O'Malley Names Picks To Head 2 Departments

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will announce two midterm Cabinet appointments Tuesday, elevating Beverley K. Swaim-Staley to transportation secretary and naming Edward Chow Jr. veterans affairs secretary.

Swaim-Staley has been acting transportation secretary since June, after the departure of John D. Porcari to serve as U.S. deputy transportation secretary in the Obama administration. She had served as Porcari's deputy during his tenures as state transportation secretary under O'Malley and the previous Democratic governor, Parris N. Glendening.

Chow, an Army veteran, will be the first Asian American to serve in O'Malley's Cabinet. He most recently worked as director of programs for an organization that advises Congress on issues affecting the Asian Pacific American community.

The outgoing head of the Veterans Affairs Department, James A. Adkins, will remain in his other Cabinet post, Maryland adjutant general and head of the state's Military Department. He has headed both departments since June 2008.

The two appointments come as O'Malley heads into an election year having seen relatively little turnover in his Cabinet. Two notable exceptions are the two members tapped for positions in the Obama administration: Porcari and Thomas E. Perez, Maryland's secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Perez, a Montgomery County lawyer, has continued to serve in O'Malley's administration pending his confirmation by the U.S. Senate as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Aides said O'Malley has no plans to name a replacement before Perez's departure.

The appointments of Swaim-Staley and Chow are subject to confirmation by the Maryland Senate when the legislature reconvenes in January, but they will begin their new jobs in coming weeks, officials said.

Swaim-Staley, an Anne Arundel County resident, assumes control of one of the state's largest departments, with 9,000 employees and a budget of more than $3 billion. She is a native of Hagerstown.

Chow, a District resident, will take over a far smaller enterprise, whose mission includes assisting veterans, active-duty service members and their dependents in securing benefits.

Before taking his position at the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies in 2008, Chow was president of the Maryland State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America. He plans to move from the District to Maryland upon starting his new job, an O'Malley aide said.