Guess who’s coming to dinner at state Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters’ Ocean City condo?
Everyone!
That’s a bit of exaggeration. And that sentence belongs in the past tense.
But Peters (D-Prince George’s) did entertain about half of his Senate colleagues and a handful of assorted other elected officials on Wednesday night during last week’s Maryland Association of Counties conference, offering them a bit of a respite from the hurly-burly of receptions and fundraisers.
According to Peters, every senator who was in OC on Wednesday showed up.
“I thought it would be nice to invite them,” he said in an interview Monday. “It gave them somewhere to go not to have the loud music – just a chance to talk to everybody with not a lot going on.”
Peters is considered one of four leading contenders to replace long-serving Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) whenever Miller chooses to move on, so this social event could be seen as an attempt to curry favor with colleagues who will select the chamber’s next leader. But that was not the case, Peters insisted.
“Everything we do is seen through that prism now,” he lamented. “I would have done it even if [a race for succession] wasn’t an issue.”
For the record, Miller was there, along with his daughter Melanie. So were two other contenders for the top job, along with their significant others: Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chairman Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) and Majority Leader Guy J. Guzzone (D-Howard).