Tom LoBianco, Maryland politics reporter

Ripping your shirt off is one way to make a point ...

I’ll be delivering my presentation on Wolverine and American Individualism Thursday at Ignite Baltimore #5. Tickets are sold out, but they usually tape these and post them online. So I’ll update after the destruction, Thursday night. (And yes, that’s me dressed up as Silent Bob. Not a stretch, by any mean.)

You get five minutes to riff on an idea while your powerpoint slides auto-advance every 15 seconds. I’m digging the lineup – one presentation on the “carrying capacity” of technology, a treatise on true “bushwhacking” and my favorite thus far (at least based on title and concept): “Why I Don’t Want Children (or, How My Uterus Became a Shriveled Walnut)”. And here I thought the prostate is supposed to look like a walnut.

Updates to add Judd Legum response to Brian Griffiths here.

(In the world of reporting we usually aim to get as many sides of a story as possible before “going to print” and try to hash out the truth with an eye toward fair comment for the parties involved. Not so in the world of politics in which the hard dirt-digging and subsequent mudslinging is almost universally one-sided and half-truthed. Anyway, here’s the weekly roundup. – TL)

Labor activist Adam Pagnucco, an excellent opposition researcher and terrible reporter, has trained his blog-raking on former Delegate Rushern Baker. Baker is something of a routine candidate for county executive down in Prince George’s and (tentatively) looks as though he could win finally, despite a wide-open election. (Just a side-note here, Maryland Democrats, in general, seem to have little trouble lining up behind candidates ranging in strength from Martin O’Malley to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. The one major exception to that dynamic seems to be PG. That county is a world of political fiefdoms and warring unto itself, just scope the number of delegates considering running for either county exec. or state senate. … Very little sense of waiting in line. Anyway …)

As far as the excellent investigating goes, Pagnucco does a great job breaking apart the campaign finance reports to expose the people bankrolling Baker over the last decade. Chief target in the donor pool is Eric Wargotz, Republican candidate running against Babs Mikulski. Pagnucco unearths that Wargotz loaned  upward of $20,ooo to Baker for his 2002 run for county exec.

Now, for the terrible reporting: I can’t tell that Pagnucco called, e-mailed, texted anyone for comment in these blog posts (least of all the subjects.) If he had he would’ve made the “startling” revelation that Eric Wargotz used to be a Democrat. That would sure start to explain those “suspect” donations to Democrats …

I’ve got an e-mail out to Pagnucco, I’ll update this when I hear back.

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Next, Republican activist Brian Griffiths at Red Maryland unleashes on former Hillary Clinton aide Judd Legum, Democrat running for state delegate. His post is significantly thinner than the whole Baker series, but digs up an interesting connection to the David Paterson campaign.

I posed the same question to Griffiths as I did to Pagnucco and he got back to me, he said there’s little point in reaching out to Legum for comment as he’s not going to get an answer.  Griffiths said the last time he sought comment from Legum turned to (of all people) Pagnucco to respond to him at the liberal blog. Oh well.

Legum a national Democratic activist and his D.C. connections are wide and strong from his work with Think Progress and Clinton. Anyway, I caught an interesting appeal from a supporter looking for donations for him: Legum’s running to replace a conservative Republican in Annapolis. There’s a modicum of truth there, save for the fact that state delegate seats are pretty much won by the top three vote-getters in a district. So while Legum’s going after one GOPer, he’s also going after the two other Democrats who represent Annapolis… including House Speaker Michael E. Busch.

Go figure.

Update: Judd Legum wrote me yesterday, without going deeper into an existing spat b/t him and Griffiths here are his two main points:

1. Brain Griffiths has never contacted me at any time, despite writing about my campaign on a regular basis.

2. When Brian Griffiths first wrote about my campaign last April, I contacted him to correct an obvious error. He claimed I was raising money prior to setting up a committee when this was not true. I offered to send him original documentation.

(Here’s my latest from Center Maryland – TL.)

The Fiscal Leaders Committee, a secretive grouping of the Maryland General Assembly’s most powerful members, has met routinely through good budget times and bad.

But as the state struggles through its worst budget storm in generations, the group has met on only a handful of occasions.

Partisan rancor and a decade’s worth of skirmishes have driven a wedge between the two men who jointly determine when the group will meet: House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.

Miller, Busch, and other budget leaders in the General Assembly can’t remember the last time it met, although they know it was some time last year.

“I’m not exactly sure why they haven’t been meeting, I’d love to have a meeting, at least between the principals,” Busch said. (Read the full story here.)

(My latest story for Center Maryland – TL)

Farmers getting pinched by Maryland’s estate tax could get some relief soon, but not likely this year.

Lawmakers have been pushing for more than three years to give family farmers a waiver on the tax, citing the growing squeeze on family farmers facing increasing land values and major tax hits each time land is passed down a generation.

The bill has failed in the last two sessions, but supporters are taking a new approach this year, looking to the environmental community for help. (Get the full story here.)

