Brooke Lierman always carries her purse. It’s a beautifully designed classic, my old lady, Colleen tells me. It suits her very well. And since the power of the purse is one of the responsibilities of the Comptroller of Maryland, it’s a perfect fit.
I had asked Brooke a while back to get together with me to talk about running for Comptroller of Maryland. She said, “Sure, Robert!” That meant a lot to me, given that her time is so valuable leading up to Election Day. She’s running against one person, Tim Adams, in the Democratic primary. The election is set for June 28th, 2022.
As I drove to her campaign headquarters in Baltimore, I thought that I didn’t want to do a rocoinhoco same-old, same old kind of thing with Brooke. One small change I could make, I thought, is to start by asking her and my future interviewees a “fun fact”, if you will.
So I asked her what she thought of this: Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio, believed sound waves never die. In his 60s, he made it a mission to invent a machine that could “tap into these eternal frequencies,” as the Atlantiic put. “He would tell people that if he got it right, he could hear Jesus of Nazareth giving the Sermon on the Mount.” Brooke smiled broadly when I told her this.
And she had a beautiful response!
“It speaks to the cycle of life and loss but also creates a permanence that doesn’t exist in our world and that many of us find difficult to bear after losing a loved one. Our state has experienced quite a bit of loss over the past 18 months and I hope some families are able to find comfort in the thought that the voices of their loved ones or at least the sound waves they produced live on!” I just love that response for so many different reasons. Not the least of which is how, without my asking her, she seamlessly wove in the experience of voters around the state.
Brooke was actually one of the first people I met when I got involved in GVP (Gun Violence Prevention) activism. Liz Banach and Jen Pauliukonis took me to an event in downtown Baltimore…well, in District 46, which is the one she lives in and represents as a delegate in the Maryland General Assembly. Brooke was wearing her work clothes and [grading papers?] She stopped when Liz said, “Brooke…” She looked up at us and immediately broke into a warm, wonderful smile. She couldn’t have been more gracious and lovely.
Open and Shut!
We had a funny experience together when I was working for Delegate Eric Ebersole (D-12). I was on my way home. It was an icy-cold day, made only colder by the coastal Annapolis winds! Brooke was taking a picture on her cell phone, and as I walked by she said, “Hey, Akbi! Oh, be careful that door is propped open.” But I heard her words too late. And I accidentally closed this door she had propped open. We were stuck! We both tried frantically to get back in! Eventually, she just went around the building to another entrance. Her skin was turning red from the cold, and I felt awful. True, it’s not such a big deal. But I do love the fact that it was one of those moments you share with someone that brings you closer to them.
A Penny Saved
I asked Brooke how she’d use a $10,00o gift. Brooke is focused on people, and her answer was emblematic of that.
“I would invest in our team. I want my staff and team of the comptroller’s office to be second to none, and they are.” So, she said, she would defiinitely use a big gift to show them how much she appreciates them.
I knew Brooke was on a tight schedule. Her staff didn’t express any consternation that I got to our meeting an hour before I was supposed to. They set me up in a chair and gave me snacks and drinks! Pretzels and sparkling water, in fact.
When Brooke blew in, literally bringing winds (of change?) with her. There was something breathless about her. Why shouldn’t there be, with all the running from event to event she’s been doing!
And then I finally said what we’ve all been thinking: “What, dear Brooke, in god’s name is a comptroller?” She laughed and said she had a three-pronged approach to answering this question. I include it below verbatim. Why not get her response to it without my interrupting!
“The comptroller is one of only three independently elected statewide offices. The comptroller really sees every dollar in and every dollar out of the state. So a really important statewide voice in Maryland. Second, the comptroller sits on a number of very important boards, including being vice-chair of the State Retirement and Pension Board that oversees our retirement benefits for almost half a million state retirees. And the Public Works department of Maryland has the highest administrative board and it is responsible for it. So it really holds the power of the purse in a lot of ways, and Maryland is responsible for approving or denying every major contract that goes out in the state of Maryland from, you know, approving COVID test kit purchases to building new schools, buying new busses and more. And then finally, I always hate to remind people this, but it’s got to be done. The comptroller is the state tax collector.” Of course, at this I immediately pictured her in a Sherriff of Nottingham outfit, going door to door, collecting people’s taxes. That tax collector was a nasty meanie! But Brooke so is not!
That’s It…Or Is It?
My dear RoCo readers have stuck with me for so long and through so much…you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say something kind of kooky.
I have been obsessing about breaking the RoCoInHoCo article model for a while. And tonight, as I write this, I figured it out! Brooke had an event tonight at Busboys and Poets. And I didn’t go. Instead, I stayed home to work on this article! I texted her and told her sorry that I couldn’t come. I thought, perhaps this is my new thing to include in articles. That I didn’t do something! Ok, gimme a break! It sounded more brilliant in my head.
