It seems that every election cycle a high-profile former business executive announces plans to run for public office. Government needs to be run like a business, they say, with greater accountability and more sophisticated performance-based measurement.

Sometimes that message resonates. It’s worked wonders for Michael Bloomberg in New York City. I covered former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner a little bit in the early aughts, and the former venture capitalist from Northern Virginia proved fairly effective at winning over red portions of the Old Dominion with his message of bipartisanship and making state government more modern and efficient. The Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.

This week, however, three business executives with big names got beat like a drum at the polls — and spent a lot of their own money for the pleasure.

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Government-sponsored mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have outlined a plan to combat any deficiencies they might encounter during the foreclosure process.

“The country’s housing finance system remains fragile and I intend to maintain our focus on addressing this issue in a manner that is fair to delinquent households, but also fair to servicers, mortgage investors, neighborhoods and most of all, is in the best interest of taxpayers and housing markets,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco said in a statement announcing the plan.

The FHFA released the plan as the “robo-signing” scandal continues to grow. The FHFA is the regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the regulator of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Fannie and Freddie provide more than $5.9 trillion for domestic mortgage markets and financial institutions.

The plan, which seems pretty straightforward, is:

1. Verify the process: Review the process and procedures and make sure they’re legal.
2. Remediate any problems
3. Refer suspicion of fraudulent activity
4. Avoid delays: “In the absence of identified process problems, foreclosures on mortgages for which the borrower has stopped payment, and for which foreclosure alternatives have been unsuccessful, should proceed without delay. Delays in foreclosures add cost and other burdens for communities, investors, and taxpayers,” the agency wrote.

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You’ve got to hand it to Jimmy Carter.

The 39th president has kept himself busy since leaving office in 1981, and at 86 years old, he’s still going strong.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn got involved with the Habitat for Humanity nonprofit in the early 1980s when it was in its infancy and mostly unknown. Thanks partly to the Carters’ efforts with fundraising and publicity, Habitat has grown internationally, having built more than 350,000 homes worldwide.

This week, the Carters brought the 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2010 to the Baltimore/Washington area. From Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis, to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and Birmingham, Ala., the project will build or work on 86 homes. Ten of those homes were in Baltimore.

What’s perhaps more commendable, is that, despite being hospitalized last week in Cleveland, Carter was actually out sawing and hammering away on Tuesday with volunteers in East Baltimore.

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State officials are cautioning homeowners to be on the lookout for bogus driveway repavers.

The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation says it has been receiving an increasing number of complaints about unlicensed, traveling contractors. The usual M.O. is to offer bargain basement prices to seal or coat driveways with asphalt.

The driveway is then covered with oil mixed with water, or maybe even just a coating of black paint. Regardless, the “new” driveway generally washes away with the next rain or just quickly crumbles.

“Before hiring or paying anyone, a homeowner should contact the Maryland Home Improvement Commission to check the license status of the individual and company,” DLLR Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez said.

According to the state, there are arrest warrants already issued against some of these fraudulent contractors.

A visit to the DLLR website can verify whether a contractor is licensed in the state.

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A report released today by U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John McCain, R-Ariz. criticized the $862 billion stimulus program of the Obama administration as being chock full of wasteful projects that do little to create jobs.

The pair drafted a report, “Summertime Blues: 100 Stimulus Projects that Give Taxpayers the Blues,” pointing out what they see as the 100 most egregious programs funded with taxpayer money.

It was surprising that only one project was highlighted on the list, given Maryland’s proximity to the nation’s capital. The senators highlighted a promotion campaign by the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda.

The $363,760 project was described as “NIH Spends Stimulus Money to Promote the Impact of Its Stimulus Projects.” McCain and Coburn said the effort to promote the good things being done by the NIH with stimulus money crosses the line “from simple promotion into propaganda.”

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If you’ve followed Maryland health care politics in the last decade, Vinny DeMarco’s name should ring a bell.

He’s the guy who has fought unrelentingly for years to win health care coverage for more Marylanders, not to mention get publicity for his causes, and he’s made some impressive strides. Under DeMarco’s watch, his Health Care For All! Coalition has successfully lobbied to get coverage for 100,000 more Maryland citizens.

Now, DeMarco is the subject of a new book called The DeMarco Factor, written by Michael Pertschuk, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (the agency that advocates for American consumers), and founder of the Advocacy Institute.

Universal health care has been DeMarco’s most recent crusade — while interviewing him over the phone about the passage of health care reform this spring, our conversation was interrupted several times by passersby congratulating Vinny on the news — but the book tells the story of a guy who has passionately fought many other battles.

