Maryland leaders celebrate federal dollars for broadband

Many of the leading members of Maryland’s political class — including Gov Martin O’Malley (D) and Sen Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) — converged in a nearly empty warehouse in Howard County to celebrate some federal stimulus funding that is continuing to flow to the state.

A $115 million federal grant is being used to expand broadband access throughout Maryland. The event marked the opening of a “logistics center” in Elkridge that will serve as the beachhead for a 10-jurisdiction consortium, including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, that is slated to receive the bulk of the federal money. The promise of more and better computer connections drew leaders from both parties, including the Democratic executives of Prince George’s and Howard counties and the Republican executives of Anne Arundel and Harford counties — all of whom sat in white folding chairs with huge rolls of orange cable in the camera view behind them. Yet at times, the program felt a little partisan. Sen Mikulski noted that Democrats in Congress “had our heads kicked in,” politically speaking, during the battle over stimulus funding. And she said, “thank God” for President Obama’s leadership on the issue.