In 2006, Brown was elected
lieutenant governor on a ticket with
Martin O'Malley, the former
mayor of Baltimore. The pair were the only challenging candidates to defeat an incumbent gubernatorial ticket in the 2006 election cycle. On January 17, 2007, Brown was sworn in as Maryland's 8th lieutenant governor. Both Brown and O'Malley were reelected by a 56% to 42% margin on November 2, 2010. Brown was the first person elected lieutenant governor directly from the Maryland House of Delegates. Governor O'Malley tasked Brown to lead the O'Malley-Brown administration's efforts on several policy fronts, including efforts to expand and improve health care, support economic development, help victims of
domestic violence, increase access to higher education, and provide veterans with better services and resources. In July 2010, Brown was elected chair of the
National Lieutenant Governors Association, a position he served in for a term of one year.
Health care As co-chair of the Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council and Maryland's Health Quality and Cost Council, Lt. Governor Brown led the O'Malley-Brown administration's efforts to reduce costs, expand access, and improve the quality of care for all residents of the state. In June 2012, Brown was named "Maryland's Public Health Hero" by the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition. He assisted in the implementation of the
Affordable Care Act, which according to a "non-partisan" 2012 study using Obama administration numbers and various state agency projections, would save Maryland $672 million by 2020. In both 2011 and 2012, Brown led legislation through the
Maryland General Assembly to create a
health insurance exchange. Brown was severely criticized for his leadership of the development of the health insurance exchange. As of April 14, 2014, it had enrolled only 66,203 individuals (including family members on shared plans). The O'Malley administration apologized for the "botched" launch of the web site and had to seek emergency funding legislation to make stopgap changes to the site. The state paid a contractor $125.5 million to develop and operate the failed site. Due to the failed rollout, the state incurred an estimated $30.5 million in unnecessary
Medicaid spending. The web site failure was the subject of a federal investigation into the costs associated with developing the exchange and the site's performance failures. The state announced that it was considering scrapping its failed online health exchange altogether and hiring a new contractor to build a new online exchange using technology employed by the state of Connecticut, at an expected cost of tens of millions of dollars. Brown led efforts to address
health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in Maryland. In 2012, he developed created Health Enterprise Zones, which would use incentives to increase the number of primary care providers and other essential health care services in underserved communities. The goal is to reduce preventable diseases, such as asthma and diabetes.
Economic development Brown led the administration's economic development portfolio. He served as chair of numerous economic development initiatives, including the Joint Legislative and Executive Commission on Oversight of Public-Private Partnerships, the Governor's Subcabinet on
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), and the FastTrack initiative – part of Maryland Made Easy (www.easy.maryland.gov) – to streamline the state permitting process for businesses and developers.
Public-private partnerships Brown became one of the leading champions for the increased use of
public-private partnerships to advance infrastructure projects in Maryland. Governor Martin O'Malley appointed Brown to serve as Chair of the Joint Legislative and Executive Commission on Oversight of Public-Private Partnerships. The fifteen-member Commission was established in 2010 under House Bill 1370 to evaluate the State's framework and oversight of public–private partnerships. Under Brown's leadership, the Commission worked to increase the potential for private investment in public infrastructure projects. The commission submitted its final report to the Governor and General Assembly in January 2012, which included assessing the oversight, best practices, and approval processes for
public-private partnerships in other states; evaluating the definition of public-private partnerships; making recommendations concerning the appropriate manner of conducting legislative monitoring and oversight of public-private partnerships; and making recommendations concerning broad policy parameters within which public-private partnerships should be negotiated.
Base realignment and closure (BRAC) Brown was tasked by Governor O'Malley to lead the
Base Realignment and Closure Subcabinet and the implementation of Maryland's BRAC Plan, which ensured the State of Maryland would be ready for the 28,000 households that came to the state as a result of the BRAC process. It was estimated that between and 45,000 to 60,000 jobs would be created in Maryland by 2016 due to BRAC. Since 2007, the BRAC Subcabinet met regularly with BRAC stakeholders to coordinate and synchronize the State's efforts with public and private partners to address BRAC needs. The BRAC Plan set forth new initiatives and priorities to address the human capital and physical infrastructure requirements to support BRAC, as well as to seize the opportunities that BRAC presents, while preserving the quality of life already enjoyed by Marylanders. Several of the larger moves included the Army's Communications–Electronics Command (
CECOM) to
Aberdeen Proving Ground from
Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, and the Air National Guard Readiness Center at
Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility Washington. The
Defense Information Systems Agency was relocating to
Fort George G. Meade from northern Virginia and
Walter Reed Army Medical Center was moving to the
Bethesda Naval Hospital to create the
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda. In 2011, the Association of Defense Communities recognized Brown as their Public Official of the Year for his leadership on BRAC.
