Democratic state senator Ulyssses Currie indicted for fraud and bribery

I saw Senator Currie run some committee meetings in Annapolis a few years ago. At the time I was struck by his air. You could almost see his sense of entitlement radiating from every pore.

From Annie Linskey's article today in the Sun:

prosecutors allege that Currie accepted payments from Shoppers totaling $245,816 in exchange for helping the company navigate state bureaucracy from 2003 to 2008.

To track his favors, Currie created a document titled "Accomplishments on Behalf of Shoppers," in which he listed 12 state and legislative hurdles he had removed to benefit the company, according to the indictment.

Read the whole thing.

As always seems to happen in cases like this, mistakes were made!

They noted that Currie did not report his work for Shoppers on his state ethics forms. Kelberman described the lack of disclosure as "mistakes" that were "not intentional."

In Senator Currie's world, it would seem that financial accountability is only for the little people:

Currie has been beset by other problems. He replaced his longtime campaign treasurer after filing a financial disclosure Aug. 10 which showed that $187,000 had been drained from the account with no explanation for how it was spent.

UPDATE: this is just one more reason to vote Republican this November. The quality of Republican candidates is particularly strong in Baltimore County this year (and accross Maryland) when compared to previous years. If you're an Independent or even a Democrat, please look carefully at the GOP candidates in your district.

And consider voting for them.

If you do, perhaps one day I'll realize my dream of living in an honest-to-goodness two-party state.