Friendly Fire

No matter how liberal Martin O'Malley is, he is never liberal enough for some people. Adam Pagnucco made a note today of something related to the story of Sean Malone leaving the O'Malley Administration. I thought it might be the O'Malley team cashing in, but Adam thinks it might be something else:

Sean Malone has been a close advisor to Martin O’Malley ever since O’Malley was a member of the Baltimore City Council. He rose with O’Malley through the city and state governments, becoming a legal counsel to the Baltimore police department, Baltimore's labor commissioner, and eventually the new Governor’s labor liaison. But Malone was even more than that – he was a member of the Governor’s tight, protective inner circle. That made Sean Malone a powerful figure in Annapolis.

Lisa Harris Jones is the owner of Harris Jones LLC, an Annapolis lobbying firm. Her client list includes the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), one of the most anti-union trade associations in the United States. As the above sources reported, Sean Malone is Harris Jones LLC’s newest employee.

Very interesting, particularly in that this is something that is really going to infuriate certain aspects of O'Malley's base. Given the fact that O'Malley regularly rolls over for his union and liberal allies, I find it hard to believe that the unions have that much of a problem with O'Malley, but still very interest.

And all of this brings me back to something I have been talking about for a year now: do stories like this make it likely that Peter Franchot will challenge O'Malley in the primary in 2010 (results of the slots referendum notwithstanding)?