Very soon after Colleen and I dove headfirst into the local political scene, we figured something out that to more seasoned politicos might sound a touch obvious. The people to know–the ones who have all the answers–are the chiefs of staff to the politicians. They arrange the professional lives of their bosses, after all, and managing delicate relationships is so much of what politics involves. This is ever truer the more local you get. Sure, Senator Guy Guzzone (D-13) is pretty high-up at the state level, but it’s still true in his case. And it’s why I wanted to talk to his Chief of Staff, Deanna Peel.
Balancing Acts, Personal and Political
As I mentioned above, and regular readers of this site know, Colleen and I took a crash course in Howard County politics soon after arriving here last summer. We both realized post-November 6th, 2018 that we tried to “do too much,” as another local pol, Delegate Courtney Watson (D-9B) told us her mother used to tell her and she noted about us at a holiday party this past December. So we’re trying to be more balanced about it. We’re good at taking it easy or going whole hog (even though we observe kosher). We both said our New Year’s resolutions for 2019 would be to learn how to feel passionately about something and not overdo it.
Even before leaving the Sheraton in downtown Columbia to meet Deanna at the Starbucks in Wilde Lake, this topic was on my mind then. And even just thinking about it was making me trepidatious. My thoughts began to race: “What if I don’t have enough to do as a retiree? What if doing less will make me feel like I’m not making a difference? What if all the hard-won gains of late 2018 are lost and then it’ll be all my fault?” And yes, I heard how self-important that last one sounded as I thought it. Nevertheless, the “what ifs” kept coming.
There’s nothing like a good, ol’ Deanna Peel smile to brighten your day though, even on an overcast one like this day was. It also reminded me, Deanna’s inner sunlight as manifested in her smile, that she’d probably have some funny comments to make me chuckle as she always does. As a daytime TV fan, I couldn’t help say to myself as she walked in, in my best Oprah voice: “Please welcome Deanna Peeeeeeeeeel!”
All the Peels
“Deanna is smart, organized, calm, and just a nice person,” said Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, a member the team of legislators that represent District 13 with Guy at the helm. Vanessa said sometimes when she needs input on a topic she’ll go straight to Deanna because she knows she’ll have the answer. She used the word “temperament” to describe that which makes Deanna so fit for a life in politics in a conversation with me the day after I met Deanna at Starbucks. It had been escaping me until then, but her disposition is the thing that struck me right away when I met Deanna that made me think she’s perfect for a life in politics–and what I’d asked her to meet with me to talk about.
Another reason she’s cut out for the political life is that she’s able to keep front and center in her consciousness the good parts of her job and not let the tougher ones get her down. It came up many times when we spoke that the reward of service to the people Guy represents makes all the rest worth it.
“I think of my goal as trying to make things better in Howard County, especially for those who don’t have the voice or the time,” Deanna told me. The desire to simply improve conditions for whoever she could led to her involvement in Democratic party activism from a young age. She’s very down-to-Earth, and she made it all sound so simple.
“I was interested in politics since high school, but I didn’t know how I wanted to be involved,” Deanna told me. Someone suggested she apply for a spot on the Governor’s Youth Advisory Council. She did, and she got on it. While Deanna got her Bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics with a Minor in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, Deanna got involved with the Young Democrats. She met Guy Guzzone then, too.
Deanna then worked two campaigns for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. For one of those races there was a super-contentious eight-person (and in the 8th district!) primary in–get this readers–September.
“Frankly, we didn’t heal a lot of the wounds because there wasn’t enough time,” Deanna told me with a bittersweet laugh. She said that while June primaries don’t always allow for enough time to heal every intra-party wound, they definitely help.
Wounds of a Different Sort
Deanna’s first husband died of cancer.
“I was a widow in my early thirties,” she said, still with an admirable equanimity. That wound, thankfully, lessened as far as I could tell. That’s in no small part, I would guess, thanks to her partner in life for the last twenty-plus years, Joel. Her older son, Quint, meanwhile, got his nickname because he’s a fifth, and Bert is her younger son.