Let’s get back to brass tacks with some background on Brooke…Brooke grew up in Montgomery County and went to Walt Whitman High School. After that, it was off to Dartmouth College. She then made her way to Austin, Texas for law school at UT Austin.
Can You Comp-Trol This Sparkling Water?
Joe Francoviglia is Brooke’s campaign manager. He was the one who set me up in a nice cozy chair when I came early.
I took the moment to ask him why he wanted to work with Brooke.
She echoed a similar sentiment to Joe’s when she told me via text why she wanted to be on Brooke’s campaign: “I joined Brooke’s campaign as treasurer because I believe that Brooke’s vision of making our state equitable and accessible to all is exactly what we need to move Maryland forward. Right now.”
And Here She Is Folks!
“I recognized that we have a huge opportunity in 2020 to elect a new comptroller and to elect somebody who will bring a bold new vision for what that office can do for Marylanders,” she said. “I think the comptroller’s office can play a key role in ensuring our taxpayer dollars are being spent in a way that builds a more equitable and inclusive state.”
She said her background as a delegate representing Maryland’s 46th district was part of decision to run.
“I’ve done a lot of work over the past seven years really trying to pass some landmark legislation, whether it’s on environmental legislation to help stem the plague of single-use plastics, whether it’s improving our public transit system, or creating the first evidence-based fund to end gun violence in the states,” she said. She saw that this moment was one that Maryland hadn’t had in a while. The seat at the Comptroller’s office opened up when Peter Franchot announced his candidacy for governor. And Brooke realized that Comptrolling, if you will, would be how she will realize her vision for the state. Delegate-ing, too, of course, but Comptrolling now also.
“The comptroller’s office is uniquely situated to really focus on income-based issues and economic challenges,” Brooke said. I decided to switch gears. I asked her what the most rewarding and challenging has been about running for this office so far.
“I would say I feel fortunate that my life in public service and this campaign is something that I find both equally challenging and rewarding.” There is the natural push and pull, ebb and flow, of course, that’s just a part of life, she added, where one day is more challenge than reward and vice versa. But at the end of the day, she said, she has loved meeting families in every county.
“I have just loved the people I’ve met along the way. They are the ones who keep me going,” she said.
What has made her especially proud the past few months, while campaigning? Brooke’s gotten a donation from citizens in every county of this weirdly-shaped state, too! It was such a down-to-Earth, response.
Also: Holly and George Stone told me about their experience as business leaders in HoCo.
The Bigger the Better
After all this abstract talk. We both laughed when she said something that surprised her was the shape and size of the state.
“Maryland is a really big state! And it’s a very unusual shape!” And you know what? It is! She said, “And it’s big! I’ll say it’s the biggest of the smaller states.”
She then spoke again about how the wide reach of the Comptroller isn’t lost on her. It was my favorite thing she said, in fact.
“There are challenges in every part of the state, and I have learned so much about what those challenges are and loved hearing from people about their ideas to solve them,” Brooke said.
She mentioned a program she had worked on that provided rehabilitation and renovation opportunities to families who were in Red Lined districts with Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-40).
“It’s the kind of program that would work really well in West Baltimore, but it also is needed in Hagerstown and Cumberland and Salisbury and, you know, in other neighborhoods and parts of Prince George’s County,” Brooke offered.
“Fundamentally, I believe that government can make a positive difference in people’s lives, and I want to make sure that it’s doing that,” Brooke.
Who Wants to Be a $10,000-aire
I asked Brooke then how she would use a $10,000 gift.
“I would invest in our team. I want my staff and team at the comptroller’s office to be second to none. They are that, and I’d really want to invest in them.” She wants, she said, to modernize the office and make sure her team is best able to realize its goals if she got that 10k gift.
It was time to pack up and go and to let Brooke get back to running all over the place. As I got up, I said, “Wait! Your family!” I hadn’t asked her about that! She told me she has two younger brothers. I thought maybe that’s where she gets her desire to nurture and talent for nurturing. Of course, a more obvious place she might have got that is from mothering her two young children. She gets home late these days, usually around 11:00 p.m., but if she can, she spends some time with them, she said of her downtime.
“If my kids are up, and they’re usually not, but if they are sometimes, I’ll read them a story,” she said. “I say hi to my husband and then get back to work on the computer. I usually get to bed around midnight or one. I think my doctor would like me to get more sleep, though!”
I think there’s definitely a long, refreshing nap in Brooke’s future. But for now she has problems to solve, challenges to meet, and dreams to help others realize.
Then I remembered two other places I’d seen Brooke. One was a Zoom meeting a few months ago. Ok, not so interesting. But it was edifying, I tell you! And then I saw her at the HoCo Dems Labor Day Picnic. We caught each other’s eye, and she flashed her pearly whites and mouthed, “Hi, Akbi!”
What struck me then and certainly when we chatted it her HQ, is that she really seems to love this work. It can be so exhausting and demoralizing, but Brooke seems so happy doing it. And that says so much about why she’d be a great comptroller!
Thanks for reading! Check back with us 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.