Jealous: Hogan Could Have, Should Have Acted Faster On Regents

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous accused Gov. Larry Hogan of cronyism and lying to voters in failing to fire University System of Maryland Board of Regents Chairman James T. Brady, who resigned Thursday.

"The governor of Maryland has the power to remove any appointee, even those confirmed by the Senate, for cause, and it was clear from the beginning there was cause," Jealous told C4 on Friday.

He cited reports that the regents' original decision to recommend the retention of University of Maryland Athletic Director Damon Evans and head football coach D.J. Durkin after investigations into the death of player Jordan McNair and the culture of the football program risked the university's accreditation and hurt fundraising efforts.

"Students need to understand that their lives are more important than any one person's job, even if that person's the highest-paid person at the university, the football coach," Jealous said.

Hogan, for his part, accused Jealous on Thursday of not understanding the law in responding to Jealous' initial demand he fire Brady. The law specifically lays out how regents who leave the board may be replaced, but nothing on how they may be forced out. However, the Maryland Constitution allows the governor to remove any appointed officials for incompetency or misconduct.

Jealous suggested Hogan was reluctant to take action because Brady chaired the governor's campaign and transition team.

"This cannot be about cronyism. The governor has to do his job every day," Jealous said. "We need a day one governor. We need a governor who has the courage to lead, the courage to level with the people."

He said the next step is to demand Evans' ouster. Under former Athletic Director Kevin Anderson, Evans oversaw the troubled football program.

"Until he's gone, you can't change the culture," Jealous said.

He also said he would try to use board members' individual votes on the recommendations announced Tuesday as a litmus test in deciding whether regents are retained or reappointed.

"A majority of them voted for it, and so a majority of them have to go," Jealous said. "We have to have transparency and quite frankly when we're entrusting our state's children to you, there's no excuse."

Jealous also talked about other priorities, including price controls on prescription drugs and increased funding for schools.

While Hogan claims record funding for education, Jealous said that Maryland is actually shortchanging schools by more than $2 billion, and charged that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to ensure quality schools.

"As Marylanders, it really defines us," Jealous said. "We really believe our state should have exceptional schools."

He said that modernization and other changes could do wonders to make the state's dollars go further.

"I've been a CEO since I was 26 years old," Jealous said. "I've never met a budget I could not optimize by 5 percent."

He brought up Allovue, a Baltimore startup he invested in while at Kapor Capital, but divested from as he entered the race. Founded by Jess Gartner, a former Baltimore City teacher, it streamlines education finance in a number of districts across the country, but not in Maryland. In Maryland, budgets are still done on paper.

"When you manage a school on paper, we don't know either how you've spent the money until more than a year has passed and we don't know what impact it has on student performance," Jealous said. "When you do it digitally, we know both in real time."

Early voting ended Thursday. Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 6.