Is Franchot Out-Hustling O’Malley for the Black Vote?

One of the most-practiced parlor games in Annapolis is placing bets on whether Comptroller Peter Franchot will dare to challenge Governor Martin O’Malley in 2010. If the Comptroller does take the plunge, he may take a lot of black voters with him.

One of the biggest battles in the last general session concerned a proposal by the Governor to collect DNA samples from criminal suspects. The Legislative Black Caucus and civil libertarians protested the idea, claiming that black defendants would be disproportionately targeted. So the Governor struck a deal with them: the bill would be amended to provide for DNA collection only upon indictment, and samples would be expunged if defendants were found not guilty.

But the Legislative Black Caucus and their allies are now charging that the administration’s regulations are weakening their compromise on the bill, especially by not explicitly addressing removal of innocent suspects’ DNA from federal databases. Senator Verna Jones (D-44) of Baltimore issued this unusually strong statement to the Sun:

“I am really challenging the O'Malley administration to come forth and put their cards on the table,” said Sen. Verna L. Jones, a Baltimore Democrat and caucus member. “If they were not going to be fair and aboveboard with us, they should not have been in negotiations with us just to make sure that legislation got passed.”

In the meantime, the Comptroller is strengthening his relationships in the black community through his battle against slots. He has been urging black churches to do everything in their power to defeat the referendum, throwing them strong stuff such as:

Put it in the church bulletins and fliers, talk to your family members ... so we can take back control of our destiny and vote, “No!”

If that was not enough, the Comptroller lobbed this tidbit to a conference of church leaders in Prince George’s last week:

“We see what comes out of Annapolis,” Franchot said. “We know we can't trust them.”

Who is “them,” Mr. Comptroller? The Democratic Party? Its leadership? Or maybe, just maybe... its sitting Governor?