First Click -- Maryland

Your Daily Download of the State's Top Political News and Analysis

Welcome to First Click -- Maryland, your essential new daily guide to politics in the Old Line State. Each weekday morning we'll provide you with a look at the day's upcoming political events. We'll also search from the Eastern Shore to the Western Mountainside to bring you the most comprehensive daily roundup of Maryland's top political news, analysis and provocative thoughts. Have a comment or question about the day's news? Write it down. Have we missed something? Write a comment and let us know that, too. We'll try to answer your questions and bring you a little bit of everything as we strive to make First Click your morning one-stop for Maryland's political news.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: President John F. Kennedy's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, has died this morning in Massachusetts. Associated Press writer Mark Pratt writes that her work founding the Special Olympics dates back to a summer camp she ran in Maryland in 1963. "Shriver would "get right in the pool with the kids; she'd toss the ball," said a niece, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who volunteered at the camp as a teen. "It's that hands-on, gritty approach that awakened her to the kids' needs."

State lawmakers are traveling to Annapolis today for their first major meeting on Maryland's budget woes -- Version 2010.

Members of the House and Senate Budget committees are scheduled to meet this afternoon with Warren Deschenaux, the legislature's chief budget advisor, who already has begun warning that Gov. Martin O'Malley isn't going far enough to close an estimated $700 million shortfall. Deschenaux recently warned that O'Malley's first round of budget cuts to deal with the problem rely heavily on federal stimulus funding and other one-time fixes, and could require the Assembly to make further cuts to close the gap.

The meeting comes before the second of two rounds of cuts O'Malley's promised to make before Labor Day. His first round (about $280 million) largely targeted state agencies, but the second and larger round ($400 million or more) is expected to require furloughs of state employees and other politically unpopular decisions on the eve of his re-election bid.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin is the latest Maryland lawmaker to be heckled regarding the Democrat's proposed health care overhaul. The plan's detractors showed extra gusto Monday afternoon, however, arriving some four hours early and chanting in near 100-degree heat before a town hall meeting at Towson University, according to the Baltimore Sun's Paul West and Julie Scharper.

Cardin was shouted down, booed, and hissed at repeatedly according to multiple accounts. Joe Albero of the conservative Salisbury News live-blogged the event and took pictures of the amassing crowd. In related news, Albero writes that a protest is planned today at Rep. Frank Kratovil's Bel Air office. This follows a recent protest outside one of Kratovil's offices that was not well-received, by either liberals or conservatives.

With the soon-to-be termed-out Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson floating the idea of a run for statewide office, The Post's Jonathan Mummolo studies the potentially crowded field of candidates vying to replace him.

Former State Del. Rushern L. Baker III already has a Web Site up and running and County Council member Samuel H. Dean (D-Mitchellville) officially has thrown his hat in the ring.

State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey and Sheriff Michael Jackson -- both of whom have been widely rumored to have plans to run -- haven't announced. Ivey's spokesman said he is "seriously considering" a run. Jackson's spokesman wouldn't go that far.

The field doesn't end there, however -- other possible names include County Council member Tony Knotts (D-Temple Hills), and State Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George's).

In other election musing, Maryland Politics Blog sizes up the potential primary showdown between Washington County Minority Whip Chris Shank and Sen. Don Munson.

In Brief:

• Blogger Adam Pagnucco questions whether, in the wake of the Red Line crash, WMATA management is starting to crack.
• Comptroller Peter Franchot will be in Rockville today to tout Maryland's Green Building Tax Credit program, certifying a Tower Oaks building as one of the first commercial LEED Platinum office buildings in the state. The project qualified for $1.6 million in green tax credits.
• O'Malley has canceled the governor's storied Seacrets reception, which had been planned for later this week at MACo, saying it will save taxpayers $12,000.
• The Baltimore Sun writes about the death of well-known outdoors writer Bill Burton.
• Montgomery County Del. Jeffrey D. Waldstreicker announces the birth of healthy twins.