What's on Leaders' Minds Is Secondary to What's on Their Feet

After being closed for four years, the shoeshine stand in the Maryland State House basement reopened yesterday with a flurry of activity.

Dino Wright earnestly set up shop at the base of the grand marble staircase, and for $5 (plus tip), the veteran bootblack glossed the loafers of lawmakers and lobbyists alike.

On his first day, Wright was visited by a few celebrity customers. Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) sat on Wright's platform in a red leather chair, his shoes on the metal footrests and his mouth gabbing for the TV cameras.

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) stopped by to get his black leather slip-ons polished. Johnson even took off his left shoe to show a Washington Post reporter the shoeshiner's touch -- and to point out the brand label: Bruno Magli.

"They're pretty expensive," Johnson said of the Italian luxury brand made famous in the 1990s during O.J. Simpson's trial.

Johnson said he was so impressed with Wright that he's going to bring four extra pairs with him the next time he visits the State House.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said he plans to frequent Wright's stand weekly to maintain the shine on his black leather Rockports, which Busch called his "big-boy shoes."

Wright, 54, arrived in Annapolis after three decades shining shoes on Capitol Hill. He replaces Jimmy Chambers, who died in 2004 after shining shoes in the State House basement for about 50 years.

"He was kind of an institution," Busch said. When Chambers shined the shoes of senators and delegates, Busch recalled, "lobbyists would be waiting in line to pay."

Since Chambers's death, the stand had stood empty in his honor. But one day last fall, Wright shined the shoes of Del. Michael L. Vaughn (D-Prince George's) at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. Vaughn told Wright that the State House needed a new shoeshiner, and the rest is history.

Wright is no stranger to Maryland politics; he campaigned in 2006 for Brown, his Mitchellville neighbor, and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). But Wright said his new job is no act of patronage.

"How is the shoeshine man a part of the administration?" Wright asked.

Once his customers left, as he packed up his polishes, Wright offered a critique of his customers' fashion sense. He called Johnson's Bruno Maglis "simplistic, tasteful and very corporate."

And what of Brown?

"The lieutenant governor had a very stylish and functional pair," Wright said. "The guy moves very quickly."