Domestic violence In August 2008, his cousin Kathy was murdered by her estranged boyfriend. Building on his legislative experience and personal perspective, Brown has championed reforms to fight domestic violence and provide improved support to victims. In 2009, Brown led efforts to improve domestic violence laws and take guns out of the hands of domestic abusers by allowing judges to order the abuser in a temporary protective order to surrender any firearms in their possession. During the 2010 Legislative Session, Brown worked with the General Assembly to pass legislation allowing a victim of domestic abuse to terminate a residential lease with a copy of a final protective order. During the 2012 Legislative Session, Brown gained the administration's goal of extending unemployment benefits to a victim of domestic violence who decides to leave employment because the abuser is a threat at the workplace. Brown also led efforts to expand the availability of hospital-based Domestic Violence Screening programs at Maryland hospitals to help identify victims of domestic violence and connect them to support services. In 2010, he helped launch Maryland's fifth hospital-based domestic violence program at Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly. In 2011, Brown helped launch a sixth hospital-based program at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Maryland. Similar programs are in place in the Baltimore region at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center, Sinai Hospital, and Northwest Hospital.
Education Under the O'Malley Brown Administration, Maryland's students made dramatic improvements in nearly every statistical category, and Maryland's schools were ranked # 1 in the country for 4 years in a row. Brown lead the O'Malley-Brown administration's efforts to increase taxes to support education and other programs. They raised taxes over 40 times during their tenure. The administration took steps to make a higher education more accessible and affordable for all Marylanders, including making record investments in community colleges and working to keep an education affordable at four-year public colleges and universities. As a result, the number of
STEM college graduates, number of associate degrees, and the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in Maryland all increased since the team took office in 2007.
Veterans affairs Brown was the nation's highest-ranking elected official to have served a tour of military duty in Iraq Other legislation passed as part of the "Maryland's Commitment to Veterans" package includes: • Expansion of state scholarship fund for OIF/OEF veterans and their dependents; • Protection of state-funded business loan program for veterans and service-disable veterans; • Creation of reintegration program for members of the
Maryland National Guard returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan; and • Expansion of state veteran service centers in rural communities.
2008 election and Obama transition Despite being a classmate of
Barack Obama, in September 2007, Brown initially endorsed
Hillary Clinton for
President in the
2008 election. He campaigned for her in several states, including
South Carolina and
Georgia. In June 2008, Brown subsequently
endorsed Obama. In July 2008, Brown was appointed to the
Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee and served on the Platform Drafting Committee. Brown led the efforts to strengthen the
Democratic Party's commitment to veterans and ensuring that the
Chesapeake Bay be named as a "national treasure". Brown was a "Party Leader/Elected Official" delegate to the
2008 Democratic National Convention in
Denver, Colorado, in late August 2008 and cast his vote for then-Senator Obama, along with 98 members of the Maryland delegation. Brown was named co-chair of the
Obama/Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the
Department of Veterans Affairs on November 14, 2008.
2014 gubernatorial candidacy Anthony Brown announced his candidacy for
governor of Maryland in the
2014 election on May 10, 2013, at Prince George's County Community College. He chose
Ken Ulman, county executive of
Howard County, Maryland, as his running mate in June 2013. Brown was endorsed by
Governor Martin O'Malley,
U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Congressman
Steny Hoyer,
Maryland Senate President
Thomas V. Miller Jr., and
Baltimore Mayor
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Brown faced
Attorney General Doug Gansler and
Delegate Heather Mizeur in the Democratic primary. Brown won the June 2014 Democratic primary and became the Democratic nominee for governor but was defeated by Republican nominee
Larry Hogan in the general election on November 4, 2014. ==U.S. House of Representatives==