Martin O'Malley Appoints Extremely Moderately Qualified Person

When first elected as Governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley promised to hire competent individuals who were not married to the special interests or greedy corporations.  I'm not sure that he has appointed anyone in his tenure that meets any of those requirements.

Today O'Malley appointed Leonard J. Howie III as the head of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.  As noted in this article, Mr. Howie III has been deputy secretary for operations at the Maryland Department of Human Resources since November of 2011, a whopping 10 months.  Most people get promoted after only 10 months of service, right?

I did a little checking on Mr. Howie III, and unless there are multiple Howie the III's, then according to the Maryland Judiciary Case database that's online, Mr. Howie has several interesting court cases against him.

First, the State of Maryland has an active case against him for a tax lien or judgement.  I don't understand legal jargon, but I know what a tax lien or judgement is.  Someone ain't payin' their bills!

Second, there's a case detailed as Education vs. Howie with the plaintiff being the Education Resources Institute.  It's a contract case and it's closed, but I'm assuming (hopefully correctly) that when someone sues you on a contract case, it's because you didn't hold up your end of the contract.

There's another court case for Education vs. Howie, but it has a different case number and a later date.  Maybe they sued him again???

Finally, there's another case from 2004 for Capital One versus Howie.  It seems to be another contract case and it's closed.

It's amazing what you can find on the Internet, especially higher-profile people.

How many Martin O'Malley supporters does it take to change a light bulb?  None - they prefer to stay in the dark.