Lobbyist

Any person paid to influence the votes of Baltimore's elected officials — regardless of the amount they receive — would be required to register as a lobbyist under a measure proposed Monday by Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young. Lobbyists would be barred from claiming they could "control or obtain" the vote of an elected official under the proposal. "The public deserves to know how much money was spent and who was involved in a legislative fight," said Young, adding that the measure would help dispel a sense that City Hall has been "plagued by scandal.

Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all boosted interest in lobbying. Washington, D.C., draws much of the new interest, but states, including Maryland, also deserve scrutiny. According to "State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers: How Much Do We Really Know?" — our recent report for the Pacific Research Institute — Maryland ranked a disappointing 46th among the states in lobbying transparency. This study examined both state lobbying disclosure laws and accessibility to the disclosed information.

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, still serving a sentence for defrauding clients and conspiring to bribe public officials, has a new job: He's selling pizzas in Baltimore rather than influence in Washington. Abramoff, recently released from a federal prison camp in Cumberland to a halfway house in Baltimore, began working Monday at Tov Pizza on Reisterstown Road. "I think people get a second chance," said Ron Rosenbluth, owner of the shop, which boasts of the city's best kosher pizza — which means lots of veggie options but no meat.

When former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. chose for his post-political career a job heading up a new Baltimore office of a major corporate law firm from North Carolina, he opened himself up for legitimate criticism. The firm, Womble Carlyle, has a long history representing tobacco producers, and its other clients include big pharmaceutical firms, foreign corporations and some oil companies. This is not exactly working in a soup kitchen, and Gov. Martin O'Malley's campaign is well within its rights to question whether the Republican former governor has spent the last four years putting people first or earning big paychecks looking out for the interests of unsympathetic corporations.

Her name is so linked to Baltimore's port that it has been renamed the "Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore." For well over a half-century, Bentley has followed and championed the causes of the city's maritime industry, as a journalist, Nixon administration appointee, congresswoman and consultant. She has been called "the godmother of the port," which she has described as being akin to her own child. This month, the Baltimore Museum of Industry gave Bentley the 2010 William Donald Schaefer Industrialist of the Year Award, presented each spring to visionary local business leaders.

We come now to the defense of Bruce Bereano. The top Annapolis lobbyist is the evident target of a law proposed in Towson to prohibit convicted felons from lobbying before the Baltimore County government, the product of his effective advocacy for clients in opposition to a ban on the use of indoor tanning facilities by minors. The unstated implication of the legislation — which is sponsored by Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, who also sponsored the tanning bill — is that Mr. Bereano has continued to act unethically.

A leading Maryland lobbyist threatened Tuesday to sue the Baltimore County Council if it enacts a bill prohibiting anyone convicted of a felony from lobbying in the county. Bruce C. Bereano said the bill, sponsored by Councilman Vincent Gardina, "is designed to target me." Bereano was convicted more than 15 years ago of mail fraud in connection with illegal campaign contributions Bereano had lobbied against Gardina's broad restrictions on the tanning industry, which were ultimately rejected by the council, although it did pass another measure, also sponsored by Gardina, that requires minors to have parental permission to use tanning facilities.

A documentary about Jack Abramoff being released today already has a cult following: Maryland Democrats. The party of Gov. Martin O'Malley is promoting the movie, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, because rival candidate Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. pops up in it. Ehrlich is in a smiling snapshot with the disgraced lobbyist, who is now serving four years in federal prison. The Democrats say Ehrlich's connection to Abramoff "runs deep," pointing to a Hanukkah party Abramoff attended at the Governor's mansion and a $16,000 donation that Ehrlich accepted from Abramoff, though he returned it. They also have a mutual friend, Edward B. Miller.

Two measures intended to create a more independent and transparent ethics board and to strengthen guidelines for officeholder conduct were signed into law Wednesday by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake. The new laws are "an important step forward for Baltimore" and "represent one of the most sweeping changes to the Baltimore city ethics board in many years," said Rawlings-Blake, who sponsored one of the measures in one of her last acts as City Council president. Concerns about the city's ethics law came to light during the investigation and criminal trial that eventually led to the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.