So....why did John Leopold hire Miss Maryland?

And no this is not going where you think it's going. Check out this quote from today's Capital on the hiring of former Miss Maryland Marina Harrison:

Ms. Harrison, Miss Maryland 2003 and a former spokesman for the Maryland secretary of state, began work this week as Mr. Leopold's special assistant.

She'll represent him in the community, work with the media and help to set policy, as well as produce the county's weekly public access television show, "Week in Review," for a $70,000 salary.

The Severn native said she'll be "making sure that every person in Anne Arundel County knows who John Leopold is," and that people understand the depth of his commitment to improving the county.

Mr. Leopold called her "an exciting addition to my staff" in a release announcing the appointment.

It appears that John Leopold has hired a special assistant whose thinks her sole job is, not to help promote Anne Arundel County, expand business development, encourage people to come to the county to live, work, and recreate, not to assist Leopold with his duties, but to politic on County time. How in the world could anybody brazenly say that their job was solely to promote their boss in a position of public trust unless it was explicitly made clear to them that was what was expected of them?

No amount of political jujitsu can justify this. This all sounds like what you would expect from Leopold: a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars.

All of this begs the question: is the first hire of John Leopold's 2010 campaign for Governor being funded on the County payroll?