Tom LoBianco, Maryland politics reporter

(This is almost completely-ridiculous, but I suppose we should leave that for when I blow the Friday Blogger Roundup deadline by a full week next time. Then it will be the (Meta) Friday Blogger Roundup. – TL)

Here’s a wrap of what the State House press corps has been blogging about recently. I’ve tended toward the state’s partisan bloggers in the last two roundups, so the full-time scribblers get their shot here.

Patuxent politics editor Bryan Sears has Baltimore County covered like no one else. Sears’s latest pull is an interview with potential county council candidate Mike Gimbel.

This is a great example of musical chairs shaking the political structure from the top down. With Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith term-limited out of office, a number of Baltimore County Council members are running for the job. In the process they vacate their seats, and so forth and so on.

As potential candidates go, we might have to wait a little longer to see if former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will run for office again writes John Wagner at The Washington Post’s Maryland Politics blog. It’s been little secret that Ehrlich is considering challenging Martin O’Malley. It’s been a widespread rumor that he was considering announcing his intentions on March 25. And it’s still a big mystery whether he could beat O’Malley.

I’m equally guilty of playing the If-and-when? game, as it tends to grow into standard small talk around Annapolis. The man will run when he’s going to run, or not.

Sometimes you have to fight for political seats and other times you have them handed to you (more or less.) Such appears to be the case with Sarah Bloom Raskin, whose husband Jamie, is a state senator, writes Paul West at The Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Politics blog. (Anybody ever wonder why the two big dogs in town share the same blog name?)

Frederick News-Post writer Meg Tully takes on a long-standing debate in Annapolis over whether public funding should go to private colleges. And if you scroll down the page at her blog some, you can find this real gem about freshman Delegate Chuck Jenkins fighting Sen. Alex Mooney over a local delegation meeting and whether dogs should be eating with their owners at outdoor establishments.

(Here’s my latest from WYPR – TL)

ANNAPOLIS, MD (wypr) – When Republican Scott Brown won the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, many observers noted that labor’s blue collar rank and file broke from leadership and voted red.

Maryland’s political leaders are now questioning whether labor will be the Democratic stalwart it has been in the past.

Senate President Mike Miller said the dynamic that played out in the Massachusetts election, proves that labor’s support is neither guaranteed, nor as effective as it used to be.

“Union turnout is nice, but it’s not something you count on. They vote for both parties, especially the building trades. What you do is each party’s job is to identify voters and get them to the polls. Now some unions are going to be for the Republicans and some unions are going to be for the Democrats. And despite what the leaders say, oftentimes, the members go just the opposite way. Unions, again, are not the major factor they once were.”

Labor helped carry Martin O’Malley to the governor’s office in 2006, and he’s already received the endorsement of the state’s largest teacher’s union.

But O’Malley has also presided over hundreds of layoffs and furloughed state public employees for multiple weeks as he has struggled to account for budget shortfalls. Read the full story, and get the audio here.

(My latest from Center Maryland. – TL)

Maryland lawmakers and governors have wrestled with seemingly intractable problems in the state’s juvenile services system for more than a decade, reaping both political benefits and despair.

And the killing of a 65-year-old female teacher at the Cheltenham Youth Facility last month has lawmakers again calling for a review of the Department of Juvenile Services – putting the issue at the center of the agenda for another crucial election season.

In 2005, lawmakers passed a bill to form a legislative oversight panel to review problems in the juvenile services system. When the measure was vetoed by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership included the oversight panel legislation in a package of more than a dozen vetoes that were overridden at the start of the 2006 session.

Then the oversight group – which was to include six members of the House of Delegates and six members of the Senate – never met. (Read the full story here.)

(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.

Comptroller Peter Franchot is up with a spot on YouTube melding auto-mechanic chefs and tax preparing scams as only Maryland’s top taxman can.

The spot raises two interesting dynamics in state politics: the relative quietude of Franchot post-slots referendum and the thin line between public service annoucements and campaign ads.

It used to be said that the only silent about Franchot is the “t” (it’s pronounced Franch-ooo, or -ayoo if yer from Bawlimer). And that was certainly applicable before Maryland voters rebutted his anti-slots campaign in 2008. But Franchot has been awfully quiet since then, relegating his famous battles with Gov. Martin O’Malley to the recesses of his political machine.

Then there is the question of politicians using state dollars to produce public service announcements. Democrats raked former Gov. Bob Ehrlich for producing Maryland tourism spots featuring him walking through Maryland homes. O’Malley, for his part, has been somewhat less omnipresent in his foreclosure relief campaign, but visible nonetheless. And Congressional mailers are perpetual fodder for campaign challengers who call them taxpayer-subsidized campaign ads.

The shades of gray range greatly, but that’s why we have YouTube! Judge for yourself. (And, in the words of “Robert Goulet” … “You wouldn’t let a clown fix a leak in the john, so why you let these hooligans tear down the biz?”)

(Sun songstress and political scribe Julie Bykowicz provided the inspiration for this post. Thanks, Julie!)

