A years-old photograph of Barry Glassman — a Republican state comptroller candidate, and the Harford County executive — shaking hands with former President Donald Trump circulated on social media this week.
Glassman, who is running against Baltimore City Democratic Del. Brooke Lierman, had posted the photo to his Twitter account on Jan. 20, 2017, the day of Trump’s inauguration. The text above read: “God’s strength and blessings to President Trump on his Inauguration Day.”
It’s not clear when or who on Twitter first resurfaced Glassman’s more than 5-year-old tweet.
The spark for reviving the photo may have been tied to Glassman receiving a coveted endorsement from The Washington Post, who called the veteran Maryland politician “a traditional Republican who rejects the GOP’s MAGA wing,” while applauding his support of Gov. Larry Hogan’s I-270 and Beltway widening project.
The Post’s pronouncement, along with news reports of Glassman’s voting record while serving in the Maryland General Assembly, has called into question just how much of a moderate Glassman really is.
Glassman has built his campaign platform on not being a Make America Great Again Republican, and has rejected the extreme candidates at the top of the Republican ticket. Gubernatorial candidate Del. Dan Cox holds extreme right-wing views, according to a poll of Maryland residents. Additionally, Cox and attorney general candidate Michael Peroutka parrot conspiracy theories, and — without evidence — continue to deny the 2020 election results.
Glassman went so far as to donate $500 to Democratic candidate for governor Wes Moore. A spokesperson for Moore’s campaign told The Baltimore Sun that the Moore campaign instead sent Glassman’s money to Lierman’s campaign.
Hogan, whose self-described political brand is the moderate Republican, has endorsed Glassman and has made appearances in Glassman’s campaign ads. In one ad, the two men bemoan being middle of the road in a divided GOP as they saunter down a country road.
Glassman says to Hogan: “You know what they say about the middle of the road.”
Hogan responds, “Nothing but yellow lines.”
Glassman adds, “Yeah, and roadkill.”
The two men drive away in a convertible with a vanity plate that reads “MIDLEMEN.” (Bonus points for the historical verisimilitude of the tag.)
Glassman did not answer specific questions about where and when the photo with Trump was taken or if the men exchanged any words. Their only meeting was photographed before Trump ran for president, Glassman said through a spokesperson.
Lierman’s campaign declined to comment on the photo.
brenda.wintrode@thebaltimorebanner.com
A comptroller candidate forum of one
A candidate forum held at Goucher College Tuesday and intended to feature both state comptroller candidates didn’t go quite as organizers had planned.
The event advertised an opportunity for voters to hear the visions of Republican Glassman and Democrat Lierman should they be elected comptroller in November.
But in an unexpected turn of events, Glassman couldn’t attend due to a family medical emergency and the moderator, WYPR Midday’s host Tom Hall, asked the event organizers to replace him after he tested positive for COVID, he said.
“I’m feeling better, but I am still isolating,” Hall wrote in an email on Tuesday.
However, the show — and Lierman — went on.
The two-term delegate — prompted by questions from stand-in moderator and public relations executive David Nevins — presented her case to voters in Merrick Lecture Hall.
The conversation topics ranged from state finances, including the comptroller’s role on the Board of Public Works, tax administration, and how she would manage the state’s nearly $2 billion surplus.
Lierman restated her campaign pledge to improve customer service and accessibility to the comptroller’s office for Maryland taxpayers and tax preparers, should she be elected. “I want to make sure that we are meeting people where they are,” she said.
As one of her first objectives once in office, she plans to address the wages of the Revenue Administration Division staff. “I look forward to going to bat for the department to make sure that we can pay people what they’re worth,” she said.
The event was hosted by the Maryland State Bar Association and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, and sponsored by Towson-based accounting and business consulting firm RS&F.
brenda.wintrode@thebaltimorebanner.com
President Ferguson: We have some notes on your crab-picking
We’ve seen all types of political commercials, but Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson may have a first: A crab-picking commercial.
In a 90-second digital ad, Ferguson is seated at a table at Baltimore’s Captain James Seafood Palace, where he attacks a steamed crab while delivering lines about his accomplishments.
We acknowledge it’s not easy to say things like “historic support for HBCUs and new school construction” and “passed paid family and medical leave” while picking a crab — all with a camera recording every moment.
But we have a few notes for the Senate president on his crab-picking skills.
He spends most of the commercial breaking off claws and legs, which we agree is the best place to start. But each of those legs has a morsel of tasty meat hanging off, and he just casts them aside — the horror!
Then, with about four of the crab’s legs still attached, he chooses chaos and opens up the shell.
We’re not sure Ferguson got all the gills (dead man’s fingers) off before he cracked open the body to retrieve one lump of meat. He popped that bit of crab meat in his mouth after delivering the last line: “Serving you, and all Marylanders in Annapolis, is the honor of a lifetime. Thank you for all you do. Let’s go O’s. And go Ravens.”
The video has us wondering: What happened to the rest of the crab? Did he pick it clean? Did he go back and crack the claws? He’s got a whole tray of crabs and a pitcher of beer on the table — did he share with the video crew?
To see the Senate president’s crab-picking techniques for yourself, you can watch the video here. And if you still have an appetite for politicians and crabs, we quizzed politicians on their crab preferences earlier this fall.
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
Don’t make me tap the sign
When you’re halfway through a 45-minute interview on wonky policy in a city official’s office, your eyes wander. It’s in those moments that I add to my very unofficial list of my favorite City Hall tchotchkes.
The city administrator has a bright green street name sign that reads “CHRISTOPHER SHORTER WAY,” a remnant from his tenure as a public servant in Washington, D.C. As council president, Mayor Brandon Scott had a mini basketball hoop attached to the back of his office’s door.
When I took my seat across from Comptroller Bill Henry’s desk to interview him about an upcoming ballot measure that would move vendor payments under his purview, I observed a new knickknack that immediately made its way to my list: a sign, in the style of an old-school teacher’s nameplate, that reads “TRUST ME, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.”
Timely vendor payments are a perennial Baltimore issue, so I couldn’t resist noting the sign, a gift purchased at Ace Hardware from his spokeswoman KC Kelleher, in the piece. After my editor, John, reviewed the story for publication, he left me a few suggestions and comments to answer. Among them was a question: Was the sign supposed to be ironic?
I paused, considering the evidence.
Henry’s TikTok page is home to both educational videos on the Board of Estimates and DaBaby memes. He once invited the television host John Oliver to become “Comptroller for a Day” after Oliver called the position a “lethally boring elected accountant whose title inexplicably took a real word and then stuck an ‘mp’ in the middle of it” in a “Last Week Tonight” segment. “Of course, I’d hope there’d be some reciprocity involved, since being both informative and entertaining on national television each week is kind of *my* dream job,” Henry wrote.
Unable to feel confident in an educated guess, I texted Henry my editor’s question. Is the sign ironic?
Not at all, he wrote back: “I gave up irony and sarcasm when I first filed for public office.”
There you have it, John.
