State Circle gets very crowded this week for the inauguration of Gov.-elect Martin O?Malley at noon Wednesday.
There will be choirs and parades, dignitaries galore, multi-faith prayers and a 19-gun salute followed by an Air National Guard flyover. A mayor may have a police force with SWAT teams, but a governor has real firepower.
By constitution, the swearing-in takes place in the Senate Chamber, a room taller than it is wide, and barely able to accommodate all the senators, delegates, judges, family and friends. Quarters are so cramped that the press corps gets to watch the same way the public does ? through a feed from Maryland Public Television.
Heavy Lifting
The real work of governing gets started for O?Malley on Friday, as he submits the budget largely crafted under Gov. Robert Ehrlich. In public appearances, O?Malley tries to tamp down expectations about the new budget and what he?ll be able to do. But on Thursday, he wrote several environmental groups saying he would do as he has repeatedly promised ? use open space funds for open space, not to balance the budget. He prefaced that pledge with the continuing message about looming billion-dollar deficits in subsequent years.
“The structural deficit will force us to make difficult decisions together and require structural reforms to make our government more efficient,” O?Malley wrote. There was no talk of the “revenue restructuring” that many Democratic legislators are pushing.
Sleight of Hand
Plenty of legislative sleight of hand goes on up the street, but Ted Levitt, owner of Chick and Ruth?s deli on Main Street, used some to entertain reporters staked out at his front tables waiting to talk to O?Malley. Levittdid some simple disappearing acts with a set of four one-dollar coins ? very much like the appropriations process.
O?Malley was sitting in a booth ? long reserved as “the governor?s office” ? with Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer, chomping down the sandwich he chose to bear his name: roast beef, provolone cheese with horseradish and lettuce on rye.
“Sounds like a Democratic sandwich,” commented a passerby. And you thought Republicans were the red-meat party? Not really. Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s sandwich was turkey with mustard on wheat.
Korean Clout
Annapolis lawmakers and their staffs consumed gallons of spicy kimchi and other Korean specialties while watching traditional drum-playing and dancers for their third annual Korean-American Day, designed to remind them of the increasing economic and political clout of the 100,000-strong Korean community, especially in Montgomery and Howard counties.
“These are my people,” said new Attorney General Doug Gansler. “Koreans have been very helpful to me” as Montgomery County state?s attorney.
“It is one of the most active Asian American communities. They?ve inserted themselves in the political landscape.”
Miller Time
Senate President Thomas Mike Miller has been giving O?Malley grief about the slow pace of the transition, but the Senate was no model of alacrity on opening day last Wednesday.
The House finished its business in 45 minutes, but the Senate was running late as usual, and there were celebrations for freshman and incumbents scheduled. So Miller put off the rest of the business to the next day, including introductions of nine bills. But get those bill drafts in soon, he warned.
Len Lazarick is the state house bureau chief of The Examiner, he can be reached at [email protected]
