Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.41) on January 16, 2001 at 21:36:
From the July 14, 2000 print edition, Baltimore Business Journal
Inside Politics
House speaker's tale leads directly to treasurer's office
Frank A. Defilippo
As summer political scuttlebutt goes, here's a doozy that won't go away. It is a twisted tale involving House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., D-Allegany, that is as layered as an artichoke.
The buzz is that Taylor would like to skip another election for delegate and go directly to state treasurer, the job held by Richard N. Dixon.
Accordingly, an emissary from the legislature is said to have visited Dixon to inquire about his resigning as treasurer. Dixon confirms that he received a phone call but said there was no in-the-flesh visitor. Dixon said he is staying put.
Next came a story in which Taylor and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, D-Prince George's County, upbraided Dixon for his high-handed behavior as chairman of the state pension system. On the government flow chart, the treasurer is elected by and represents the General Assembly.
Dixon's defense is exquisitely simple: He cannot be all bad because Maryland's pension system is one of only five in the nation that are virtually fully funded. Theoretically, if every state employee decided to retire now, there would be enough money to cover 97 percent of them.
So in a defensive maneuver, Dixon, a black former delegate from Carroll County, has begun cozying up to the legislature's black caucus, which he refused to join when he was a member of the House of Delegates. He's a conservative; the caucus is liberal.
Enter the second layer. Del. Michael Bush, D-Anne Arundel, a protege of Taylor's, was itching to leave the legislature and enter the wonderful world of money. Dangling before his very eyes was the $142,000-a-year job as director of the Injured Workers Insurance Fund.
But on the word that he's a shoo-in to succeed Taylor if a vacancy occurs, Bush turned down the director's job to remain in the House of Delegates as chairman of the House Economic Matters Committee to which Taylor appointed him.
But wait! There are more falling dominoes. Taylor, in separate conversations, supposedly also told delegates Sheila Hixson and John Hurson, both of Montgomery County, that each of them has a shot at becoming speaker if the senior House position were to open up. Hixson is scrambling to make friends across the state.
At this point, the Taylor-Dixon buzz had spun out of control and was causing Taylor heartburn. There was pressure on Taylor to remain as speaker and encouragement from blacks for Dixon to remain in the treasurer's job. One prominent legislator even went so far as to tell Taylor he lacked the fiscal background to serve as treasurer and that he would not support him. Dixon is a former stockbroker.
So a panicked Taylor told a group of legislators two weeks ago that he fully intended to run for re-election to the House. But there's the knife-in-the-back. The legislature elects the treasurer every four years. So even if Taylor runs for re-election to the House, he can still submit his resume for the treasurer's position.
With Dixon gone, Gov. Parris N. Glendening would have Taylor as an ally and would regain control of the three-member Board of Public Works, which awards $4 billion in state contracts every year.
As it is now constituted, Dixon and Comptroller William Donald Schafer usually form an unholy alliance on controversial matters and tuck it to the governor at every turn.
Frank A. DeFilippo is a regular columnist.