Maryland’s Political Power Couples (Abridged Edition)

Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all!

At Maryland Matters, we love our readers. So thank you for reading! And never hesitate to tell us what we ought to do be doing better. We also love story suggestions.

For the past few years on Valentine’s Day, we’ve put together a list of Maryland’s power couples. It’s always a fun exercise, and we think readers like it too.

But as we progress into year six of the Hogan administration, we’ve come to an inescapable conclusion: The list of power couples, at least in the political world, hasn’t changed very much over the past several years. And as it is, as it’s commonly said, nothing much changes in Annapolis anyway.

This is not a partisan or a political statement, but we may have to wait a few years, and for a new occupant in Government House, before we can assemble a list of Maryland power couples that’s much different than the ones we’ve put together over the last few years.

So rather than re-running last year’s list verbatim, we’ll link to it here. They’re all there: The Hogans, the Mosbys, the Haires, and so on. But now we’re adding a few names of couples who haven’t made the list in the past but are worth listing.

As we looked over last year’s list we noticed that about half a dozen people have switched jobs over the past 12 months. But that doesn’t change their status as one-half of a power couple.

And we noted, sadly, that one power couple has been broken up, by the death last October of U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D).

Cummings himself always pointed out that the good work public officials did was all about creating a better future. So in that spirit, by adding a few couples to our power players list, including a couple of younger couples, we feel like we too are giving a nod to the future.

So here are the Maryland power couples we’re adding to the list:

— Delora Ifekauche and Arinze Ifekauche: She’s a principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs in Annapolis and he’s the communications director for the Maryland Democratic Party. They were married last summer.

— Bethamy N. Beam and David R. Brinkley: She’s the chairman and presiding judge at the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals and he’s the Budget secretary for the Hogan administration.

— Ronald M. Gunzburger and Dana F. Buker: Ron is a senior adviser to Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) — and was campaign manager for Hogan’s unsuccessful run against U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D) in 1992 — while Dana is the director of the ombudsman’s office for state Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D).

— Lindsey Carpenter Pippy and Jesse T. Pippy: She’s an assistant state’s attorney in Frederick County and he’s a Republican state delegate from Frederick County.

— Katie Nash and Josh Bokee: She just opened a government relations shop of her own, while he’s a regional director of government and regulatory affairs for Comcast.

Please enjoy the day — and thank you for reading!

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