Glendening

Nancy S. Grasmick, one of Maryland's most tenacious political survivors, won't be evicted easily from the Nancy S. Grasmick Building. With a combination of sterling professional credentials and shrewd political maneuvering, the nation's longest- serving state schools superintendent has managed to hang on to her office under four governors. Yesterday, the State Board of Education gave her the glimmer of a chance she might serve under a fifth. It awarded Grasmick, 68, a new four-year contract that would keep her in her job until after the 2010 gubernatorial election - if she can hold on. The board acted in brash defiance of the state's three most powerful elected officials - Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch.

The architect of Maryland's decade-old Smart Growth policy spoke up for it yesterday, arguing that despite its shortcomings at curbing suburban sprawl it has helped revitalize dying downtowns across the state and kick-started a national movement to build more transit-oriented, walkable communities. Speaking in Annapolis at a conference reviewing the growth-management law he crafted, former Gov. Parris N. Glendening acknowledged that a few metropolitan areas and states such as Oregon and Seattle have had more success than has Maryland at reining in low-density development.

Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening endorsed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for president yesterday, citing the fellow Democrat's commitment to environmental protection and fighting global climate change. "As secretary of energy, he was a leader on mass transit and smart growth issues," Glendening said in a statement released by the Richardson campaign. "As governor of New Mexico, he has turned around an economy while also protecting the environment." A former two-term Democratic governor, Glendening is best known as a champion of anti-sprawl development policies.

Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley plans to announce today his nominees to head two key state agencies, once again choosing veterans of former Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration to run the health and environment departments. Sources close to the O'Malley administration confirmed yesterday that John M. Colmers, the former head of the Maryland Health Care Commission, will be the nominee for health and mental hygiene; and Shari T. Wilson, who helped lead Glendening's signature Smart Growth initiative, will be the governor-elect's pick for the Department of the Environment.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening joined Harford County and Battelle Memorial Institute officials yesterday in formally announcing construction of the company's eastern operations facility at the Higher Education and Applied Technology (HEAT) Center near Aberdeen.The $40 million Battelle center is expected to bring as many as 300 scientific and technical jobs to Harford by 2003. It will strengthen the institute's ties to Aberdeen Proving Ground, where Battelle is a subcontractor on a planned chemical weapons-disposal facility.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening has told labor leaders he will make a new attempt to write collective bargaining for state employees into law this year -- possibly with an expanded reach that could add thousands of workers to union rolls.At the same time, Glendening has shelved an ambitious proposal to make Maryland the first state to ban the sale of all but child-proof handguns, going back on a campaign promise to introduce such legislation in the coming session.Glendening's decision to include a collective bargaining bill in his legislative package for the 90-day General Assembly session will reopen a battle the governor fought and lost in 1996.

FEW people are as important to Martin O'Malley as the "man who wasn't there" when the mayor-elect gave his victory speech Tuesday night.By the time Mr. O'Malley delivered his thank-you remarks, Gov. Parris Glendening had disappeared. A few hours earlier, though, over bottles of Irish beer, the governor had delivered the message Mr. O'Malley wanted to hear: There's going to be "a new relationship" between Mr. Glendening and Baltimore. That would mark a radical departure from the frosty relations between Mr. Glendening and outgoing Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in recent years.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening moved yesterday to inject new life into ailing downtown Hagerstown, announcing that the state will locate the University System of Maryland's new Washington County campus in the heart of the city's business district.The governor said he hopes his decision, which goes against the publicly expressed wishes of county and university officials, sends a strong statewide message that he will enforce his Smart Growth policies favoring redevelopment in existing urban centers.

General Assembly leaders say they hope to resolve the final details of a controversial electric deregulation bill this week, setting up the possibility of an end-of-session showdown with Gov. Parris N. Glendening should he veto the legislation.The governor, sensing swift movement on the issue, met with the House speaker, Senate president and a top senator yesterday in an effort to hammer out a deal. He softened his insistence on environmental protections in the bill and offered a compromise on his demand for a larger rate cut for residential consumers.

TO WIN an election, a candidate often makes promises that prove difficult to keep. Parris N. Glendening has put himself squarely in that uncomfortable position.During last year's gubernatorial election, Mr. Glendening pledged to put 1,110 more teachers into local classrooms to tutor kids in reading and math. That commitment neatly neutralized a somewhat similar pledge by his opponent, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, to hire an extra 1,000 reading teachers.But after he was re-elected, Mr. Glendening decided not to include any money in his budget for these educators.