Getting back to political chat, Deanna told me that after the two Congressional campaigns, she stayed involved with various Democratic political causes. There have been so many, in fact, that I’ll just tell you about the one I thought was the most fascinating. It took me back in time so swiftly.
“I was executive director of a group called Democrats 2000. We worked with a lot of really cool people,” Deanna told me stretching out her neck a little to bring the coolness home to me. They hosted a dinner honoring Al Gore’s father, for example. Tom Daschle hosted a tete-a-tete for Democrats 2000 at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. And I had to clutch my heart and lean off my high-top barstool in a mock collapse when she said Paul Wellstone paid their office a visit!
“Democrats 2000 was one of the early groups to train people to run for office,” Deanna said. They’d invite people like James Carville to speak to a group in the basement of the House of Representatives offices in Washington, D.C. or put would-be electeds in front of cameras for the first time so they could work on their delivery.
“I’ve always wanted to be behind the scenes. A lot of young people that start in this world say, ‘I want to run for office.’ Not me,” which I concurred with. Deanna said that, well, I wasn’t young anymore. That time we both nearly fell off our stools with laughter. I’m telling you, readers, her delivery is just too funny. It’s very fast and staccato, so you don’t see it coming. She’s like a quipping Ninja!
And: Colleen ask Director John Byrd all about his work at Howard County Parks and Recreation.
Parties and Power
As much influence as Deanna has as a political mover and shaker, it’s as clear as that day wasn’t on which we met that she’d wouldn’t use it for ill. Or use it at all, for that matter. I smiled when, for example, she was ordering her coffee, and simply put the order under the name “Dee.”
Rep. Floyd Fithian (D-In.), who, after representing Indiana’s 2nd Congressional district in Congress, was Chief of Staff to Rep. Paul Simon (D-Il.), once remarked to her that he had more influence as a chief of staff than he ever did as a member of Congress. They make the schedules, these people. I’m telling you, they run this stuff. They’re the Chiefs of Stuff!
Guy called her when he ran for a Howard County seat the first time, which was one on the Howard County Council.
“I’ve been with him ever since,” Deanna said with a contented smile. At first, with another full-time job, Deanna had to do her work for Guy on the fly. She’d schlepp it all to the pool, for example, when the kids wanted to go for a swim.
“We were cutting out pictures and text back then for one of his lit pieces–that’s how long ago it was,” she told me of when she started out with Guy. A few weeks after he was elected, Deanna came to work for him full-time. Luckily, the work of the county can vary in terms of time. So, if she needed to be at a meeting in the evening, she’d stay at home a little later in the morning and put the kids on the bus.
“You have more resources with the county, too” Deanna told me. It always surprises me when I re-learn that after forgetting it because it’s so counterintuitive. Howard County offices have more money than Maryland state ones. At the state level, something as simple as getting more printer paper needs to go through someone else. At the county level you can just get it from the supply cabinet,” Deanna said.
Multiple Roles, Multiple Identities
The breadth and length of Deanna’s time as a local Democratic activist has been the source of some funny moments. One happened when she was walking down Bladen Street in Annapolis.
“I heard a voice behind me say, ‘Miss Peel! Miss Peel! What are you doing in Annapolis?'” It was Sean Ford, Chief of Staff to Delegate Eric Ebersole (D-12). Sean knew her as a member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee, which she was until this past June for eight years (there’s that number again), but he didn’t know she was Guy’s Chief of Staff at the time.
“I’m not at all surprised by that, Deanna,” I told her.
One of the challenges she does encounter, however in the the elaborate day-to-day of a chief of staff is keeping up the momentum to make sure political goals get accomplished. Another difficult part of her job is keeping all the balls in the air without one or more tumbling to the ground.
“And the reality is, sometimes they do,” Deanna said, looking out the window onto Cross Fox Lane. There are a lot of rewards, though, and they’re all over the county.
“Just being able to look around and see the good we’ve been able to do,” she said. Sometimes this can be as simple as signs up and down Route 1 that identify the various communities on that densely populated stretch of HoCo. “They made people feel like they’re part of a community and not just on an expanse of Route 1.”
