Message from the Director: Fall 2006

Maryland is now in full election mode. The most competitive and interesting elections for U.S. Senate, Governor, and the State House in more than a generation will occur in the fall 2006 and the Center is uniquely positioned as a non-partisan institute to play a significant role in educating the students of St. Mary's College and its community, the people of Maryland, and civic minded Americans about their importance.

The Center will be hosting state and local candidates, political operatives, journalists throughout the fall in anticipation of the election. The Center will also be encouraging faculty at Maryland colleges and universities to be election judges through its Professors at the Polls initiative that is coordinated by the American Association of University Professors. We will also continue our successful voter registration drive (St. Mary's Votes!) on campus.

(photo at left: Darryl Leonard '09, and Jeffrey Meisgeier '09, Veronica Berruz '06 and Sharlitta Myrick '07 listen to Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley at a Center lecture in April 2006.)y

I am also pleased to announce the Center's second occasional paper, Spiro Agnew and The Golden Age of Corruption in Maryland Politics: An Interview with Ben Bradlee and Richard Cohen of The Washington Post. There have been forty-three Presidents and forty-six Vice Presidents of the United States, but Spiro Agnew is the only Marylander ever elected to either national office. Born to a Greek immigrant father in Baltimore in 1918, Agnew attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Baltimore Law School. He served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Agnew served as County Executive of Baltimore County from 1962-1966 and as Governor of Maryland from 1967-1969. He stepped down as Governor to serve as Richard Nixon’s Vice President from 1969-1973. In 1973, he resigned the vice presidency and pled no contest to charges of tax evasion. After his resignation he wrote a novel, pursued a career as an international businessman, and maintained a beach in Ocean City where he died in 1996.

Despite Agnew’s fascinating political career, no one has yet written a definitive biography about the Maryland’s only vice-president. Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, covered Annapolis for the newspaper in the early 1970s and broke many of the stories in the fall of 1973 that chronicled Agnew’s legal travails. Cohen, along with fellow journalist Jules Witcover, authored a book about Agnew’s political career and the investigation that brought him down, A Heartbeat Away. Cohen along with his editor at the Post, Ben Bradlee, agreed to be interviewed extensively the Center’s second occasional paper.

The Center for the Study of Democracy celebrates Maryland’s history by contributing to the scholarship and understanding the state’s past, present and future. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recognized the intellectual importance of the mission in 2004 by awarding the Center a $500,000 challenge grant to endow our future. We have until April 2008 to raise $1.5 million in new donations in order to receive the full grant. The Center successfully met its first 2004-2006 fundraising goals, however, we need your support now more than ever.

The Center for the Study of Democracy is thriving thanks to the generosity and spirit of civic minded people. With continued support the Center will continue to act as a catalyst to engage our students and community in the important civic debates of today.

Zach Messitte

Director, Center for the Study of Democracy

Assistant Professor of Political Science, St. Mary’s College of Maryland