Governor of Maryland - History and Evolution of The Office

History and Evolution of The Office

During the Colonial period, Maryland's Proprietors, the Lords of Baltimore, who generally remained in England, chose who would serve as the Governor of Maryland on their behalf. Between 1692, when the Baltimores lost control, and 1715, Maryland was a direct Royal Colony, and the Governor was appointed by the British Monarch. The Lords of Baltimore regained their Royal Charter in 1715, and then they resumed choosing the Governors until the beginning of the American Revolution. The first Governor chosen to break this chain of Colonial Governors was Thomas Johnson (1732–1819), who took office on March 21, 1777.

Under the Maryland Constitution of 1776, the Governor was chosen for one-year terms by both houses of the General Assembly. An 1838 constitutional amendment allowed voters to elect the Governor to three-year terms from one of three rotating gubernatorial districts: eastern, southern, and western. At each election, only voters from a single gubernatorial election district selected the Governor. The Maryland Constitution of 1851 lengthened the Governor's term of office from three to four years, which brought elections for Governor in line with elections for Federal offices that occur only in even years. Finally, the Constitution of 1864 eliminated the rotating gubernatorial election districts and, since the election of 1868, the Governor has been elected by all the voters of the state.

From 1777 to 1870, the Governor resided in Jennings House in Annapolis. Since 1870, the Governor has resided in the Government House, a Georgian mansion adjacent to the Maryland State House. In addition to being the residence for the Governor and his family, Government House has a number of public rooms that are used by the Governor on official occasions.

Spiro T. Agnew, who was the Governor of Maryland from 1967–1969, later served as the Vice-President of the United States for a time under President Richard M. Nixon, and Agnew is, thus far, the highest-ranking Marylander in the history of the United States. Following his resignation due to charges of corruption, Agnew's official gubernatorial portrait was removed Damnatio memoriae from the Maryland State House Governor's Reception Room from 1979 until 1995. Then-Governor Parris Glendening stated that in re-including Agnew's portrait that it was not up to anyone to alter history, whether for good or bad, citing Nineteen Eighty-Four.

In 1971, the office of Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, which had existed for only a few years in the 1860s, was re-instituted by an amendment to the Maryland Constitution. The Lieutenant Governor is a weak office compared to other counterparts (in other states including Texas, the Lieutenant Governor is the President of the State's Senate, while in California the Lieutenant Governor assumes all of the Governor's powers when the sitting Governor is out of the state), as it only possesses the powers and duties that the Governor assigns to him or her. The Lieutenant Governor is elected on the same ballot with the Governor, and to the same term-of-office as the Governor. The Lieutenant Governor succeeds to the Governorship only if there is a vacancy in that office. Despite the Governor and Lieutenant Governor being elected on the same party ticket, very often there have been public rifts between the two; for instance Gov. Marvin Mandel and Lt. Gov. Blair Lee IV; Gov. Harry R. Hughes and Lt. Gov. Samuel W. Bogley III; Gov. Schaefer and Lt. Gov. Melvin A. Steinberg., and Gov. Parris Glendening and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. No Lieutenant Governor of Maryland has yet been elected as the Governor in future elections, or permanently succeeded to the Governor's office due to a vacancy (which would be created by the resignation, death, or removal of the sitting Governor), although Blair Lee III served as acting Governor from June 4, 1977 until January 15, 1979 while Governor Marvin Mandel was serving a sentence for mail fraud and racketeering (consequently, in a modern example of Damnatio memoriae, Mandel's official gubernatorial portrait was not hung in the Maryland State House Governor's Reception Room until 1993).

As of 2010, Maryland has yet to have been served by a female Governor. However, women were the runners-up in four gubernatorial elections (in 1974, 1994, 1998, and 2002). In addition, one woman has served as the Lieutenant Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, under Gov. Parris Glendening from 1995 to 2003. Another woman, Kristen Cox, who was the Secretary of Disabilities, unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor as the running mate of the incumbent Governor Robert Ehrlich, when the Lieutenant Governor at that time, Michael Steele, left office to run for the U.S. Senate. Cox was a unique person to run for that office, not only because she is a woman, but also because she is legally blind.