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Joseph Steffen made his long-awaited appearance before a legislative investigative committee today, outlining the role he played in the firing of state employees by the Ehrlich administration and giving testimony that at times seemed to conflict with testimony given earlier by other administration witnesses. "We've got some conflicting testimony here. If witnesses testify under oath and are not telling the truth, it's perjury," said Sen. Thomas "Mac" Middleton, D-Charles, co-chairman of the special legislative committee. --Snip-- Steffen, the self-described "Prince of Darkness" and the key figure in a bitter political dispute over the firing of state employees after Ehrlich was...

Former Republican aide Joseph F. Steffen Jr., the so-called "Prince of Darkness" who gained notoriety for his role in the firing of state employees perceived as disloyal to the governor, filed a motion in Harford County Circuit Court Monday to quash a subpoena calling him to testify about his work for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Steffen was scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Annapolis before the special committee investigating whether state workers were fired for being Democrats, according to court documents filed by his attorney. But the attorney, George S. Robinson IV, contended in his filing that...

Joseph Steffen, a former aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was rebuffed today in his bid to avoid testifying before lawmakers about firing practices. Steffen, who called himself the "Prince of Darkness," is a key witness for Democratic lawmakers who want to know if Ehrlich used Steffen to improperly fire Democrats working for the state. Steffen no longer works for Ehrlich, and he argued that the legislative panel should have no power to subpoena witnesses. Harford County Circuit Court Judge Maurice Baldwin rejected Steffen's motion today. The former aide was subpoenaed to address the panel on Wednesday. A lawyer...

A former police commissioner suing the city says he can implicate an associate of Mayor Martin O'Malley in a 2004 plot that entrapped Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration in a rumor-mongering scandal. Kevin P. Clark, who is suing over being fired in November 2004, says he lost his job, in part because a police probe of a city-owned laptop stolen from Baltimore Labor Commissioner Sean R. Malone threatened to expose Mr. Malone's link to the scandal. "We received information ... that there was information on the computer regarding a group called MD4Bush," said Neal M. Janey Sr., a lawyer...

He was supposed to be the star witness before a committee of lawmakers examining the firing practices of the Ehrlich administration, the so-called Prince of Darkness accused of clearing out state agencies to make room for GOP loyalists. Then Joseph F. Steffen Jr. disappeared. His cell phone went dead. A subpoena drafted earlier this year was never delivered, and the select committee that wanted to hear from him put its work on hold. Steffen has returned to the Baltimore area and is ready to talk - to lawmakers and the news media. He never intentionally vanished, he said, but had...

He wore a black trench coat, called himself the "Prince of Darkness," and proudly mounted a Grim Reaper figurine on his desk. Then he went from state agency to state agency marking Democrats for firing. He's Joseph F. Steffen Jr., who spawned a year-long, $1 million investigation of what he was doing in state government. He came into Maryland politics with a bang, and has exited like a dark shadowy figure of old mystery radio shows. Now, just about every political junkie in Annapolis is asking the same question: "Where in the world is Joe Steffen?" A special committee that...

O'Malley shakes up campaign staff Baltimore Business Journal - 3:46 PM EDT Monday by Heather Harlan StaffBaltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley has replaced his campaign manager and appointed three political strategists, including his brother, in his quest to become Maryland's next governor. O'Malley, a Democrat, named Josh White as campaign manager, sending Jonathan Epstein packing. White, who joined the O'Malley campaign as deputy campaign manager for political outreach in March, is the former head of the Maryland Democratic Party. The campaign also announced the additions of Lucie Snodgrass, former director of governmental and community relations for Harford County, and Peter...

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s chief appointments officer vigorously denied allegations yesterday that the administration booted Democrats out of state positions so they could be replaced with Republicans and Ehrlich loyalists. “Not a single person can ever say, ‘I was fired because I’m a Democrat,”’ said Lawrence J. Hogan, who heads the governor’s appointments office. Mr. Hogan also denied that Joseph Steffen, the self-described “Prince of Darkness” and a central figure in the probe of the administration’s hiring and firing practices, was sent into state agencies to ferret out employees who could be fired. He said Mr. Steffen’s role was...

For the Maryland lawmakers who have spent eight months investigating why so many state employees were fired by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration, yesterday was supposed to be the big day. After more than 20 witnesses subpoenaed, sworn and grilled, it was time for the main event. Time to get back to where it all started. Time to hear from Joe Steffen. "I half expected him to burst in the hearing room in dramatic fashion, wearing a cape or something," said Ward B. Coe III, the special counsel hired last year to conduct the probe. But the man who...

The Maryland legislative committee investigating the administration's termination of dozens of longtime state workers plans to hear from key witnesses today, including Public Service Commission Chairman Kenneth D. Schisler. Lawmakers had hoped the star witness of the day would be Joseph Steffen, the former Ehrlich political aide who called himself "the Prince of Darkness" and, according to testimony thus far, had compiled lists of people to fire. After months of staying in touch with Steffen, and a series of interviews, the legislature's chief investigator, Ward Coe, now says he can't locate Steffen. Last week, Coe hired a process server to...

