Congressional Juice // Updates on Challengers to Sen. Ben Cardin & Congressmen Ruppersberger and Bartlett (and more)

At the start of the year, a few news outlets have produced roundups of Maryland political candidate news (see ie: Germantown Patch, Maryland Reporter, etc). After all, we are in the midst of Congressional filing deadlines, and soon fundraising reports will be trickling in. The Gazette's Sarah Breitenbach today flagged pending Congressional campaign announcements from a few candidates:

As the Jan. 11 deadline to file for 2012 congressional races approaches, several state lawmakers plan to use this week to let constituents know whether they will run for federal office.

Sens. C. Anthony Muse, David R. Brinkley and Nancy Jacobs have scheduled announcement events....

Maryland Juice sources have been trickling information about some of these races. First, we're hearing that State Senator Anthony Muse's campaign kickoff for his Democratic Primary challenge to U.S. Senator Ben Cardin may be attended by some interesting past and present elected officials. We'll hopefully report back with juice after this Thursday's event.

Gov. O'Malley Says PlanMaryland Stops Subsidies for "Stupid Decisions" // MoCo Planning Board's Casey Anderson Explains

Maryland Juice has periodically discussed Governor Martin O'Malley's smart growth initiative PlanMaryland. Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson today provides readers with some information about the new land use guidelines. Conservative lawmakers have attacked the plan, but Gov. O'Malley adopted it as an Executive Order over their objections. The Baltimore Sun reported last month:

The plan has been decried by conservative county officials and Republican legislators as a usurpation of local power over land use, but O'Malley defended it Monday as a framework for making wise decisions about where the state should invest in capital projects....

O'Malley said the plan will not dictate local land-use policies but will guide state spending, steering money away from projects that promote sprawling development.

"The state's not going to be a part of those stupid decisions, and we're not going to be subsidizing stupid decisions — pardon me — unsustainable decisions," O'Malley said....

The plan seeks to discourage the spread of what it calls "large lot development areas" — subdivisions that are typically built with septic systems rather than with public water and sewer. The policy explicitly seeks to discourage the spread of such developments by minimizing funding for programs that fuel such growth.

Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson provided the following additional explanation of PlanMaryland:

The most important thing for anyone who lives in Montgomery County to understand about Plan Maryland is that if the surrounding jurisdictions are allowed to do whatever they want, the resulting sprawl will clog up our roads (because many of the people who move there will be commuting to jobs here or travel through MoCo on their way to DC).  It also will increase the amount of water pollution from runoff (because of increased amounts of impervious surface when new roads and parking lots are built, etc.) which limits our ability to grow, because the total amount of pollutants entering the Chesapeake Bay is subject to increasingly tight restrictions.  

In other words, if Frederick's development ends up polluting our watershed, then development in Montgomery will be more expensive and difficult because we will be required to pay for additional water quality mitigation in order to build anything.  

White House 2016: Gov. Martin O'Malley Starts 2012 Strong // Baltimore Shows 10 Years of Progress, DGA Raises Big $$$

Throughout 2011, Maryland Juice reported on various hints that Gov. Martin O'Malley was beginning to position himself for a 2016 White House bid. Even though it seems like President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign is just beginning, rest assured that the post-November world will reveal a sudden interest in the selection of the Democratic Party's 2016 standard-bearer.

In fact, that jockeying will probably begin in earnest as potential 2016 candidates jockey for a speaking role at the Democrats' Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina later this year. In the meantime, today's news reveals a couple signs that 2012 is starting off on the right track for Gov. O'Malley.

Former Ehrlich Aide's Wild Accusation: Underage Intern Got Wasted in Rep. Andy Harris' Office, Chief of Staff Supplied Booze

Former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich once employed Joe Steffen, a shadowy GOP operative who later became known as "the Prince of Darkness." At one point, Steffen's job was to target Democrats for firing from government jobs, and he was ultimately canned for spreading rumors about Martin O'Malley. Mr. Steffen now writes a Maryland politics blog, and a Maryland Juice reader forwarded us a WILD new blog post from the so-called Prince of Darkness.

Joe Steffen is alleging that Congressman Andy Harris' Chief of Staff bought booze for an underage intern's goodbye party in their Congressional office. According to Steffen, the intern supposedly got trashed and was then thrown out of the program -- on her last day. Steffen also claims Rep. Harris's Chief of Staff tried to blame the whole affair on another aide. You should read Mr. Steffen's accusations at his blog. He claims his version of the "facts" is supported "by three very reliable sources." We reprint some excerpts from his piece below, but you'll have to read the original to see his full accounting of the alleged events:

A little background: Kevin Reigurt is Andy Harris’ Chief of Staff, a top gun position that involves him overseeing Harris’ Washington DC office....

Late last summer (and I’d previously heard bits of the story – can you guess which parts were just recently brought to my attention?) Kevin Reigurt did something that boggles the mind....

Sports Team Owners on Election 2012 // Redskins for Romney, Wizards & Caps for Obama, Orioles for the Dems

The Associated Press decided to kick off 2012's year of political coverage by merging the two cash cows of television advertising: 1) sports and 2) presidential elections. In an article today, they highlight notable political contributions by high profile sports figures. In the D.C. Metro area, we appear to have a split ticket. The AP reports on the following "sports figures who have made political donations for this year's elections...."

Redskins for Romney

• "Washington Redskins quarterback John Beck, $400 to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney" 

• "Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, $2,500 to Romney and $10,000 to National Republican Congressional Committee"

Wizards/Capitals for Obama

Marylander of the Year: State Senator Allan Kittleman // Surprise: He's a Republican (I'm Not)

[ See All of the "2011 Marylander of the Year" Nominations ] 

THIS GUY IS MARYLANDER OF THE YEAR?!?

In the first blog post of 2012, Maryland Juice is naming State Senator Allan Kittleman of Howard County our 2011 Marylander of the Year. The choice might not seem obvious, since I am a Democrat and Mr. Kittleman is a Republican. In fact, if he runs for higher office, I still hope a Democrat beats him. But here's why he is Marylander of the Year....

JuiceBlender // Meet Judge Kratovil, MD Redistricting Lawsuit Rejected, Roscoe Bartlett Awakens & Van Hollen on Drug Tests

Here's a random blend of political tidbits from the last week, starting with more fallout from Maryland's 2012 congressional redistricting. Several months ago, Senator Rich Madaleno told Maryland Juice readers & viewers that the first major decision facing Democrats was which Republican to attack: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett in CD6 or Rep. Andy Harris in CD1. Over the course of the last few months, many of us watched the Dems quickly target Mr. Bartlett, leading to a parade of Republican and Democratic challengers in CD6. But whatever happened to former CD1 Congressman Frank Kratovil? Last week we learned that his story ends well, too.

Juice #1: Meet Judge Frank Kratovil: A few days ago, a Maryland Juice source forwarded us a press release with the following headline "Governor O'Malley Appoints Frank Kratovil to Queen Anne's County District Court." The statement noted: "Mr. Kratovil will fill a vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable John T. Clark, III.... Mr. Kratovil served as State’s Attorney in Queen Anne’s County from 2002 to 2009.  Mr. Kratovil left his post after he was elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Kratovil served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in both Queen Anne’s and Prince George’s Counties and as Deputy State’s Attorney in Kent County.... More information about the nominating commissions can be found at www.gov.state.md.us (shortened)."

In comments to Easton's Star Democrat, Mr. Kratovil stated one of his reasons for wanting to be a judge: "When you're a judge every decision has to be impartial and I think a courtroom is one of the best places in the world to get to the truth."