Lack of cabinet positions for region riles politicos

Southern Maryland not represented on cabinet

Friday, June 15, 2007

The removal of Thomas E. ‘‘Tim” Hutchins as Maryland State Police superintendent left the state’s fastest-growing region without a presence among the governor’s top policy advisors.

The decision sparked waves of disappointment from elected officials and political activists across the region, including some of his strongest Democratic supporters, who feel the area deserves a seat at the policymaking table.

‘‘I really feel he has kind of left us in the dark and I’m a little unhappy about it,” said Calvert County Commissioner Barbara A. Stinnett (D). ‘‘I think that he has deserted aspects of Southern Maryland and I believe we are as important as any other area.”

O’Malley, whose cabinet lacks only a permanent secretary of state, defended the make-up of his cabinet, saying his chief goal was to assemble a team of talented individuals without regard to where they reside.

‘‘We’ve recruited such a high caliber group of men and women to fill the various cabinet positions and there are a finite number of secretaries,” he told reporters. ‘‘I think if you look at them you’ll be sore-pressed to find another administration that had the sort of professional depth as well as the geographic spread and racial and gender diversity that ours currently has.”

Deputy agriculture secretary Earl F. ‘‘Buddy” Hance, the highest-ranking administration official from Southern Maryland is ‘‘very important to the command ranks ... of the civilian government,” O’Malley added.

But that fails to satisfy some of the region’s elected officials, including Charles County Commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper, who recalled a pledge from O’Malley after he became the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate to carry Charles County since 1990.

‘‘His comment was he won’t forget us, but it appears he has forgotten us,” Cooper said, noting that O’Malley has yet to visit Charles County since taking office in January. ‘‘It appears that we’ve been neglected and I don’t know why. I think we have qualified people here in Southern Maryland to fill positions just as much as they do in Baltimore city.”

Local officials had high hopes that O’Malley would reward the region with some key appointees, but that hasn’t happened.

‘‘We came through for him, there’s no doubt about that,” said Frank Lancaster, the longtime president of the Fourth and Fifth Districts Democratic Club of Charles County and a staunch party foot soldier. ‘‘It’s almost like a quid pro quo arrangement.”

Conversely, Southern Maryland was well represented under O’Malley’s predecessor, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R). Hutchins, a three-term Republican delegate from Charles County was initially tapped to lead the veterans affairs department in February 2003. He was appointed acting state police superintendent in December after Ehrlich’s first police chief, Edward T. Norris, was indicted for using Baltimore City Police Department funds on personal expenditures.

Ehrlich then selected Del. George W. Owings III (D) of Calvert County to become veterans affairs secretary. Then-Del. Van T. Mitchell (D) of Charles County also left the legislature in 2004 to become deputy health secretary.

After O’Malley’s election, Mitchell took a job with an Annapolis lobbying firm, while Owings and Hutchins retained their posts. But neither man was reappointed, fueling speculation that both would soon be dismissed.

O’Malley announced in May that James A. Adkins, a former deputy to Owings, would be the new veterans affairs secretary. Several weeks later, the governor tapped Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan to replace Hutchins.

The Southern Maryland void left Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George’s) fuming.

‘‘When you have a Baltimore city fella [as governor], you have got to make sure the whole state is represented,” Miller said during a recent radio interview. ‘‘As president of the Senate, you try to make certain the chairmen of the committees, the membership, reflects the diversity of our great state. ... And I know the governor is trying his very best to diversify his cabinet, but I’d just like to see it take a little more of a geographic tilt so that the area where the state was founded — Southern Maryland — where I come from and [former Comptroller] Louis Goldstein came from, has a little representation in the governor’s cabinet.”

Earlier this year, Miller recommended in a letter to O’Malley that he nominate Hance, a Calvert County resident who is former president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, and keep Hutchins and Owings in their positions.

Regardless, O’Malley said Southern Maryland’s strength in the legislature, through Miller and other high-ranking lawmakers, ensures ample input in his administration.

One lawmaker agreed that the region’s legislative might offsets the cabinet deficiency.

‘‘I think that we have a lot of access to this governor through the individual legislators ... so I don’t think it’s a dearth that we need to hit the panic button over,” said Del. John L. Bohanan Jr. (D-St. Mary’s).

Further, several of O’Malley’s department heads worked in the Glendening administration and are familiar with Southern Maryland, he said, citing Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari.

But others aren’t so optimistic.

‘‘We’re a very important piece of the state’s economy and we certainly want people in Annapolis to be aware of that and not take it for granted,” said St. Mary’s County Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D).

‘‘No matter how good a person you are, no matter how good your intentions are, if you live in Baltimore city, you really don’t have a first-hand appreciation of the issues that face us down here in the tri-county area,” echoed St. Mary’s County Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D).

Opinions vary on how important it is to have a representative in the cabinet.

‘‘They have more access to the governor and the lieutenant governor and they have an opportunity to personally express their opinions about how decisions that are being made in Annapolis directly affect this region,” Mattingly said.

Under Ehrlich, a geographically diverse cabinet limited the larger, metropolitan counties from having too much influence, which now seems to be ‘‘fading away,” he added.

‘‘It’s always nice because that person never forgets where their roots are,” Sen. Thomas ‘‘Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) said.

‘‘It’s always important to have someone sitting at the big table to represent and speak for [your region],” said Del. John F. Wood Jr. (D-St. Mary’s, Charles), who crossed party lines to endorse Ehrlich in last year’s election. ‘‘... People from Baltimore County are not going to speak for Southern Maryland or Western Maryland or the Eastern Shore.”

Western Maryland also has no presence in the Cabinet, but Eastern Shore natives or residents fill three Cabinet posts: veterans affairs, planning and agriculture. O’Malley didn’t carry any county in either region.

But simply having one rural perspective does not fulfill O’Malley’s pledge to embrace a ‘‘One Maryland” philosophy, Wood said. ‘‘Southern Maryland is not like Western Maryland or the Eastern Shore. Yeah, we have a lot of things in common, but we’re not all alike.”

A top GOP lawmaker from across the state also took aim at the lack of geographic diversity.

‘‘O’Malley, when he was campaigning, talked about a 24-county strategy, but if you look at his cabinet, it doesn’t look like a 24-county cabinet he’s put together,” said House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank (R-Washington).

However, most acknowledge the governor has the prerogative to compose a cabinet that best fits his administration.

‘‘You don’t have to like it, but you have to live with it,” Wood said.

O’Malley still has dozens of non-cabinet positions to fill and some are bound to be Southern Marylanders, said Calvert County Democratic Central Committee chairman Christopher J. Reynolds. That’s one reason why the cabinet makeup doesn’t bother him.

‘‘We’re all part of a team and some guys get to wear a star on their shirt and some guys don’t,” he said.

It’s also to be expected that the ex Charm City mayor’s cabinet would be Baltimore-heavy.

‘‘We’ve got a governor who is a very confident and shining star whose natural background is Baltimore and he’s going to pick some people who are known to him,” Reynolds said.

Calvert’s legislative muscle — via Miller and House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s) — helps put the region on the map, he added.

‘‘I feel very, very good about Calvert County and Southern Maryland being represented as decisions are made in the state government,” Reynolds said. ‘‘The state government is tripartite ... and having a strong Southern Maryland [delegation] in the General Assembly puts us on the map.”

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.