From the publisher:

In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.

The book promises backroom discussions, and apparently, DeMarco names names. Sounds like a compelling read.

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In response to my blog about a town in Germany selling potholes to citizens who pay to have them filled in, a reader has reminded me that this idea is not new — in fact, it was done in Baltimore before, during the administration of former Mayor William Donald Schaefer.

“Schaefer famously sold pothole repairs when he was Mayor. The repairs could be dedicated to a loved one, a red heart was painted over the patch and a certificate issued. A number of them are still visible around Baltimore. We have one on our block that we’re planning to ‘restore’ as a tribute to our great Mayor.”

As a former member of Mayor Schaefer’s staff during the ’70s, I should have remembered that getting potholes filled was one of his priorities — part of his detail-oriented, “do it now” approach to governance that won over voters — and involving the citizens of Baltimore was one of his greatest achievements.

I stand corrected.

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Now that winter seems to be loosening its icy grip on Baltimore, potholes are blossoming on local streets, and officials are combing through their scarce budgets to find the money to pay to fill them.

But one town in Germany has come up with an interesting idea: Selling potholes. Niederzimmern, a hamlet in the eastern German state of Thuringia, will repair a pothole and attach an individual’s name to the newly filled hole. The cost for owning a pothole? Only $68.

Niederzimmern Mayor Christoph Schmidt-Rose said there’s interest from the local populace in the plan. “The point is to use a funny idea to find people who can then help us to get our streets back in order,” the mayor told German radio on Wednesday.

While an unfilled pothole begs for attention, one that’s filled is saying, “Someone cares about me.” And, as Mayor Schmidt-Rose observes, people who pay to fill a pothole “feel like they own [it].”

Some years ago, Baltimore officials got people to buy bricks inscribed with their name or the name of a loved one for placement along the Inner Harbor waterfront promenade. That idea proved to be very popular.

So who’s up for owning a personal, inscribed pothole?

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Environmentalists are livid over some remarks by state Sen. Richard Colburn, a Cambridge Republican. Now they’re calling for a formal and public apology.

It happened during a meeting on Feb. 15 between the Eastern Shore delegation and the secretaries of the departments of Agriculture and Environment, in which lawmakers complained that agency rules are slowing down or halting projects in their counties.

Sen. Colburn, one of those at the meeting, said he believes “river keepers,” environmentalists who watch over particular waterways, are dictating business on the Eastern Shore. He compared them to watermelons: “green on the outside and red or socialist on the inside.”

Members of the Waterkeeper Alliance are red-faced with anger.

“Characterizing any and every opposing group or elected official as unpatriotic or un-American is a political tactic and has no place in any form of reasonable discourse,” said Kathy Phillips of Assateague Coastkeeper, a Waterkeeper Alliance member. “We are hard-working Maryland residents, devoting our lives in many cases, to the protection of Maryland waterways from illegal and often toxic pollution. Our groups are comprised of concerned Americans who care very deeply about their country. Waterkeepers has more than a number of veterans working to restore clean waterways in our country. Senator Colburn is engaging here in a McCarthy-like slur and he owes us an apology.”

U.S. Marine Corps Colonel (Ret.) Richard Dove, registered Republican, and Neuse Riverkeeper Emeritus (April 1, 1993 through July 4, 2000) said: “This man [State Sen. Colburn] doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t know me or any of my colleagues, that’s for sure. Having served two tours of duty in Vietnam, I take it personally when someone calls me a Red, a socialist. I understand that Sen. Colburn aligns himself with big agriculture and the commercial farms that keep him in office, but the fact that our goals are not aligned doesn’t give him the right to blindly tag our members as socialists, implying somehow that we are un-American.”

Jeff Kelble of Shenandoah Riverkeeper said his family has been in America since the 1600s, homesteaded the Shenandoah Valley in the 1700s, and fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. “If anything, Riverkeepers are red-blooded Americans, not Red, socialists,” he said.

One wonders whether or not Sen. Colburn has a case of the “blues” over his remark.

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Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but Maryland sure seems intent on making a love connection of an economic development sort.

And its courtship strategy looks like it hasn’t changed much in 10 years. (I know what you’re thinking: We’re really exploring the romance theme a lot here at the blog lately, huh?)

News of state efforts to woo Northrop Grumman Corp. trickled out last week. Gov. Martin O’Malley, General Assembly leaders and state economic development Secretary Christian Johansson have put the Free State’s best foot forward in hopes of landing the California defense contracting giant’s corporate headquarters.

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