ANNAPOLIS — Preparing to launch a Republican administration in deep-blue Maryland, Gov.-elect Larry Hogan on Monday introduced a transition team that included some familiar Democratic faces as he moved to avoid some of the partisan confrontations that stymied the state’s last Republican governor.
Mr. Hogan repeatedly promised to lead a bipartisan executive branch that would be staffed with experts, not partisans, to work with the heavily Democratic General Assembly to tackle the state’s severe budget and economic problems.
“We have an enormous challenge ahead of us,” Mr. Hogan told reporters as he introduced six members of his transition team. “I’m looking for the smartest, most capable, most experienced, most talented people we can find, whether they are Democrat or Republican, whether they have business experience or government experience, whether they come from Maryland or from somewhere else.”
The transition team was the latest signal from Mr. Hogan to the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly that he wanted to avoid the bitter partisan feud that engulfed Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who was elected in 2002 as the state’s first Republican governor in 33 years and served one term before being defeated by Democrat Martin O’Malley.
Mr. Ehrlich weathered lawsuits for firing longtime Democratic appointees and suffered criticism for hiring Republicans with questionable credentials, including professional ice dancer Gregory Maddalone for a top job at the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Mr. Hogan won an upset victory over Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, a Democrat who, after serving eight years with Mr. O’Malley, expected to coast to an easy win in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.
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Mr. Hogan nevertheless scored a decisive victory, 52 percent to 47 percent, running against the massive tax increases under the O’Malley-Brown administration and the state’s deteriorating economic situation, which includes an unemployment rate higher than the national level and one of the lowest rates of job growth in the country.
Mr. Hogan, who served in the Ehrlich administration as appointments secretary, said he wanted to keep the focus on his promise to control state spending and cut taxes.
Figures released last week showed that Mr. Hogan would face a $300 million deficit in the budget passed six months ago, as well as a looming $600 million deficit he must erase in the 2016 budget.
“Quite frankly, even I am surprised by the magnitude of the problem and the task ahead of us,” said Mr. Hogan, who campaigned on a pledge to fix the fiscal mess. “We’re going to try to get spending under control and roll back taxes as quickly as we can, but obviously [the deficit] is a factor.”
The former real estate developer takes office Jan. 21. He is required to submit a budget for the next fiscal year two days later to the legislature. Mr. Hogan did not rule out calling for a special session of the General Assembly if the state’s budget priorities aren’t resolved in the regular 90-day legislative session.
“It took us a long time to get into the mess we’re in,” Mr. Hogan told reporters. “It can’t be fixed in two days.”
The Hogan transition team consisted of several old hands in state politics, including former state Senate Republican leader Marty Madden and State Sen. Joseph Getty, a Republican who served in the Ehrlich administration as policy director.
“Hogan has the experience of working in the Ehrlich administration,” said Mr. Getty. “He’ll be able to avoid some of the pitfalls. I hope the same is true of the General Assembly leadership.”
For an education adviser, Mr. Hogan brought back Nancy Grasmick, who served as state schools superintendent for 20 years under four governors.
“His whole attitude is bipartisan,” Mrs. Grasmick told The Washington Times. “He knows talent is extremely important, especially when you have the challenges the state government has.”
Republicans also made gains in the General Assembly. The GOP picked up two seats to occupy 14 of the Senate’s 47 seats and reached a likely historic high of 50 seats in the 141-member House. Democrats still will hold a veto-proof majority in both chambers.
Mr. Hogan tapped recently retired federal judge Alexander Williams Jr., a Democrat, to serve as his liaison to the judiciary.
Other members included political commentator Blair Lee IV, the heir of a family of prominent Democratic politicians, who will serve as a top adviser, and economic consultant and commentator Anirban Basu, who will serve as economic policy adviser.
“Our priority right now is to put the team of the smartest people together, and we are going to do an in-depth review of every agency in state government,” said Mr. Hogan. “We’re going to focus in on the budget and fiscal issues, and we’re going to lay out a policy agenda and a legislative package. It is kind of a compressed time frame to put together a Cabinet and a staff and review a budget that they’ve been working on for a year. So we’re going to do it in all due haste and let you know in January when we are ready to roll it out.”
But even as Mr. Hogan assembles his team, Maryland Democrats were licking their wounds and plotting a comeback.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who will be the most powerful Democrat in Maryland once Mr. O’Malley steps down, met with her party’s congressional delegation for two hours to assess the damage.
At a closed-door meeting in Annapolis, Ms. Mikulski told her colleagues that Democrats need to retool their grass-roots operations, do a better job of relating to people’s everyday problems and demonstrate that the government is on their side, according to The Associated Press.
She also said the party can take solace in having returned all seven incumbent Democrats to Capitol Hill, keeping the party’s domination of Maryland’s eight-member congressional delegation.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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