O'Malley's gotta get those "Bills, Bills, Bills" paid before he can start talking about "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs"

When they were taking off Destiny’s Child were the bees knees, and Beyonce was the queen. Their paean to fiscal empowerment, “Bills, Bills, Bills” is pointed right at Jay-Z: You want the sugar? Pony up.

So it’s fitting that Gov. Martin O’Malley has introduced a second budget padded with $400 million in new federal funding. This will be the second budget he’s filed that relies heavily on federal stimulus funds (this is on top of the vast portion of the total, $31.2 billion budget, which is floated with federal dough.)  Seriously, if Obama wants the love, he’s gotta pay those “Bills, Bills, Bills.” To err:

can you pay my bills
can you pay my telephone bills
can you pay my automo’bills
then maybe we can chill
I don’t think you do
so you and me are through

When O’Malley delivers his State of the State Address tomorrow the theme will likely be “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.” But when he’s dialing for dollars from DC, the tune is likely “Bills, Bills, Bills.”

The coulda- shoulda- woulda-been Republican candidates sure are falling fast. Larry Hogan announced a few minutes ago he’s ending his gubernatorial exploratory bid and urging former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich to jump in the race.

From Hogan’s e-mail:

Today I am officially concluding my exploratory committee and calling on my friend Bob Ehrlich to enter this race for governor. Not only do I believe that Bob Ehrlich should run, but I am convinced he will run and that we should all push in the same direction to elect him as Maryland’s next governor.

Of course, Baltimore County Republican Del. Pat McDonough dropped out of his kinda-race for governor a few months ago to throw his support behind Ehrlich. And Baltimore County lawyer Mike Pappas, the only Republican who had actually declared his candidacy for governor, dropped out to endorse Hogan.

So what lessons can we draw from this? Apparently it is better to have never run and lost, than to ever have run at all.

Perhaps the only thing worse than being a Glendening appointee in 2003 is being an Ehrlich appointee in 2007 (and onward.) Ask former Prince George’s County Sheriff James Aluisi: he was appointed to head a sex offender review task force in late 2006 by then-Gov. Ehrlich and then spent three years wandering in the wilderness of state government trying to get someone to empanel his panel.

Former Prince George's County James Aluisi became a veritable "Ghost in the Machine" after his attempts to empanel a sex offender review board fell flat.

Now, thanks to the intrepid reporting of The Sun’s Julie Bykowicz, Aluisi’s panel is set to meet … without him. Aluisi has been replaced by O’Malley’s father-in-law, former Attorney General Joe Curran. Bykowicz first reported last week about Aluisi’s three-year long struggle to get anyone from the O’Malley administration to help get the sex offender review board off the ground.

Thus we dub Aluisi Maryland’s own “Ghost in the Machine” (yes, I realize it is an album, not a song … wait for it.) Like a “Spirit in the Material World,” Aluisi screamed and screamed for attention (by his account) and found himself only in “Darkness.” His attempts to “Rehumanize” himself, vis a vis The Sun, were in vain (a shame considering that could have been a high-profile post for the former lawman, given the prominence of sex offender legislation this year following the death of an 11-year-old Eastern Shore girl.)

(From WYPR this morning – TL)

UPPER MARLBORO, MD (wypr) – “Happy Birthday to Wayne”

Well over a thousand businessmen and women, politicos and state lawmakers pack the Martin’s Camelot banquet hall in Prince George’s County.

Wayne Curry, their onetime, and possible future leader is turning 59.

His friends and colleagues insist this is nothing more than celebration for a prominent figure.

But talk of Curry’s possible run for governor has bubbled in Maryland political circles for years now. And he sounds an awful lot like a candidate, as he rails against Maryland’s political leaders.

“Like the captain of the Titanic, they’re sailing smugly, disregarding serious warnings that icebergs are ahead. They casually disregard alarms, in the belief that their ship is unsinkable. And you are on it, and in fact you pick the captain. So they tell you that Maryland schools are first in the nation. What they don’t tell you is that yours in Prince George’s County and Baltimore City are 23rd and 24th in the state.”

Full story here.

(This is crossposted from my blog at Corridor Inc. – TL)

Maryland Politics Blog: January 27, 2010

Gov. Martin O’Malley has been having some trouble picking a date for his fourth State of the State Address. The speech was originally scheduled for today but rescheduled so as not to conflict with a little something known as the State of the Union Address that President Barack Obama will be delivering tonight.

So the governor’s office pushed the speech back a week to February 4. They then canned that date when they remembered that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is set to resign her seat that day.

So O’Malley had to reschedule to February 2. No word yet whose toes he’ll be stepping on for that date.

The ripples were felt far and wide in Annapolis, as Senate committee chairman announced they would be re-rescheduling their hearings for today, replete with apologies for not announcing the changes sooner.

Senate President Mike Miller had a little fun with the scheduling debacle, saying “I think it was the governor who made a mistake.”

Here’s The Sun‘s take from today’s paper.

- Tom LoBianco