The 12-member legislative committee investigating Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s personnel practices voted Friday to extend its work until mid June as its special counsel vowed to issue more subpoenas. The Special Committee on Employee Rights and Protections — after months of dormancy — met Friday morning to decide its next steps in probing the hiring and firing decisions made by the Ehrlich administration. The panel met in closed session where its legal counsel, Ward B. Coe III, discussed his on-going efforts in obtaining personnel documents from the Ehrlich administration via speaker phone. Democratic members said that the administration has...

Call him Prince of Darkness. Darth Vader. Or, if you want to get on his good side, the Angel Moroni. Just don't call him candidate for governor. Joe Steffen's not running. "I really have decided not to run," Steffen told me yesterday. "The main reason is, most people thought I was doing it just to be vindictive - to be a jerk or be vindictive. I have no personal animosity toward anybody. I didn't want it to come across looking like I did." Is this the same Joe Steffen who cultivated a foreboding image as an Ehrlich administration aide, one...

--Snip-- Nitkin: These questions most frequently come from within the Republican Party of Maryland. The state Republican Party is offering the theory that the former executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, Josh White, left his post because of some connection to MD4Bush, the Internet identity of a person or persons who engaged former gubernatorial aide Joseph F. Steffen Jr. into talking about how rumors about Martin O'Malley's personal life had been spread. There's no evidence to back this up. White may have landed a new position, but he has not yet confirmed for us his new employer. Ryan O'Doherty...

A special legislative committee heard testimony Monday from three more workers who lost their jobs after Gov. Robert Ehrlich took office in 2003, including one woman who was fired from two jobs, the second time while recovering from eye surgery. Susan Fernandez testified that as a high-level employee in the Department of Human Resources, she was not surprised when told she would be replaced as assistant secretary by the new administration and quickly lined up a new state job at the Department of Juvenile Justice. Just a month after starting the new job, she said she was told by a...

Frustrated by the Ehrlich administration's refusal to turn over key personnel information, a legislative committee investigating the governor's hiring and firing practices authorized its special counsel yesterday to subpoena documents and to take the administration to court if it refuses to give them up. The administration has handed over thousands of pages of documents, but missing are e-mails and other papers that might show the extent to which Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. considered politics in his personnel decisions, said House Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), the special committee's co-chairman. "We would be finished with this if they...

A legislative inquiry into the firing practices of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. likely will be delayed again. A panel of lawmakers probing whether the Republican governor unfairly fired Democratic state employees was supposed to conclude its work before this week. But members of the special committee announced yesterday that at least five more workers would be called to testify and that a second extension likely would be sought. "I don't see how we can finish by January 31," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, Charles Democrat and co-chairman of the committee. He said lawmakers need to hear from more former...

Joseph F. Steffen Jr. was the Ehrlich administration's Katrina. The case for awarding him such year-end eminence rests on the impact he made as Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s designated prince of patronage, the headline-making endurance of his work and its devastating potential for the Republican Party in Maryland on the eve of an election year. Joe Steffen has more name recognition than many of the candidates who think they can break through at some level in the political scrum looming this year. He is destined to become a negative bumper sticker for Mr. Ehrlich's administration. In the early years,...

Josh White, who took over daily operations of a dispirited Maryland Democratic Party after the Republican gubernatorial victory in 2002, is leaving the organization nine months before next year's primary. A widely respected political professional, White, 38, was hired in 2003 as executive director, but lost the title after Terry Lierman replaced Isiah Leggett as party chairman last year. --Snip-- White declined yesterday to give a reason for his departure but said he was leaving at the end of the year. Party offices in Annapolis are closed next week, meaning White's duties have effectively ended. "I'm just looking forward to...

A Cabinet secretary for Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. testified yesterday that he was forced to invite into his agency the man who called himself "The Prince of Darkness" and quickly became troubled by the aide's efforts to target employees for termination. Secretary of Human Resources Christopher J. McCabe said he twice raised objections in late 2003 about Joseph Steffen's mission -- including once in a letter he had the department's top lawyer write to Ehrlich's chief counsel, in which he complained that Steffen was rifling through an employee's payroll records. Steffen "made me uncomfortable and others uncomfortable," McCabe...

ONE THING is certain about dirty politics -- it's a malady afflicting both parties. A conservative Web site is alleging that a former Democratic Party worker baited an aide to Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. into discoursing on the Internet about the personal life of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. This rumor-mongering got the aide, Joseph Steffen, immediately fired. But it was a black eye for the governor, even if he wasn't personally involved. Now, the conservative Web site freerepublic.com says one of several addresses used in the e-mail exchange with Mr. Steffen is rodoherty@mddems.org. Democratic Party officials confirm that is the...