Another Former Glendening Aide Tapped for O'Malley Administration

Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley will announce today his nomination of T. Eloise Foster as budget secretary, a position she held under Maryland's last Democratic governor, Parris N. Glendening.

Foster, 60, whose selection was confirmed yesterday by three people familiar with the transition, is O'Malley's third Cabinet pick and his second from Glendening's administration. This week, O'Malley announced his choice of John D. Porcari, a Prince George's County resident, as transportation secretary.

Foster, a Montgomery County resident, is leading a budget work group for O'Malley's transition team as he prepares to take office facing a projected fiscal shortfall. Foster has been heavily courted to take a more permanent role, despite expressing reluctance to return to her old job, according to several people who spoke with her in recent weeks. She has her own consulting business.

Foster's appointment requires confirmation by the state Senate, where she remains popular with senior Democrats on the budget committee. She has held several Maryland government jobs since 1978, including budget secretary for the final 2 1/2 years of Glendening's tenure. She left in January 2003, with the arrival of Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Foster is among several African Americans whom O'Malley has picked for senior administration jobs. Jeanne Hitchcock, a deputy mayor in Baltimore and former national NAACP staff member, was chosen to be O'Malley's appointments secretary. And O'Malley has announced that Peggy J. Watson will be a deputy chief of staff.