Duncan gets set to finally make looie choice

Friday, March 24, 2006

Clarification: Duncan officials said Friday that the county executive will not attend Sunday's news conference about the Nationals baseball team's televised games.

MoCo exec Doug Duncan is preparing to roll out his running mate before the end of session, we’re told.

He’s not talking much about his potential pick or the timeframe, but those close to him are beginning to prepare the ground.

Duncan sidestepped ‘‘who’ll be No. 2?” questions Monday night and repeated a similar line Wednesday when he emerged from a meeting in the Senate lounge with his campaign manager, Scott Arceneaux, in tow.

‘‘We’re working on it,” he smiled.

The gubie wannabe made the rounds in Annapolis this week, meeting with lawmakers and testifying on electricity aggregation and a bill that would ban the members of the university system’s Board of Regents from raising campaign cash.

The regents bill is aimed at Dick Hug, Bob Ehrlich’s fund-raising mastermind who was appointed to the board in 2003. The Senate confirmed Hug’s nomination, but Democrats continue to question the dual role he plays for the university system and the guv’s re-election campaign.

As for Duncan, we’re told he will select an African- American woman as his running mate. Several names have been floating for months, including those of Sen. Gwendolyn Britt of Prince George’s County and House Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne Jones of Baltimore County.

But there’s also some speculation now someone not in an elected office with strong ties to the African- American community in Prince George’s County could get the nod. Guesses, anyone?

Stay tuned.

— Thomas Dennison

Still waiting for Joe

As this year’s session winds down, talk about Joe Curran’s plans is heating up.

So far, the coy AG has been mum, frustrating some of the folks — D and R — who want his job. His lack of fund-raising and his family ties to gubie wannabe Martin O’Malley are leading many to the conclusion that Curran will retire.

That’s nothing new, of course, but one of his closest aides told us this week that an announcement is forthcoming, sometime after Sine Die.

Democratic Party officials are convinced that MoCo’s Doug Gansler will run for AG, no matter what Curran decides.

Gansler has raised more than $1 million and has been traveling the state for months in an effort to raise his profile.

Montgomery County Councilman Tom Perez, who says he’ll run only if Curran retires, is growing more and more frustrated.

Every day that Curran stays in the race is another day that helps Gansler, Perez said.

— Thomas Dennison

Thanks, but no thanks

Former Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Rogers, now finance chairman for Ben Cardin’s U.S. Senate campaign, got an interesting letter in the mail from Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s fund-raising arm recently.

The letter for Steele’s U.S. Senate campaign came with a photo of President Bush, which provides a juicy nugget for the Cardin campaign. Cardin and the Democratic Party are continually trying to tie Steele with the unpopular president.

‘‘I know Michael Steele likes to tout his close relationship with George Bush (or perhaps only does so out of state or in secret to Republican loyalists), but his outreach program has probably gone a bit far,” Rogers e-mailed this week.

— Thomas Dennison

Women of Steele

Steele’s Senate campaign launched its ‘‘Women of Steele” coalition this week.

Kelly Schulz, an aide to Frederick County Republican Sen. David Brinkley, is one of the regional leaders of the coalition that has more than 500 members.

Schulz, who moved to Maryland from Rochester, N.Y., two years ago, says she was drawn to the Steele campaign because of his ‘‘integrity, character and message.”

‘‘I knew this is a man I needed to support,” she said.

Tuesday’s launch was held in a sweaty room at the Reynolds Tavern near the State House and featured roughly 50 supporters.

The candidate was introduced by his wife, Andrea, who said she had reservations about her husband running for higher office.

She called her husband a ‘‘confident leader,” who has proven that he can balance his public life with his private, family life.

Gaye Galvin, an Annapolis resident who attended the rally, said she was drawn to Steele for many of the same reasons she supports President Bush. Galvin is a founding member of WISP, or Women In Support of the President.

‘‘He’s a man of character,” she said.

Steele was also in the news this week, calling on state pension officials to divest state money from businesses with ties to Sudan. And on Wednesday, Steele’s lawyer said a lawsuit could be filed against a former staffer for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee who unlawfully used Steele’s SSN to obtain his credit report.

—Thomas Dennison

Batty about the Nats

Peter Franchot is making good on his promise to protest the deal that severely limits Washington National baseball games from being televised.

Franchot, who’s running for comptroller, will hold a noon news conference on Sunday at RFK Stadium. He’ll be joined by Nats fans and some other pols including U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, Virginia Del. Brian Moran and Doug Duncan.

‘‘We want Comcast to stop messing with the Nationals,” Franchot said in a statement.

More than 1 million Comcast subscribers cannot watch Nationals games because of the dispute between Comcast and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The television deal was one of the concessions won by Baltimore Orioles Owner Peter Angelos before Major League Baseball returned baseball to Washington.

‘‘Comcast and Peter Angelos’ bitter dispute threatens to keep the Nats off the air for much of the coming season,” Jim Moran said in a statement. ‘‘These corporate giants need to put aside their bottom lines and think of the fans for a change.”