“We’ve gotten funding for different things that I’m really proud of,” Deanna told me. “Like for mental health care–”
“Or for drug and alcohol rehabilitation services I said,” pointing her way as I thought about the new Sheppard Pratt-affiliated hospital that’s coming to Troy Hill Farm. She nodded in response.
Come Together, In 13 And Beyond
Delegate Jen Terrasa (D-13), another one of Team 13, remarked to me in an text exchange that one of Deanna’s skill is her ability to unite disparate folks.
“Deanna brings people together from all the different parts of her life. She tries to not let friendships fall away when life gets busy,” Jen told me. In that same vein of long-haul relationships, Deanna suspects she and Guy will be working together for a while to come.
“I anticipate I’ll be working toward the same goals with him,” Deanna told me about where she sees herself in five years. Again, she added a humble flourish, saying that during one, aberrant summer in her life she wasn’t working and she was prone to making up detailed schedules about where she, Quint, and Bert had to be every hour.
“That’s why I know I’ll still be busy–so I won’t bother my kids too much,” she said, leaning over her arms that were folded on the table in front of her to laugh a little.
Deanna also said she wished people knew now and always that if she and Guy could, they’d do everything that everybody asked them to do. Sometimes, though, it can’t be done. More often than that even, it’s not feasible financially. If the state had unlimited funds, they’d be able to help even more people. And if she personally did, she’d donate as much money as possible to every Democrats campaign and some charitable causes close to her heart too.
“I’ll probably still be Chief of Eric,” she said, which is my favorite joke she’s ever made to me so far. Eric Benner is Guy and her legislative aide. A typical day at the office for Deanna involves a lot of work with Eric. During the legislative session, from January through April of every year, her work differs in quantity than that she does during the rest of the year.
Fleeting Meetings
So much of politics happens on at a speedy clip.
“There is no average day,” Deanna said of her daily grind as Guy’s Chief of Staff. It’s very different, she said, during session and off-session, echoing a sentiment voiced by every local politician RoCo’s spoken to about their jobs.
During session Deanna said much of her day consists of meetings with Guy’s constituents, fellow legislators, and various folks who want to offer input.
Interns and aides help Deanna manage the constant flow people, which can vary from fellow members of the General Assembly, lobbyists, or even “20 Girl Scouts” who want to see how Annapolis runs. Some of it’s planned, some of it isn’t.
“When they are in session, we have a ‘squawk box’ in the ceiling so we know what’s going on the Senate floor and in committee,” Deanna said. During this time, Deanna goes through the hundreds of emails Guy gets each day. After the Senators meet as a whole in the first part of the day, they then go into their individual Committee meetings.
“Anything I need to talk to Guy about I try to squeeze it in between, and that includes setting meetings up for him,” she said.
I felt my heart beat a little faster just listening to Deanna describe what struck me as a frenzied pace of what are usually ten-hour days or longer during the session.
“We try to let him eat sometime in there too,” Deanna told me, laughing.
After April, Deanna can go into the office fewer times during the week and she can work from home some days, too.
“During non-session days, I often meet Guy somewhere in the district to work,” she said. She continues to set up meetings then, too, as people see Guy around Howard County and ask for some time with him.
Off-session months are when Deanna can deal with issues centered on managing Team 13 itself as well. She and Guy then also prepare for the next session, planning what bills he’ll introduce.
Textile Therapy
I felt like I’d taken plenty of Deanna’s time, and I encouraged her to go home and put her feet up. The legislative session was set to begin in less than a week. She told me she had something for me before we parted ways.
There was no way for Deanna to have known, readers, that earlier that week I’d given my much prized Team 13 tee to RoCo’s good friend local immigration attorney and Democratic activist Becca Niburg to send along with our 2018 HoCo gubernatorial primary shirts to be made into a quilt. I’d been feeling a little forlorn without it. When I met Deanna at Starbucks she produced from her bag a Team 13 shirt! And, to boot, she gave me some socks with a Democratic Party donkey logo.
I hugged her and thanked her and scurried off to my car a little faster than I might have otherwise so I could run home and try on my new duds. They fit perfectly.
Thanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.