Pam Beidle has a lot of packing to do.
By the end of the year, the senator from Anne Arundel must choose which symbols of her legacy — plaques, medals and citations collected over 28 years in public office — to take home from her spacious offices in Annapolis.
Beidle wasn’t thinking about legacy when she started her political career on the County Council in 1998. Now, approaching the end, others define it for her.
U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, state Sen. Dawn Gile, Del. Heather Bagnall, Councilwoman Allison Pickard and others regularly call the powerful state Senate Finance Committee chair a role model for women and moderate politics.
As she prepares to leave public office, Beidle has a bolder sort of legacy in mind.
The 74-year-old senator plans to donate $574,000 in campaign funds to a slate of candidates she selected, funding a generation of temperate Democrats in increasingly liberal Maryland.
“I think they’re all pretty moderate,” she said. “You know, I’m a moderate Democrat. So I think it’s people that I know, that I trust, that I think are good, honest, ethical people.”
Beidle launched the Anne Arundel Democracy Slate in January with $174,000 from her campaign fund, weeks before she ended her reelection bid.
She plans to close out her campaign finance account and transfer the remaining $400,000. She’s waiting for confirmation from the state elections board to ensure that it meets all finance rules.
With 40 days left until early voting for the June primary, that much money could be incredibly influential in crowded and competitive state primary contests. Her slate has grown to 19 candidates.
One of the first was Del. Mark Chang. Beidle called him when she decided against another run and then waited for him to decide whether he wanted to run for her seat.
He was hesitant, Beidle said, and didn’t walk into the state elections board office in Annapolis until minutes before it closed.
State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess is also on Beidle’s slate, as are Council Chair Julie Hummer, District 2 council candidate Will Shorter, Del. J. Sandy Bartlett, Register of Wills Jasmine Jackson and others.
Pickard, though, is front and center. Beidle created the slate to help her bid for county executive.
A recent poll found only a few percentage points separating Pickard from James Kitchin, a special assistant to outgoing County Executive Steuart Pittman, and Councilman Pete Smith in that race.
Beidle has supported Pickard since her days on the county Board of Education and watched as she worked to revitalize Glen Burnie, now one of the fastest-growing communities in Maryland. Joseph Pickard, her husband, is the slate chair, and Beidle’s husband, Leonard, is its treasurer.
Once the money transfers, the slate can donate up to $24,000 to individual candidates. That’s four times the maximum that an individual or political action committee can donate.
Members can also share common campaign expenses, such as advertising, phone banks, volunteer sign-ups and voter turnout.
The secret weapon, though, isn’t money. It’s Elfreth.
The first member of Congress from Anne Arundel County since 1993, the freshman Democrat is one of Maryland’s best political campaigners.
“Nobody campaigns like Sarah Elfreth,” Beidle said. “She is really running the slate. I may have put the money in and rented the office building, but she’s — it’s her energy.”
Their bond started with the late House Speaker Mike Busch of Annapolis, a mentor for both. It strengthened during Elfreth’s six years in the Senate.
The slate highlights a split in the county Democratic Party, roughly aligned with the three major executive candidates.
Pickard has Beidle and Elfreth, with the slate providing mutual endorsements among its candidates.
Pittman endorsed Kitchin. He’s barred from campaigning for him because he serves as Maryland Democratic Party chair, but has found ways to help.
Pittman supported County Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien’s bill to ban development money from campaigns. It was certain to fail in an election year — Pickard, Smith and three Republicans voted it down — but it provided a soft pitch for Kitchin.
“There’s good development and there’s bad developers,” Beidle said. “We have a housing shortage, and we’re not going to improve it unless we improve the process.”
Having decided to take public funding, Kitchin can accept only up to $250 in individual contributions and can’t join a slate.
He’s no fan of Beidle’s maneuvering.
“There are forces trying to build the future of our party in the image of machine politics and backroom deals, which I think would be a move backwards,” he said.
Smith has been endorsed by Progressive Maryland and a list of officials and candidates that rivals the 19 on Beidle’s slates. It includes Chang’s opponent, the Rev. Stephen Tillett, as well as Del. Mike Rogers, Sen. Shaneka Henson and school board member Gloria Dent.
“Angela Alsobrooks wouldn’t be the U.S. senator right now if it was only about money,” Smith said. “I’m not saying it won’t be an impact on our race. We’ve just got to work twice as hard.”
The senator’s legacy goes beyond the money.
As a delegate, she introduced legislation that created the elected county school board and Maryland’s transportation scoring system. She won passage of legislation to prevent health care companies from price-gouging during the pandemic.
Sitting in her darkened office, Beidle talked about all the bills and contests past, opponents and friends long gone. She talked about her first election.
She was an insurance agent from Linthicum enrolled in Leadership Anne Arundel, a community involvement seminar, and a classmate suggested she run.
Her mother had just died, and her daughter was a high school freshman. Beidle thought four years would be the right time.
“She said, ‘No, no, because it’s an eight-year cycle. Usually, you get reelected. It’s eight years. If you don’t do it now, you’ll wait eight years.’”
In politics, timing is everything.
Beidle may be about to show she knows just the right time to cash out.
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