According to The Washington Post, Gov. Martin O'Malley is about to issue his first pardons since taking office in January 2007, and there are no convicted killers on the short list of those who will catch a break from the Democratic governor. In fact, Mr. O'Malley's mercy extends only to seven people, and they were convicted years ago of petty theft and disorderly conduct. "I suppose my orientation from being a big-city mayor and having seen the violence on our streets is more of a tough-on-crime orientation," the governor and former mayor of Baltimore told the Post.

Former Maryland first lady Frances Hughes Glendening is the head of Jobs for America's Graduates-District of Columbia Inc., a private, not-for-profit organization. She is president of the board of directors for the Maryland Women's Heritage Center and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Glendening lives in University Park. 1 4 more hours, daily: "I'd really like six, but I won't be greedy. I'd take four more hours to spend with friends, family, hobbies and to devote to my lifelong passions, including women's rights and the arts, among others."

Although this fact may not have been apparent to readers of The Sun's recent article on the future of the Rosewood Center site ("Hospitals' acreage is lure for developers," June 15), this land is situated directly across the road from the Caves Valley conservation area. The Maryland Environmental Trust and the Caves Valley Land Trust jointly hold conservation easements that cover nearly 1,500 acres in the area, including a 116-acre parcel of surplus Rosewood Center property that the state donated to the Irvine Nature Center eight years ago in response to a conservation proposal from the land trust.

Eugene "Gene" Raymond Lynch III, a member of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's Cabinet who orchestrated the preservation of Deep Creek Lake for future generations, died of metastatic bladder cancer Friday at Casey House, a Rockville hospice. He was 50. The former governor described his friend and colleague as a "renaissance man of public service," given Mr. Lynch's background as a civic activist, labor organizer and small-business owner. "Very few people brought that kind of diversity of background to his service," Mr. Glendening said.

Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening endorsed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for president yesterday, citing the fellow Democrat's commitment to environmental protection and fighting global climate change. "As secretary of energy, he was a leader on mass transit and smart growth issues," Glendening said in a statement released by the Richardson campaign. "As governor of New Mexico, he has turned around an economy while also protecting the environment." A former two-term Democratic governor, Glendening is best known as a champion of anti-sprawl development policies.

Nancy S. Grasmick, one of Maryland's most tenacious political survivors, won't be evicted easily from the Nancy S. Grasmick Building. With a combination of sterling professional credentials and shrewd political maneuvering, the nation's longest- serving state schools superintendent has managed to hang on to her office under four governors. Yesterday, the State Board of Education gave her the glimmer of a chance she might serve under a fifth. It awarded Grasmick, 68, a new four-year contract that would keep her in her job until after the 2010 gubernatorial election - if she can hold on. The board acted in brash defiance of the state's three most powerful elected officials - Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch.

The architect of Maryland's decade-old Smart Growth policy spoke up for it yesterday, arguing that despite its shortcomings at curbing suburban sprawl it has helped revitalize dying downtowns across the state and kick-started a national movement to build more transit-oriented, walkable communities. Speaking in Annapolis at a conference reviewing the growth-management law he crafted, former Gov. Parris N. Glendening acknowledged that a few metropolitan areas and states such as Oregon and Seattle have had more success than has Maryland at reining in low-density development.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and his Cabinet closeted themselves with former Gov. Parris N. Glendening and out-of-state planning experts yesterday to hash over ways to reinvigorate Smart Growth, the state's decade-old sprawl-fighting effort that some say has failed to live up to its promise. "The public is crying out for this," O'Malley said in opening the two-day internal workshop on growth management at an Annapolis hotel. Though welcoming up to 60,000 new jobs to the state from military base realignment, the governor said Maryland needs to figure out how to accommodate the new people while still preserving its environment and quality of life.

There's a new lead singer, but the band is back together. Gov. Martin O'Malley's latest round of hires brings to eight the number of officials from Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration who have been brought back to head state departments. He's not done with his nominations yet, but already more than a third of O'Malley's Cabinet has been culled from the ranks of the last Democrat to hold the chief executive's office in Maryland. Glendening alumni are heading the departments of Budget and Management, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation, Planning, Environment, Natural Resources, Housing and Community Development, and General Services.

History may look more kindly on Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term as governor than voters did last November. At the moment, any report card would probably offer a Gentleman's C for his four years in office. The accomplishments of the term are modest, but nothing disastrous took place and he won't leave office tomorrow as unpopular as Parris N. Glendening was. What happened during Mr. Ehrlich's time in Annapolis seems, in retrospect, to have been inevitable. Elected the first Republican governor since Spiro T. Agnew, the former congressman inherited a difficult budget mess (chiefly a downturn in tax receipts with an uptick in education spending)