By Marylou Tousignant
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 17, 1998; Page B07

Rebuffed in their efforts to fill a vacant Maryland state Senate seat with the man who was expelled from it last month for ethics violations, a Baltimore Democratic committee last night nominated someone else - John Jeffries - to the vacated post.

Jeffries, 69, is a former two-term member of the Maryland House of Delegates and currently serves as assistant secretary in the state's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

He was selected by the 44th District Democratic Central Committee to take the west Baltimore Senate seat until recently held by Larry Young, who was expelled by his colleagues Jan. 16 after the legislature's ethics committee determined that he had abused his office to garner thousands of dollars from groups doing business with the state.

Young, the first senator in Maryland history expelled on ethics charges, has denied any wrongdoing. Federal and state grand juries are investigating possible criminal wrongdoing.

Jeffries said he would complete Young's term, which expires in January, but would not seek election this fall to a full four-year term -- leaving the door open for the 48-year-old Young to make another bid for office. The Jeffries nomination must be approved by Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D).

Jeffries, who has served as an official of the Washington and Maryland AFL-CIO and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, vowed to continue what he called Young's good work, the Associated Press reported.

Jeffries was the unanimous choice of the 44th District committee, which had faced a deadline of today in naming a successor to Young. Otherwise, Glendening would have filled the vacant post. Last week, the five-member panel voted to nominate Young for the post from which he had been expelled, but Glendening rejected the move after the attorney general's office ruled that the expulsion disqualified Young from completing his term. The governor also said he found Young's actions, as presented in the ethics committee report, "inappropriate and unacceptable."

The Senate voted 36 to 10 to expel Young, a 23-year lawmaker and supporter of Glendening, for the remainder of his term. Young, chairman of a health finance subcommittee, was accused of using his position to funnel deals to his businesses.