Little Anthony and the imperial guard! No, I’m not talking about Jerome Anthony Gourdine, the 1960s crooner (“Tears On My Pillow,” “Hurt So Bad,” “Going Out of My Head”) backed by the doo wop Imperials. I’m talking about Anthony Brown, the candidate for Maryland governor, backed by an Imperial Guard of elected officials, state bureaucrats and partisan journalists.
Brown has a lot going for him: the vigorous support of African-American voters, the largest war chest, name recognition and a great life story. He’s also the Democratic establishment’s favorite, backed by most elected officials, most labor unions and most special-interest groups.
Running far ahead of his wounded chief rival, Doug Gansler, Brown is conducting a modified rose garden campaign. He’s ducking candidate forums, limiting debates, avoiding controversy and, generally, running out the clock until the June 24 primary. Running out the clock with a big lead often backfires in sports, but in politics it makes sense if you have the Imperial Guard on your side. Here’s how it works.
The Baltimore jail scandal
Each of Maryland’s local governments runs and funds its own jail except Baltimore city. Rife with mismanagement and corruption, Baltimore’s jail came under state control (and funding) in the 1990s. But last April federal authorities busted Baltimore’s state-run jail, leading to the arrest of 44 guards and inmates, including the Black Guerrilla Family gang, which was running the place.
When the jail bust made national headlines the embarrassed Maryland legislature launched an investigation into how it happened and who was to blame. No surprise, the Democratic task force didn’t hold anyone in the O’Malley/Brown administration accountable, not even the corrections secretary. Instead, it blamed the scandal on the jail building.
That’s right, the building. The task force’s chief recommendation? Have state taxpayers build a new $533 million city jail. Also, heighten screening and scrutiny of guards, but not enough to upset the corrections officers union. No one held accountable, cover-up complete.
Troopergate
Accounts of Attorney General Doug Gansler hectoring his state trooper drivers to speed and ignore traffic laws were kept under wraps for two years by the O’Malley/Brown administration and, then, leaked (thanks to a complicit Washington Post reporter) right before Gansler’s big news conference announcing his running mate.
Gansler stupidly called the obvious setup what it was, a political hit job, but that only compounded the da
