Politics really does mean bygones are bygones

Friday, Sept. 8, 2006

Parris Glendening’s endorsement of AG candidate Stu Simms on Wednesday was hardly surprising, considering Simms worked in his Cabinet for both terms.

But it was very ironic.

Standing among the half-dozen or so reporters who came to witness the endorsement in Annapolis was Larry Gibson, Simms’ campaign manager and Baltimore political operative who has had an on-and-off alliance with Glendening.

Gibson was one of the architects of Glendening’s victory in 1994. Glendening credited Gibson’s machine — which was headed by former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke — for galvanizing the black vote for Glendening’s first statewide election.

Running up a huge margin in Baltimore was key for Glendening, then the Prince George’s exec whose candidacy was viewed somewhat skeptically by the city’s powerbrokers.

Four years later, Gibson turned on Glendening and backed Harford County Executive Eileen Rehrmann in the Dem primary. Gibson, along with other prominent Dems — including Wayne Curry, who succeeded Glendening in Prince George’s — threw their support behind Rehrmann, angering the guv and his allies. Gibson told The Washington Post: ‘‘If Glendening gets the nomination, [Republican Ellen] Sauerbrey wins by a comfortable margin. I’m trying to prevent a major step backwards.”

Well, you know what happened.

So on Wednesday when he was asked about Gibson, Glendening smiled and said bygones are bygones. Gibson and Schmoke backed him in 1994 ‘‘when no one else did,” he said. As for 1998, the ex-guv said, Gibson went astray, but ‘‘we’re back on the same team now.”

— Thomas Dennison

You better watch out!

Glendening also warned about the ramifications for the Democratic Party if there is no African-American statewide candidate on the ticket after Tuesday.

Glendening is also backing Kweisi Mfume against Ben Cardin in the U.S. Senate primary.

Should Simms and Mfume lose on Tuesday, there will be no African American on the Dems’ statewide ticket (except for Anthony Brown, Martin O’Malley’s running mate). Many African-American leaders have pushed for a black candidate for U.S. Senate, comptroller or attorney general and consider the lieutenant governor slot as secondary.

After all, it’s the GOP that brags about electing the first African American statewide in Maryland: lite guv Michael Steele four years ago.

Brown’s candidacy is notable, Glendening said, but he’s not the one topping the ticket.

Glendening, who owes both of his terms as governor to major support from black voters in Baltimore, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, said the Democratic Party needs to be concerned if Mfume and Simms go down. ‘‘A lot of African-American voters will say, ‘What’s going on here?’” he said. ‘‘The party should be concerned about this now — not after the primary.”

— Thomas Dennison

Bucking the trend

Southern Maryland is Stu Simms country. Most high-ranking elected officials, from Steny Hoyer to Mike Miller to Mac Middleton, are backing the former Baltimore city prosecutor.

So it was interesting that Waldorf attorney Jim Farmer, during a Wednesday evening fundraiser for Middleton and his District 28 slate — incumbents Sally Jameson and Murray Levy and candidate Greg Billups — urged guests to support Doug Gansler, who was in La Plata on Tuesday for a reception held by Charles County State’s Attorney Len Collins.

‘‘It takes a lot to impress me, it’s almost impossible to impress me,” said Farmer, a close associate of Miller’s and long active in Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland. But Gansler did the job. Behind him, Middleton looked a tad uneasy, shuffling his feet and looking down at the ground.

— Alan Brody

Is her fuse short, too?

Barbara Mikulski may be short in stature, but Washingtonian magazine’s annual survey of congressional staffers found she’s got plenty of bite in her bark.

Babs topped the Senate rankings in two undesirable categories: Meanest and Fashion Victim.

‘‘She may be under five feet tall, but Mikulski still strikes fear in staff,” the magazine writes. Mikulski also came in third behind Alaska’s Ted Stevens and Arizona’s John McCain for having the hottest temper.

Mikulski and Stevens also ranked one-two in the fashion victim category.

‘‘The two meanest are also the two worst dressed. Someone need a shopping day?” the mag opines.

Other Marylanders fared better: Paul Sarbanes is the third-brainiest senator, while Steny Hoyer was voted the best leader in the House side (Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did not rank in the top three). The minority party’s No. 2 also came in second under the ‘‘Straightest Shooter” and ‘‘Most Eloquent” categories.

