He's a "burly man" with "rhetorical punch" from Catholic, blue collar roots in Baltimore who trekked a "remarkable rise" to become "one of Maryland's most powerful public officials." But today former state senator Thomas Bromwell (D-Md.) finds himself facing a judge and entering a guilty plea in a federal racketeering case that's been years in the marking. Reporting the story, the Washington Post's Philip Rucker calls Bromwell's saga "one of the state's largest public corruption investigations in years." Yet nowhere in Rucker's Metro section front pager "Bromwell Says He Accepts His Fate," is any mention of the politician's party affiliation, Democratic.
Bromwell left the state Senate in 2002 but two of his Democratic colleagues still serving in the Maryland General Assembly, Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller and state Sen. Brian Frosh were quoted in Rucker's article with their party label. Michael Collins, a friend of Bromwell's and also a former Democratic state senator from Baltimore was also quoted in Rucker's story, without a party label.