— Thomas Dennison

Record holders

When the legislature wraps up in a couple of weeks, the House will bid farewell to its two longest-serving pols.

Pauline Menes announced two weeks ago that her 40th year in the chamber will be her last, while John Arnick will give up the seat he has held for 34 nonconsecutive years after being confirmed last week for the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals.

So who will take over as House dean?

Hattie Harrison, who’s running for re-election, will become the longest-tenured delegate if she wins, having served since 1973. Both Joe Vallario and Wade Kach come in a close second, having started their respective legislative careers in 1975.

Across the hall, Norman Stone is the Senate’s warhorse, having served since 1967 following a four-year stint in the House.

— Alan Brody

Back home

When Tiger Davis introduced Gonzaga College High School senior Tim Kelly as one of this week’s House pages, several lawmakers did a double take.

That’s because the teenager bears a striking resemblance to his father, former delegate Jim Kelly.

The elder Kelly joined his son on the floor Wednesday, prompting the standard potshot from Mike Busch.

‘‘I just want to show the body proof that the second generation is always better looking,” he said.

— Alan Brody

Never fear, Giannetti’s here

Maryland’s — and maybe even America’s — favorite Heimlich performer, John Giannetti, continues to prove that rescuing one’s political opponent has a longer-than-average shelf life.

‘‘You’ve all read the papers,” he said Wednesday in some apparently extemporaneous remarks at a Beltsville crime forum. ‘‘Everyone is now free to choke if they need to choke. Senator Giannetti is here.”

Even at this stage, the audience was receptive to the crack. That is, if it was a crack. Maybe he was serious.

It is rumored that some politicians whose campaigns are languishing are paying handsome sums to operatives at high-priced take-out stands to choke in their well-meaning presence while they lunge to the rescue.

We’re kidding, of course, but it could happen.

— Judson Berger

Golden apple

Doug Duncan’s courting of school administrators paid off Tuesday when he was endorsed by the Maryland- District of Columbia Federation of School Administrators and Supervisors.

The union, 1,500 members or so strong, gave the endorsement at their Prince George’s County office in Largo.

Doris Reed, executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative School Personnel, said that after looking at Martin O’Malley and Ehrlich, Duncan was the clear choice.

‘‘In an election year, every candidate becomes the education candidate,” Reed said. ‘‘But it was obvious Doug Duncan was the person who walked the walk and didn’t just talk the talk.”

— Guy Leonard

The super’s book reports

Jerry Weast’s page on the Montgomery school system’s Web site offers a look at the superintendent’s bookshelf and includes brief book reports by the man himself.

Not surprisingly, the occasionally updated list suggests that issues facing the school system, from the federal No Child Left Behind law to the academic ‘‘achievement gap” between some African-American and Hispanic students and their white and Asian-American peers, are influencing Weast’s reading choices.

Here’s a sampling of the superintendent’s comments:

*‘‘Leave No Child Behind” by James Cormer (Yale University Press, 2004) ‘‘offers parallels between the initiatives being undertaken in MCPS to close the achievement gap and the programs and philosophies Dr. Comer has been propounding for more than thirty years,” Weast writes. ‘‘Having personally discussed his research and recommendations with Dr. Comer, for me reading this book reinforced my belief that children’s success does depend on ‘the village.’”

*‘‘Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, California, 2004) ‘‘is Obama’s personal account of his search for a racial identity. ... Obama, a rising political star, gained insights during his travels that are instructive as we learn to live together in an increasingly diverse community.”

*‘‘Confidence” by Rosbeth Moss Kanter (Crown Business, 2004) ‘‘identifies that characteristic as the key to success. ... This book is powerful reading for leaders — or anyone on a team that looks to achieve or maintain success.”

Conspicuously absent is ‘‘The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century,” a look at globalization by New York Times columnist and Montgomery County resident Thomas L. Friedman.

It’s a book Weast and seemingly most every other public official in Maryland has read since it was released last year — or at least cited in their speeches.

Surely they all must’ve read it cover to cover.

— Sean R. Sedam

Partisan or not?

Former Rockville City Councilman James T. Marrinan is blasting Mayor Larry Giammo and two council members for endorsing candidates for governor.

‘‘As the current nonpartisan elected mayor of Rockville, you should show a great deal of discretion in doing so,” he told Giammo during Monday’s City Council meeting. ‘‘And you should not make such endorsements to the press in city facilities, as in this case the Twinbrook Community Center.”

Giammo recently endorsed Martin O’Malley; Council members Bob Dorsey and Susan Hoffmann have endorsed Duncan.

Partisan endorsements could hurt intergovernmental relations, jeopardize the city’s nonpartisan status and prevent federal employees from running for city office, Marrinan warned.

Hizzoner disagreed, saying council members have a right to endorse candidates. As for intergovernmental relations, it would be naive to assume county, state and federal dollars the city receives are apolitical, he said.

— Warren Parish