GOV.-ELECT HOGAN ADDS 31 TO TRANSITION TEAM

Maryland Governor-elect Larry Hogan expanded his transition team by 31 yesterday. "The individuals standing beside me today will round out what is a strong, diverse, and bipartisan team," Hogan said at a press conference at the Maryland Department of Budget and Management in Annapolis.

Notables names from Montgomery County on the list include Gary Mangum of Bell Nursery, a business that goes all the way back to the 1920s in Silver Spring; developer Bryant Foulger of Foulger-Pratt; and Rose Li, a Bethesda resident who was a 2014 Republican candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates.

Boldface names from around the state added to the team include Hugo Decesaris of homebuilding giant K. Hovnanian, Maryland State Senator Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georges), Maryland Senator David Brinkley (R-Frederick), Delegate Justin Ready (R-Carroll), and political strategist Kevin Igoe.

Among the appointees who reflect Hogan's push for diversity are Chong Nak Son, of Son’s Quality Food Company, who sits on the board of advisors of the Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington; the Reverend Eric Barksdale, Pastor of St. Charles Baptist Church in the District, and President of the National Capital Baptist Convention; Sharon Pinder, director of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Development, and a statewide advocate for minority-owed businesses, as well as CEO of the Pinder Group, LLC; and Roger Campos, former executive at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and now the first President and CEO of the Minority Business RoundTable.

The emphasis on accomplished leaders and bipartisanship comes as the state's fiscal situation has been revealed to be more dire than previously thought.