Anyone with a few minutes to waste and little concern for their mental stability can catch me on Maryland Reporter’s latest podcast. I recorded this with MR’s Andy Rosen and MPT’s Lou Davis, we talked about the session’s “zombie bills.” Certainly there are legislative resurrections every year, but this year has been particularly noticeable because the budget crunch has pretty much excluded new spending … old hat comes out in force.

So tomorrow we get to see the much-anticipated joint budget hearing where Maryland House Republican leaders are expected to propose a series of budget cuts at Democrat Mike Busch’s request.

So what does the General Assembly’s chief budget guru, Warren Deschenaux think? “In the end it will be anticlimactic.”

Sounds about right, given that all the political rhetoric is bumped up pretty heavy during an election year and that these talking points, from the Dems and the GOPers have been rehashed routinely at least since 2007.

(Updates from Miller and Andy Harris’ chief of staff in 3d and 4th grafs, respectively – TL)

We’ve got two major partisan deadlines down here in Annapolis, one up today, the other on Tuesday.

First up, Senate President Thomas V. “Mikezilla” Miller has set today (Friday) as the deadline for Sen. Andy Harris’ chief of staff to step down. The backstory: Harris’ CoS, Kathy Szeliga, is running for delegate and fundraising during the legislative session (one of the few defined no-nos for Maryland pols), Miller says it’s a violation of state ethics rules. Harris says it’s “political bullying” from the top Senate Dem (as, among other things, his CoS has yet to formally file for office.)

UPDATE: Miller said post-morning session that he had a letter on his desk from Andy Harris, but it remains unread.

UPDATE 2: Szeliga said she is still employed and will be submitting something to Miller on Monday … the (relative) drama continues! Check back next week for more. …

Second: Tuesday we should find out whether Senate and House Republicans will deliver budget cuts to the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership. This little partisan dance has been going on at least since 2007 with Republicans saying they’re frozen out of the budget debate and Democrats saying the GOPers have nothing of substance to offer. The only thing which appears to make this mix-up news now is that House Speaker Michael E. Busch elevated it to the level of a full-blown press conference last week and top budget Dems invited Republicans to deliver their ideas in a joint budget hearing Tuesday. Barry Rascovar has a pretty stark op-ed in today’s Gazette.Maryland

(Here are just a few blurbs from Maryland’s political blogosphere. If I missed something or you’d like to see something on here, drop me a line at my gmail account: tomlobianco … – TL)

The Mikulski Retirement Rumor debacle has Mark Newgent at Red Maryland wrasslin‘ with The Sun’s D.C. reporter, Paul West. Nothing terribly surprising there, save for the fact that this story has persisted this long. For a debunked rumor, it’s sure got legs.

Martin Watcher at O’Malley Watch has this tirade re: spending increases under Ehrlich vs. spending increases under O’Malley. As dull as this talk is, it’s going to be a major campaign talking point (O’Malley has already shown that in his many budget speeches since taking office.) Without doing a detailed breakdown myself, all I can say is that nothing is as it seems in budgeting.

Adam Pagnucco at Maryland Politics Watch has an interesting back-and-forth with Mark Newgent at Red Maryland over Heather Mizeur’s ActBlue fundraising account — open through the session (a no-no) until she was alerted about it by Newgent’s post.

We’ve got two major partisan deadlines down here in Annapolis, one up today, the other on Tuesday.

First up, Senate President Thomas V. “Mikezilla” Miller has set today (Friday) as the deadline for Sen. Andy Harris’ chief of staff to step down. The backstory: Harris’ CoS is running for delegate and fundraising during the legislative session (one of the few defined no-nos for Maryland pols), Miller says it’s a violation of state ethics rules. Harris says it’s “political bullying” from the top Senate Dem (as, among other things, his CoS has yet to formally file for office.)

UPDATE: Miller said post-morning session that he had a letter on his desk from Andy Harris, but it remains unread. No word then on Kathy’s status. …

Second: Tuesday we should find out whether Senate and House Republicans will deliver budget cuts to the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership. This little partisan dance has been going on at least since 2007 with Republicans saying they’re frozen out of the budget debate and Democrats saying the GOPers have nothing of substance to offer. The only thing which appears to make this mix-up news now is that House Speaker Michael E. Busch elevated it to the level of a full-blown press conference last week and top budget Dems invited Republicans to deliver their ideas in a joint budget hearing Tuesday. Barry Rascovar has a pretty stark op-ed in today’s Gazette.

I was just invited by one of Barbara Mikulski’s GOP challengers (Queen Anne’s County Commission President Eric Wargotz) to come to a “Mikulski Retirement Party” March 4.

It’s a fundraising e-mail (shocker), but is actually fairly amusing. Here’s the link to the site.

My “impeccable” source on this one is the Wargotz campaign. And it’s on the record, no less.

(Here’s my earlier post on this Mikulski rumor mess. – TL)