Lieutenant Governor

Jay Comi's Calvert Hall class ring tossed around in the St. Thomas surf for 30 years, then kicked around an island house for another decade ?enough time for Comi to churn through careers as a merchant mariner,an Ocean City boardwalk bar owner, a stockbroker, an Olive Garden manager, a gold-plater of religious artifacts and Emmys, and an identity theft consultant. Ring and grad are back together again, 40 years after Comi took a dip in St. Thomas and came out of the water not feeling quite right.

If Michael Steele's critics were right, that he wasn't ready for prime time, then the unsuccessful Senate candidate has landed the perfect job - leading the GOP farm team. The ex-lieutenant governor yesterday was named chairman of GOPAC, which recruits Republicans across the country to run for public office. Steele had the White House to twist his arm for the Senate run. GOPAC is for the little guys, the ones for whom lieutenant governor is not an entry-level position. The group seeks to "build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices," according to the GOPAC Web site.

To the victor goes the cash. Martin O'Malley and running mate Anthony G. Brown raised about $1.7 million in the two months since their win, enabling them to repay a $500,000 loan that kept their campaign afloat in its last days. Their latest fundraising prowess - they collected more than 2 1/2 times the amount raised by their predecessors during the same period four years ago - helps build a re-election coffer for the 2010 race. But the exercise also allows individuals with potential state business to curry favor with the new governor, watchdog groups say. "Unfortunately this is the game," said Mary Boyle, press secretary for the national office of Common Cause.

In a room lined with empty bookcases, Prince George's County Del. Anthony G. Brown sits at the head of a long wooden table, surrounded by most of the 44 people who have just signed on to Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's transition team. He urges members to introduce themselves, to share a bit about their backgrounds. But when the first few are long-winded, Brown, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, politely tells them to shorten it up. He advises a simple change of direction: Name and organization, he says, would do just fine.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. all but ruled out another run for public office but said in two radio interviews yesterday that he is keeping his career options open in the wake of his failed re-election bid. The Republican made his first extensive comments since Tuesday's election on two radio talk shows he has frequented as governor: the Chip Franklin Show on WBAL-AM and the Sports Junkies on WHFS-FM. The governor struck an upbeat tone on both shows, even though he said the election demonstrated that the state has moved away from him politically.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean slapped Maryland Democrats yesterday, saying state leaders need to promote more black candidates in the future so "we do not have another Michael Steele problem." "I just think we have got to do a better job in Maryland four years from now about diversity on the ticket," Dean said during a Washington breakfast, raising particular concerns about Steele, the state's black Republican lieutenant governor who ran a competitive race for U.S. Senate partly on a theme that Democrats have taken African-American voters for granted.

THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF Maryland has just one key responsibility under the law: to finish out the term of the state's chief executive if he or she no longer can serve. But a good lieutenant governor can carve out a meaningful role in the administration of the state -- and that potential is what voters should be looking for in a candidate. Both Democrat Anthony G. Brown and Republican Kristen Cox have experience in government. He served eight years in the state legislature; she's been a Cabinet secretary since 2003.

As a teenager, Michael S. Steele was a natural on the stage. Tall and handsome, with a dazzling smile, he won parts in high school, college and summer-stock theater that allowed him to be the central figure, the star. But even when he failed to land the leads, Steele managed to make himself visible. "Somehow, he always found his way to the front," says Jim Mumford, Steele's former drama director at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington. He was "so enthusiastic," Mumford says, "that, of course, you let him stay up there."

Another salvo in Cardin-Steele ad war The biting ad war continued yesterday between Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, and his Democratic rival, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, with each candidate launching new spots in the major media markets. Cardin debuted two new ads yesterday, a radio commercial featuring Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, and a television spot linking Steele with President Bush. "On issue after issue, Michael Steele stands with George Bush," Cardin says, citing Steele's opposition to expanding stem cell research and his support of the president's plan to privatize Social Security.

Paul H. Rappaport, a lawyer and former Howard County police chief who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Maryland attorney general, and U.S. Senate, died of cancer Sunday at Mercy Medical Center. The Ellicott City resident was 72. "He was such a loyal friend," said Ellen R. Sauerbrey, who chose Mr. Rappaport as her running mate in her 1994 gubernatorial campaign. "When I think of Paul Rappaport, I think of a man of few words but strong principles. He had a strong backbone.