Breaking New Report Shows Hogan Dropped the Ball on Major Campaign Promise
Larry Hogan Failed to Meet With Discovery Communications Before They Announced Loss of 1300 Maryland Jobs
A bombshell new report in Bethesda Beat shows that Governor Larry Hogan dropped the ball on a major campaign promise of his by failing to meet with one of the state’s largest employers before it announced it would be moving 1,300 jobs out of Maryland. Discovery Communications announced earlier this year that it would be relocating from Silver Spring to New York, and Governor Hogan famously replied that it’s “not the end of the world.”
Bethesda Beat’s reporting shows that Hogan’s shockingly flippant attitude towards Discovery Communications is nothing new. After Governor Hogan first took office in 2015, Discovery sent multiple emails to members of the Hogan Administration requesting an introductory meeting to no avail. That meeting never happened. Instead, the two had a brief phone call three months later.
And after the Discovery-Scripps Merger was announced, “Maryland officials were not initially active in discussions with the company about its possible relocation.” “Meanwhile, Tennessee officials were credited by Scripps CEO Ken Lowe earlier this year with beginning talks with Discovery officials immediately about the company’s plans after the deal was announced last summer, according to published reports,”
After campaigning on keeping Fortune 500 companies in the state, with the loss of Discovery, Hogan became the first Maryland governor in decades to lose a Fortune 500 Company.
“It’s clear that Larry Hogan’s office door was not in fact ‘open for business,’ and Silver Spring workers and businesses are paying the price,” said DGA Communications Director Jared Leopold. “Maryland deserves a governor who will fight for jobs, not one who flippantly ignores meeting requests, fails to engage with major employers, then callously dismisses lost jobs as ‘not the end of the world.’”
The DGA previously ran a digital ad campaign about Hogan breaking his promise to protect jobs and job creators in the state.
Read highlights of Bethesda Beat’s reporting below or see the full story online HERE
Bethesda Beat: Hogan Had Little Contact With Discovery Before Company Decided To Leave Silver Spring
Chair of Maryland Democratic Party contends governor’s actions were a ‘monumental failure of leadership’
Maryland government officials had little more than a month to try to convince Discovery Communications to remain in downtown Silver Spring after the company notified them shortly after Thanksgiving that it was considering leaving the state.
During that time, Gov. Larry Hogan spoke by phone once with Discovery CEO David Zaslav—on Dec. 8—before the multimedia company announced Jan. 9 it would vacate its Silver Spring headquarters. He did not meet with Zaslav, the head of one of the state’s four Fortune 500 companies. …
Read the full story online HERE