pleading for school construction money. Some Democrats were clearly gleeful to address O?Malley as governor, but a number stumbled on the pronunciation of Franchot ? FranCHO. Only the T is silent goes the joke.
And when they got to Kopp, many were a little vague about her title ?”Madame Treasurer” is the polite form ? and one tongue-tied local called her “Knopp.”
Words to Be Eaten
“I told him it would be a cold day in hell before you?ll be sworn in as comptroller,” Senate President Thomas Mike Miller said at Franchot?s swearing in. “I?m not sure it?s hell, but it sure is icy out there.”
This Week
The legislature gets to decide this Thursday whether Kopp will keep her title for another four years. The deadline for applications for the job is today at 5 p.m., and as of Friday morning, only four other people had applied and they included “no prominent names,” said Del. Adrienne Jones, D-Baltimore County, who co-chairs the committee doing the interviews.
No Free Lunch
Bumped into Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown buying his own lunch at the canteen at the State House, passing up a free lunch at the reception for Franchot?s inauguration.
Turns out Brown had missed the swearing in to attend the first meeting of the commission to study financing of higher education, an important part of Brown?s portfolio. He passed up an opportunity to get a likely standing O, that his boss got twice, to hear briefings on university and college funding.
Len Lazarick is the State House bureau chief of The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]
