Guillory plans to join the Department of Business and Economic Development next month as assistant secretary, a role that will put her in charge of marketing and communications after serving as O’Malley’s communications director.

She’s the fourth high-ranking O’Malley staffer to depart since November, following Joseph C. Bryce (Manis Canning & Associates), Rick Abbruzzese (Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC) and Matthew D. Gallagher (Goldseker Foundation).

Meanwhile, Jim Pettit announced Tuesday he would join the campaign staff of Harford County Executive David R. Craig, who intends to announce his candidacy for governor early next month.

Pettit had been working for Change Maryland under Larry Hogan, a cabinet secretary in the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Hogan — thought to be a potential Republican candidate for governor himself — canceled plans to run for governor in 2010 after Ehrlich decided on a rematch with O’Malley.

I usually just wear simple black pants and a shirt—very rarely a suit. There’s some freedom in that, especially since I have so little time in the morning.

That’s Baltimore City District Court Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley, also known as Katie O’Malley, Maryland’s first lady.

O’Malley shared this tidbit and other details about her personal fashion and being a working mom in the newest issue of Baltimore Style Magazine (which was recently redesigned and relaunched.)

O’Malley also posed in the latest spring styles for a photo spread shot all around Government House.

The first lady also confirmed she loves finding a good deal:

I am a bargain shopper. My daughters shop quality. I buy my makeup at CVS and they buy theirs at Nordstrom. I go to Old Navy and buy yoga pants while they go to Lululemon.

That’s not to say she disregards her daughters’ fashion sense:

If I walk downstairs and look ridiculous, they won’t let me go out.

And isn’t that what family is for?

(Photo courtesy of Baltimore Style Magazine)

• The Baltimore Sun compares Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both speculated to be interesting in seeking the presidency in 2016.
• The Frederick-News Post reports on a new law that should mean more business for Maryland wineries.
• The Daily Record examines Maryland’s myriad business rankings.
• Baltimore Style magazine features Baltimore District Court judge and Maryland First Lady Katie O’Malley.

• The Baltimore Sun reports on projects that will be paid for by the gas tax increase enacted on Thursday.
• The Baltimore Business Journal reports Penn National Gaming Inc. may be able to hold two Maryland casino licenses at the same time.
• The Washington Post reports Maryland’s legislative hearing on the Baltimore Detention Center will take place June 6.
• MarylandReporter.com reports that some state workers doubled their salary through overtime last year.
• The Annapolis Capital reports Del. Steve Schuh has been elected chairman of Anne Arundel County’s state delegation, replacing new House Minority Leader Nic Kipke.

Alex and I discuss the three bids for a Prince George’s County casino and why many believe any of the options would become one of the most successful in the mid-Atlantic.

We also look ahead to the 2014 gubernatorial election and the challenges presumptive candidate Doug Gansler would face against Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in the Democratic primary plus sort out some Republican candidates.

Enjoy.

Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot at a Board of Public Works meeting in 2008 (Maximilian Franz/The Daily Record)

Gov. Martin O’Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot have shared a number of tense moments at Board of Public Works meetings over the last couple of years.

But on Wednesday, Franchot offered something of an olive branch: a check for $271 dollars from the comptroller’s unclaimed property division.

The check — apparently a royalty from O’Malley’s cameo appearance as Baltimore’s mayor in “Ladder 49″ (a 2004 film starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta) — made O’Malley the 7,001st Marylander to find unclaimed property this year.

“This is the first thing you’ve ever given me,” O’Malley said, later adding he’d donate the money to charity.

By law, businesses are required to notify the comptroller of property that has gone unclaimed for more than three years, including bank accounts, security deposits, wages and insurance benefits and contents of safe deposit boxes.

Franchot’s office devised a marketing campaign this year that called the comptroller “The Most Interesting Man in Maryland” — spoofing a long-running Dos Equis beer commercial campaign — complete with a catchphrase: “I don’t always lose property, but when I do, I prefer to search at marylandtaxes.com.”

The planned exchange with O’Malley was meant to further promote the program, which the comptroller’s office says has returned $261 million to 260,000 tax payers since Franchot took office in 2007.

“I’ll concede the point if you don’t think I’m the most interesting man in Maryland,” Franchot said.

O’Malley — though he wondered how The Walt Disney Co. could loose track of him in his move from Baltimore to Annapolis considering his name is on every sign in the state — was happy to call Franchot the state’s most interesting man, a good-humored compliment that Franchot later said he hoped O’Malley would remember one day in the White House’s Oval Office, a reference to O’Malley’s presidential ambition.

“If something like this happens at my agency, I would fire any employee within a country mile of it,” Franchot said Tuesday. “When I walk into the Treasury Building, I check my politics at the door.”

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday announced there would be a criminal investigation of the IRS’ apparent targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Good, Franchot said.

“It is incomprehensible to me that just a small number of low level bureaucrats were responsible for this,” he said. “It’s really distressing for me to read about this.”

The comptroller — Maryland’s tax collector — said the IRS ought to be the one government agency in no way entangled in politics. If citizens begin to doubt that, it would be “incredibly unfortunate.”

“I take it personally, because that’s the responsibility I have,” Franchot said. “It’s the one agency that needs to be beyond reproach … We would fire anybody and everybody.”

• MarylandReporter.com reports that about 6 percent of state employees earn more than $100,000 a year.
• The Daily Record report Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a key vote during the General Assembly’s debate to repeal the death penalty, will seek re-election.
• The Annapolis Capital reports Del. Don Dwyer will plead guilty to drunken boating.
• The Daily Record reports on Baltimore legislation that would require some contractors to hire city residents.

State law requires companies bidding on casino licenses to submit an initial license fee of $3 million per every 500 proposed slot machines. Penn National’s $3 million fee was dwarfed by MGM Resorts International Inc. ($21.6 million for 3,600 slots) and Greenwood Racing Inc. ($28.5 million for 4,750 slots).

A Penn National spokeswoman said Monday the company only provided a licensing fee for 500 machines because it felt unsure the full fee would be refunded if the company was not awarded the license for the Prince George’s casino.

Karen Bailey, the spokeswoman, said Penn National did the same thing when it bid to operate what is now Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County. If Penn National is awarded the casino license, Bailey said the company would pay the remaining license fee.

Companies are able to revise their proposals as the state Video Lottery Facility Location Commission reviews bids, but are not guaranteed the ability to increase the number of slot machines from their original proposal.

• The Annapolis Capital reports the state may buy the Annapolis Post Office.
• The Washington Post reports that Gov. Martin O’Malley has officially endorsed his lieutenant, Anthony G. Brown, for governor.
• The Gazette reports on a rift between the Montgomery Democratic Party and some organized labor.