MARYLAND MATTERS: Sen. Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince George’s), the chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, will resign at the end of the month to become president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association.
Griffith told Maryland Matters Friday that she accepted the job in the morning and will begin her new position on Dec. 18.
“This has been a tremendously difficult decision,” she said.
Griffith, who is in her fifth year in the Senate and previously served for 16 years in the House of Delegates, has worked as a health care policy expert and advocate for her entire professional career. In an interview, she said she initially resisted the opportunity to apply for the hospital association position, but finally came around to the idea that she could advance many of her top priorities in the new job.
“Someone pointed out, those are things you care about in life that you have a chance to impact,” Griffith said.
Griffith will replace Bob Atlas, who departed in February after five years on the job, following a contentious conversation with a House committee chair on a group phone call, The Daily Record reported at the time. Atlas was paid $838,000 in 2021, according to the most recently available public figures, published on the website ProPublica.
By selecting Griffith, the hospital association, one of the most muscular trade groups in the state, is getting a seasoned policy expert who is also intimately familiar with the politics, players and traditions of Annapolis.
“This position is an extension of Melony’s life work as a problem-solver, organizer, and community health advocate,” Thomas Kleinhanzl, MHA’s Board of Trustees chair, said in a statement. “As a state lawmaker for over 24 years [sic], Senator Griffith has built a stellar reputation, relationships, and policy knowledge that will advance our Association and our hospitals through the coming years. She is a collaborator who brings together competing ideas and needs, finds consensus, and builds the best solutions for our communities and our state.”
Griffith’s resignation will create a series of political dominoes in Annapolis and in Prince George’s County. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) will have to find a replacement for Griffith atop the Finance Committee, whose broad portfolio includes health care policy, business regulation and labor issues. She took over the committee just before this year’s General Assembly session.
The Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee will eventually have to recommend a successor for Griffith in the Senate to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who will officially name the replacement. Griffith said she is timing her resignation with the hope that there is more than sufficient time to have a successor in the 25th District Senate seat before the General Assembly session begins on Jan. 10.
Early speculation has focused on Sen. Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel), who has served on the Finance Committee since joining the Senate in 2019, as the next chair. The vice chair is Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County), who is the senior member of the Senate.
Beidle until recently was traveling in Iceland when she began receiving text messages this week.
“I’ve had about 20 congratulations since Wednesday and I’m like, congratulations for what?” Beidle said in an interview. She expressed interest in succeeding Griffith.
“I’ve been in the Senate five years and before that I was in the House for 12,” said Beidle, the current chair of the Senate Executive Nominations Committee, who also spent two terms on the Anne Arundel County Council. “I’ve chaired subcommittees. I’ve chaired executive noms. I think if it were offered I would certainly be honored.
“That’s all being worked through on who’s going to be chair and now the dominoes start falling. There’s going to be committee changes, there will be other leadership changes. We’ll need an 11th person on Finance so someone’s going to come from another committee and then somebody has to replace Melony and that person is going to have to be assigned a committee. Literally, the dominoes start falling.”
Ferguson on Friday did not say anything publicly about his plans for the Finance panel, but he did release a statement lamenting Griffith’s loss in the Senate and saying he views her hiring at the hospital association “with a mix of pride and gratitude.”
“Senator Griffith has left an indelible impact on our State,” Ferguson said. “Her dedication, expertise and unparalleled work ethic have been instrumental in shaping Maryland’s landscape…The tenacity that Senator Griffith has brought to her work serving her constituents makes her the perfect choice to lead the Maryland Hospital Association at this critical juncture. “Healthcare is a vital issue that touches the lives of every Marylander, and I can think of no one better suited to improve the state of our hospitals, healthcare services, and ensure health equity than her.”
Ferguson installed Griffith as Senate president pro tem shortly after becoming Senate president at the beginning of 2020. She became chair of the Finance Committee late last year following an elaborate reshuffling of committee leadership and responsibilities.
With the Senate’s two senior-most members departing following the 2022 election — Senate Finance Chair Delores Kelley (D-Baltimore County) into retirement and Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chair Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) appointed director of the Maryland Energy Administration — Ferguson named Griffith the chair of Finance, while making Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), who had been Kelley’s vice chair at Finance, the chair of the newly-renamed Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment (EEE).
But Ferguson also shifted some of those committee’s responsibilities, bringing the energy and utilities portfolio into EEE, which already considered most environmental legislation, and giving Finance sole responsibility for health care policy.
This breaking news story will be updated.
