Strange Bedfellows

Del. Pat McDonough returned five days of his $43,500 annual legislative salary late last year. McDonough, a two-term Republican who represents the 7th District, released documents showing he participated in a furlough program requested by House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.

The 7th District includes Cockeysville, Honeygo and Middle River.

Both Busch and Miller returned five days’ salary and asked fellow legislators to also give up between one and five days’ pay at the same time 67,000 state employees were being furloughed for up to five days based on individual salary levels. (more…)

Is Del. Pat McDonough looking to become the king of Baltimore media?

The 7th District Republican already has a radio show on WCBM and makes regular appearances with Ed Norris on 105.7 FM The Fan.

Now McDonough is branching out to television.

The half-hour show, “Pat McDonough, Rally for America,” will air at noon on Saturdays beginning tomorrow on Fox 45. McDonough also serves as a public affairs analyst for the station. (more…)

County Executive Jim Smith is moving from Reisterstown, where he has lived his entire life, to Cockeysville.

Smith says he and his wife, Sandy, are downsizing from their current large home to a smaller one. A side benefit is the new home is in the 7th District, which happens to have an open Senate seat in 2010. Smith said the move gives him the opportunity to consider running for the seat. (more…)

Republican Del. Pat McDonough is expected to officially announce his “testing the waters” campaign for governor in the next day or two.

In addition to more fully explaining that concept — and some of his issues he’ll be running on — the delegate said he will clarify his statement that he would not run for governor if Republican former Gov. Robert Ehrlich decides to run.

There’s apparently some fine print to that statement.

“The caveat is that I will not run if (Ehrlich) supports all the issues I care about,” McDonough explained this morning.

McDonough said he plans to sign a pledge promising to not raise taxes while he is governor. He said he is concerned that Gov. Martin O’Malley, if re-elected, will  surprise voters with “an ambush tax” in 2011 to cover state budget deficits.

McDonough said he plans to run on a platform that includes education issues and criminal justice issues including gang-related crime. And yes, illegal immigration will continue to be a part of his campaign as well.

McDonough said he believes Ehrlich, if he runs, would have similar views on issues.

“Other than Constellation Energy, which we might differ on a little bit, I don’t see why (Ehrlich) wouldn’t,” McDonough said.

Del. Pat McDonough says people are talking to him about running for governor and he’s decided to listen — up to a point.

McDonough said he is beginning a “testing the waters” process, which he defined as “something less formal than an exploratory process.”

McDonough, a Republican who represents the 7th District, has previously expressed an interest in running for county executive.

But over the past few months, the three-term delegate said he has been getting calls from listeners to his radio show on WCBM, and also comments from people he meets encouraging him to run for governor. (more…)

Republican Del. Pat McDonough says that despite rumors, he is not interested in the 7th District state Senate seat held by Sen. Andy Harris.

“I’m definitely not,” McDonough said.

“I’ve not uttered one statement (about the senate seat) publicly or privately,” McDonough said.

“It’s either county executive or House of Delegates,” McDonough said. (more…)

A fund raiser hosted by Republican Del. William Frank has Del. Pat McDonough hot under the collar.

“We’re not happy,” said Del. Pat McDonough, describing sentiments he says he shares with Del. Rick Impallaria. “Bill Frank is interloping into this district by holding a fundraiser for his cousin.”

Frank hosted the Nov. 22 event at the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Department for Marilyn Booker, a Republican who is eying a run for the House of Delegates in the 7th District. The district. which is currently represented by McDonough, Impallaria and Del. J.B. Jennings. includes Cockeysville, Kingsville, Middle River and part of Perry Hall. (more…)

The ongoing scuttlebutt about President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet has generated an interesting scenario that’s filling e-mail boxes and has local tongues wagging.

It seems to have started after Republican Del. Pat McDonough talked about a musical chairs set of appointments during his Saturday radio program on WCBM.

It goes something like this:

Attorney General Doug Gansler, who co-chaired Obama’s Maryland campaign, is in line for a big-time appointment from the incoming president, most likely to the Department of Justice. From there, Gov. Martin O’Malley would appoint County Executive Jim Smith to replace Gansler. To complete the cycle, the County Council would replace Smith with out-going Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz, who already has the needed votes. (more…)

Former-Del. Al Redmer is expected to formally announce his interest in replacing Republican state Sen. Andy Harris should Harris be elected to Congress this November. Redmer confirmed that he plans on making the announcement tonight at a meeting of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee.

Redmer joins three other Republicans who are also interested in the seat - Dels. J.B. Jennings and Pat McDonough and restauranteur Sergio Vitale.

Harris, who is in his third term the 7th District, is the Republican nominee in Maryland’s District 1 congressional race against Democrat Frank Kratovil.

Two-thirds of the 7th District is in eastern Baltimore County stretching from Cockeysville to parts of Perry Hall and Middle River. The remaining third of the district is contained in an adjoining portion of western Harford County.

Should Harris win, GOP Central Committee members from Baltimore and Harford Counties will be called upon to submit the name of a replacement to Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Redmer previously served from 1991 to 2003 in the House of Delegates, including three years as House minority leader, representing the 8th District which includes Perry Hall, Parkville and Overlea. In 2003 he was appointed state insurance commissioner.

He and his wife now live in a home in Middle River.

Redmer has been informally meeting with Republican Central Committee members in small informal gatherings for some time.

“The reason I’ve been doing it quietly is that I did not want a lot of focus to be on who’s going to replace Andy Harris,” Redmer said in a phone interview. “Quite frankly, I think the focus and attention and work should be on getting Andy Harris elected to Congress.”

But Redmer said he was encouraged to make an appearance at a meeting of the county central committee and make some sort of an official announcement. Such an announcement also allows Redmer to begin to hold fund raising events for a senate campaign.

The ability to raise money now could be key since a replacement senator would likely be named just weeks before the opening of the 2009 General Assembly session and 18-months before the 2010 election. Legislators are legally prohibited from raising money during the session.

It is likely that Harris’ replacement will face a strong challenge from Democrats. Councilman Vince Gardina has nearly $150,000 cash in his campaign account, according to the most recent report filed with the State Board of Elections, and is considered to be a likely Democratic candidate for the seat.

Redmer said he believes he is best suited to keep the seat in Republican hands no matter who the Democratic candidate is “based on my experience, name recognition and ability to raise a competitive amount of money.”

Republican Del. Pat McDonough and his wife recently returned from a trip to Myrtle Beach, Florida (he said it wasn’t hot enough here) but it wasn’t the beaches or the weather that left a lasting impression on the delegate who represents the 7th District, which includes Cockeysville, Kingsville and Middle River.

No, it was the giant 3-D IMAX movie featuring “dinosaurs and sea monsters.”

“It was really impressive, I thought one of the dinosaurs was going to come out of the screen and bite my head off,” McDonough said. Then he added, “It was 40 million years ago and William Donald Schaefer and Helen Bentley were just walking around the landscape.”