— Alan Brody

This could bode well

Who says bipartisanship can’t exist in Annapolis?

Heads turned a couple weeks ago when looie hopeful Kristen Cox, flanked by a cadre of Republicans, encountered Sue Kullen at North Beach’s Bayfest and the two embraced.

We could almost hear David Hale, the GOP Calvert County Commissioner prez who’s challenging Kullen, grimace at the sight of the Dem he is trying to oust exchanging warm pleasantries with Bob Ehrlich’s potential No. 2.

Turns out there’s some history: Cox was a lobbyist for the National Federation of the Blind, while Kullen was a longtime disabilities advocate with the ARC of Southern Maryland

Sometimes, friendship simply trumps election-year politics.

— Alan Brody

So much for party loyalty

Doug Gansler picked up a surprise endorsement during a recent visit to St. Mary’s County. It came from Republican State’s Attorney Richard Fritz, who eschewed the presumptive GOP nominee, Scott Rolle.

Gansler spokesman Mike Morrill said his candidate didn’t seek Fritz’s support, but noted that it ‘‘shows the strength and breadth of the campaign.”

Rolle’s strategist Kevin Igoe called Fritz ‘‘out of touch.”

‘‘I don’t think it serves him very well to be endorsing a wild-eyed left-wing liberal from Montgomery County,” he spewed. ‘‘I don’t think that plays very well in St. Mary’s County.”

Fritz, who could not be reached for comment, doesn’t have to fear political retribution since he has no opposition and a free ride to re-election.

— Alan Brody

Get ’em coming and going

John Giannetti’s Senate campaign knows no limits, even when it comes to the District 21 boundaries.

Several giant signs are strategically posted outside the district borders on heavily traveled roadways in the hopes that some voters will notice them, said Giannetti aide David Singer.

‘‘A lot of people may not come down the center of the district,” he said. ‘‘They may live on the outskirts and work outside the district and we want to make sure they’re aware of the race.”

The signs have been positioned near the district lines in Hyattsville, Gambrills and Laurel.

‘‘We’re trying to reach everyone within the 21 border and sometimes in order to do it you have to physically go outside the 21 border,” Singer said.

— Alan Brody

Willie Don in trouble again?

William Donald Schaefer is feeling some heat from Prince George’s County after his effort last week to block the Maryland Department of Planning’s move to Prince George’s. The decision was tabled.

The Board of Public Works, on which Schaefer sits, held a hearing on whether the department should move from Baltimore to Prince George’s, which has no statewide agencies. Schaefer wasn’t shy about saying he opposes such a move.

‘‘We don’t want to go to Annapolis to have a comptroller disrespect our elected officials,” said civic leader Arthur Turner, who endorsed Schaefer rival, Janet Owens. ‘‘We were mocked. That won’t ever happen again.”

Del. Carolyn Howard echoed those sentiments, saying the BPW was trying to create a divide between Prince George’s County and Baltimore, where the Department of Planning is now.

‘‘You think you can talk to us like that, and our leadership won’t do or say anything?” Wayne Curry said before endorsing Owens over Schaefer.

— Judson Berger

Overreaching?

On Tuesday, a good five days after he was arrested for trespassing outside the MPT studios in Owings Mills because he hadn’t been allowed to take part in the U.S. Senate candidates debate with Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, Allan Lichtman released a ‘‘Letter from a Baltimore County Jail.”

Lichtman, who was jailed Aug. 31 for a whole five hours, defended invoking the example of Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1963 wrote a seminal essay (‘‘Letter from the Birmingham City Jail”). ‘‘Our freedoms are hanging on a tender thread,” he said.

The e-mail is wrought the same kind of theatrics: ‘‘They can try to silence my voice, but I continue speaking out for the people of Maryland and America. The issues raised in my protest go far beyond a Senate race in Maryland, but cut to the heart of what it means to live in a free and democratic society.”

Lichtman also lashes out at Cardin and Mfume for ‘‘sneaking into the back door at MPT. This is exactly the kind of backdoor, locked-down politics you can expect from these old-line politicians if you send them to the United States Senate,” he wrote.

