Political Fires Cool This Year At Gathering Of Counties

What a difference an election cycle makes.

Four years ago, Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Martin O'Malley and Douglas M. Duncan took full advantage of the networking opportunities at the annual summer conferences in Ocean City hosted by the Maryland Municipal League and the Maryland Association of Counties. The Baltimore mayor and Montgomery County executive were accompanied by a retinue of aides as they made the rounds, as did then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R).

This year's MACo conference, where Gov. O'Malley announced that counties will have to share heavily in coming state budget cuts, was decidedly more low-key.

Two candidates considering a run for governor showed up at Friday night's crab feast, the see-and-be-seen event of the conference. But Larry Hogan and George W. Owings III spent no small part of the event chatting genially with one another, and conference-goers were hardly lining up to have their photos snapped with either.

Both were Cabinet secretaries under Ehrlich, with Hogan managing the state's appointments process and Owings running the Department of Veterans Affairs. Hogan is telling people he might seek the Republican nomination for governor if Ehrlich doesn't get in the race (an announcement could be several months away). Owings, a former lawmaker from Southern Maryland, might be gearing up for a Democratic primary campaign against O'Malley.

Hogan and Owings also attended Saturday morning's speech by O'Malley, and both were happy to serve up quotes about what they thought. Hogan's zingers seemed the more practiced. A sample: "O'Malley's slogan used to be 'Believe.' What we heard this morning sounded more like 'Make Believe.' "

For his part, O'Malley put in a relatively low-profile appearance at the crab feast, where attendance was down this year, as it was at the conference generally. Two of his longer conversations were with Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D), who is also up for reelection next year, and Warren Deschenaux, the legislature's chief number-cruncher. Both were wearing shorts, the preferred attire of perhaps half the men at the early-evening event.

Notably, O'Malley drew a standing ovation from the MACo crowd, even after telling the audience he would cut state aid to local governments by $250 million.

Two other statewide elected officials, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) and Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), appeared at the conference earlier in the week but had left by the time of the crab feast and governor's speech.

Edmonston Mayor Added As Brown Shuffles Staff

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown has added some heft to his small staff with the hiring of Edmonston Mayor Adam Ortiz as a deputy chief of staff.

Ortiz has worked in state government since July 2007 as a special assistant to Thomas E. Perez, the secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. (Perez has been nominated to a U.S. Justice Department post.) Brown (D) confirmed the move Friday in Ocean City at the Maryland Association of Counties conference.

Ortiz's arrival is part of a larger shuffling of key personnel around Brown, among the Democrats expected to increasingly jockey to succeed O'Malley if he wins reelection next year.

Asuntha Chiang-Smith, who has coordinated the state's response to the base realignment and closure process, will be elevated to deputy chief of staff in Brown's office. She will remain as executive director on the BRAC effort, a major focus for Brown, and take on additional responsibilities related to other economic development issues.

Meanwhile, Brown's communications director, Barbara Streeter, recently left for a job as outreach liaison at the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

And Ben Stutz has arrived in the office as Brown's new policy director. Stutz had been a key staff member for Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring). Stutz replaces Jeanette Ortiz, who has moved over to serve as Chiang-Smith's deputy on BRAC issues.

Brown flipped his top two staffers this year, making Earl Adams his chief of staff and Jerry Boden, who formerly held that title, a deputy chief of staff.