If he had paid more attention to a couple of memos, he would have been in politics a whole lot longer.
Harry Hughes broke what was becoming a tradition in Maryland. It undoubtedly had been going on long before Spiro Agnew was caught. It probably ended with a man whom I regarded as a political hero, a couple of Governors before Harry Hughes.
There was no apparent political benefit, and a whole lot of political cost, when that courageous Governor fought against doctors and hospitals, when he worked to overcome legislative indifference, to establish the nation’s first shock trauma unit. Lives have been saved everywhere you look since then.
And that was not all.
Marvin Mandel stood tall against the tide that was running strong in those days. He had become governor when Governor Spiro Agnew became Vice President Spiro Agnew. Mandel defended legislators as they were attacked by the former governor who had come just before him. Spiro Agnew waged a scorched-earth political war against anyone who criticized him or his boss, Richard Nixon.
Agnew attacked critics like Maryland Senator Joe Tidings as RadicLibs a clever combination of Radical and Liberal. So Senator Tidings couldn’t just be wrong on policy issues, he was in league with dirty hippies: unpatriotic, long-haired protestors against the war in Vietnam.
Mandel campaigned for re-election as Governor as Tidings campaigned for re-election to the Senate. Joe Tidings, Mandel said, was an important member of his team. Tidings lost while Marvin Mandel won in a landslide.
When Spiro Agnew turned out to be a crook, it was blatant as all hell. When he had been governor of Maryland, he literally was getting literal envelopes stuffed with literal cash in exchange for state contracts. When he became Vice President, he still got envelopes stuffed with cash, right there in the White House, right up until he was caught. He resigned as Vice President and pleaded no-contest to being a crook.
I didn’t cry when my political hero, Governor Mandel, also turned out to be a crook. I was born and raised a boomer and men just didn’t cry. But it hit me hard.
Marvin Mandel was more clever than Spiro Agnew had been. Contractors didn’t give him cash. They gave money to their own friends who made bogus business deals with pals of Mandel. Mandel’s pals then bought expensive gifts for the Governor. Exotic wrist watches and other jewelry was standard fare. One gift was more unusual: an expensive team of lawyers so Governor Mandel could get a favorable divorce from his wife.
Mandel was caught taking those convoluted bribes. He went to prison, was later pardoned by President Reagan, and had his conviction overturned on a paper-thin technicality. The Supreme Court said taking bribes was not, strictly speaking, the same as theft.
Marvin Mandel died a few years ago, is still my political hero to this day, was definitely a thief, and should have stayed in prison.
When Mandel was still Governor of Maryland, fighting the good fight for Shock Trauma and other good works, when he hadn’t yet been caught for accepting bribes, there was an unexpected confrontation. Whatever gift was involved remains unknown. The Maryland Secretary of Transportation was ordered not to give important contracts to the lowest bidders. They were to go to contractors chosen by the Governor. The guy refused.
That secretary, Harry Hughes, was a quiet, unassuming fellow who had been expected to go along. The contracts were awarded anyway, and Harry Hughes resigned in protest. He went back to his quiet, unassuming life and was pretty much forgotten.
When Governor Marvin Mandel was caught and exposed as a thief, when he broke my heart, when he was convicted, when he became ex-Governor Mandel and federal prisoner Mandel, his Lieutenant Governor became Governor. Blair Lee was not a thief, but he was part of the political group that was led by a thief.
When he announced that, after his time as Governor, he would run for a full term, other politicians said they would oppose him. They included Baltimore Councilman Wally Orlinsky, Baltimore County Supervisor Ted Venetoulis, and an unexpected candidate.
That minor, low key, unassuming, former Secretary of Transportation Harry Hughes made a brief announcement that he would also run. And also-ran was his expected role. He ran a low key, non-funded, campaign almost from his front porch. It was as close to a non-campaign as you could get: shoestring without the shoes or the string. Voters didn’t want to waste their votes.
Everyone knew Blair Lee would win and win big. The Baltimore Sun ran a poll on the Democratic primary that showed pretty much nobody coming close to incumbent Blair Lee. Everyone else was tied at pretty much zero.
I happened to step onto the same elevator as Harry Hughes that fall. I shook his hand and thanked him for running. He looked surprised. A voter? A voter for him?
The Baltimore Sun endorsed Harry Hughes and his non-campaign. The case was unusual but compelling. If you were going to waste your vote, you may as well vote for the fellow who had resigned protesting the corruption. Vote for honesty even if honesty didn’t stand a chance.
Voters bought it. Hughes won.
And he became a terrific governor. Clean, no-payoff government got to be the norm for the first time anyone could remember. He ran for re-election and won. Straight-arrow all the way. In Maryland. Wow.
Then came the memos.
A former aide sent notes to Governor Hughes about a Savings and Loan in Baltimore. Things didn’t look right. The governor saw the memos and ordered his Chief of Staff to act right away. They sent the memos to state regulators and demanded an investigation. Regulators investigated and found nothing wrong.
Turned out the regulators were in the pocket of crooks. Depositors thought their money was safe right up until Savings and Loans started to go under. The run on savings institutions didn’t stop at the doors of the dishonest. Every Savings and Loan felt the strain. They all began to fail.
Governor Hughes fought for depositors. The state allocated funds, crooks were sued, money was repaid. Depositors got their principle back, although some lost interest that should have been paid. People went to jail and the crisis ended. No depositors lost their savings.
I think about Marvin Mandel fairly often, the Governor who is still my political hero, whom I still wish had stayed in prison.
Today’s crooks don’t usually follow Spiro Agnew, standing in the halls or sitting in the offices of the White House, accepting envelopes stuffed with cash. But they also don’t bother the long circuitous paths of money-laundering that Marvin Mandel created. Would he have remained in office as long had he simply opened hotels for contractors and diplomats to rent suites at exorbitant rates in informal exchange for policy favors?
Last year, the big news for about an hour was that, when he was President Trump’s trusted lawyer, one corporation paid Michael Cohen over a million dollars for access. That same corporation manufactures hydroxychloroquine, the miracle cure hawked by my president until it was shown to be deadly.
When Harry Hughes finished his second term, he ran for Senator. Voters blamed him for the scare. Depositors were angry about almost losing everything. He finished a distant third.
After all, there had been those two memos.
These days I think of the warnings, big and small, countless warnings my President got and ignored about COVID-19, before and during the critical month of February. I think about the delay that may have cost tens of thousands of lives. And vigorous actions he has yet to take, even now, to save tens of thousands more.
I think about a rigidly honest Governor, Harry Hughes, whose political life was ended by Maryland voters, voters furious that he didn’t take stronger action over two memos.
Times change.
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