Mark Clack, an Mfume campaign spokesman, called Lichtman’s letter ‘‘a cheap imitation.”

‘‘We don’t know if it was intended to attract voters but it came off as trite and unendearing,” Clack said. ‘‘It was so over-the-top that it was hard to get angry. ... I don’t think they could get the anger out through the laughter.”

— Douglas Tallman

Recovering

Doug Duncan said people tell him it took great courage to announce his mental illness when he dropped out of the Democratic gubbie race in June.

Nope, he says. The courage came in admitting he had a problem that needed help.

On Tuesday, Duncan helped to kick off the Mental Health Association’s 50th anniversary with a news conference inside the County Executive Office Building in Rockville. He was hailed for his interest in the community’s mental health needs long before revealing he suffered from clinical depression.

When he was introduced, the audience gave Duncan a standing ovation.

‘‘You’re just doing that because I’m on my way out,” he quipped.

On Wednesday, Duncan underwent successful hip replacement surgery. His recovery is expected to take aboutsix weeks.

— Douglas Tallman

No kiddin’

Good to know your lawmakers are hard at work.

Witness this dispatch from the ‘‘District 21 Democratic Team” who wants all to know that Del. and Mrs. Brian Moe have added a son to their brood.

Joining sisters Alexandra and Kirsten is Scott Brian Moe, weighing in at 8 lbs., 10 oz. — surely another fighter for the good folks of Laurel, College Park and environs.

Born on Sept. 3, during his father’s third term, and ‘‘according to Delegate Moe, the number three is his lucky number.” And in just three-times-six years he’ll be able to vote.

Why the slate sent out the announcement confused us: Do we sent the slate or the parents the baby blanket?

— Margie Hyslop

Seeking headlines

Robert Raymond Fustero, who has positioned himself as an ‘‘ordinary person” and fresh air in the hot race for Montgomery county exec, dropped some news and info at a forum in Kensington last week.

‘‘I’m not a Harold Stassen — this is my last campaign,” the retired grocery clerk from Silver Spring — who snagged 20 percent of the vote against Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary — told the crowd at the event sponsored by Equality Montgomery County.

Apparently, he’s no Dennis Kucinich either.

‘‘I have no problem with gay marriage, I have no problem with any kind of marriage — all I know is I’m not the marrying type.”

— Margie Hyslop

Domain name confusion

The Small Business Coalition of the Maryland Republican Party directs people to its Web site for information about the group. But plug www.mdsbc.org into a browser, and what pops up is a site called CampaignSecrets.com, which sells products to GOP candidates to help them raise money, but has no information about Maryland or small businesses.

The director of the Small Business Coalition did not respond to questions about the site or return our messages. Ditto for CampaignSecrets.com in Atlanta.

At least it did not hijack our browser to a porn site.

— C. Benjamin Ford

From college to cabaret?

Montgomery College President Charlene Nunley took the stage at the college’s fall meeting on Tuesday in Rockville with a noticeable hobble.

She noted the yet-undiagnosed stiffness in her neck and back before beginning her formal remarks, saying that when Ken Weiner, a math professor and researcher at the college first noticed he joked, ‘‘Charlene, you’re limping. Oh, of course, you’re a lame duck.”

‘‘It’s that kind of compassion that’s kept me coming back to these meetings for 27 years ...,” Nunley quipped.

Tuesday marked Nunley’s final fall meeting as president. She announced in January that she would step down as soon as her successor is named, which is expected in December.

‘‘I bet I’m going to have a microphone in my hand a lot of times between now and when I go,” she told the audience. ‘‘And there are a whole lot of Ken Weiner stories out there.”

Nancy Nuell, director of business development and grants for the college, who served as the meeting’s emcee, revealed what she knew about Nunley’s retirement plans.

Rumors about a political career or another college presidency are untrue, Nuell said. ‘‘I’m on to you. There’s this really family-friendly bar in Bethany Beach. I understand if you go there on the right night and ask is ‘Char’ is performing. ...”

Asked about where she might perform when she quits her day job, Nunley was coy, saying only that she’d probably pick a bar in Dewey Beach.

‘‘That’s where all the action is,” she said.

— Sean R. Sedam