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Peter Van Rensselaer Franchot (born November 25, 1947) is an American politician who was the 33rd comptroller of Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party, Franchot served for 20 years in the Maryland House of Delegates representing Takoma Park and Silver Spring. He was elected comptroller in 2006, and was subsequently re-elected three times. Franchot unsuccessfully ran for governor of Maryland in 2022, placing third in the Democratic primary behind Tom Perez and Wes Moore.
In 1988, while serving his first term in the House of Delegates, Franchot ran for Maryland's 8th congressional district against Republican incumbent Connie Morella. Morella defeated Franchot, 63% to 37%, in the general election.
During the years leading up to his 2006 bid for comptroller, Franchot opposed Republican governor Bob Ehrlich's efforts to expand slot machine gambling in Maryland. He considered a run for governor to challenge Ehrlich, but ultimately ran for Comptroller of Maryland.
Franchot considered running for the 2014 Democratic nomination for governor. In December 2012, he announced he would instead seek re-election as comptroller.
In an interview with WYPR in July 2018, Franchot announced that he would not endorse his party's nominee for governor, Ben Jealous, and will instead remain neutral in the gubernatorial contest. "I think I'm probably going to remain neutral in that race—simply because it's important for me to get along with whoever is elected," Franchot said. This is despite previous pledges made ahead of the primary to support the party's nominee in the gubernatorial election.
In January 2016, the Board of Public Works approved the use of state funding for portable air conditioners in Baltimore-area schools and lifted a ban on using state funding to purchase window air-conditioning units for public school classrooms. During the meeting, Franchot faced criticism for comparing the lack of air conditioning in schools to the Flint water crisis, saying "We were all dismissed as a bunch of malcontents. This is our Flint".
Towards the end of the 2016 legislative session, top legislative leaders, who objected to Franchot's frequent criticism, inserted language in budget bills to prevent the use of state funds for portable air-conditioning units in schools, which aligned with Kamenetz's view. In the same legislative session, lawmakers sought to end a practice — known as "beg-a-thon" — where school system leaders appear before the Board of Public Works to request additional school construction funding. Later that year in May, the Board of Public Works voted 2–1 to withhold state funding for school construction in Baltimore and Baltimore County unless local officials installed air conditioning in all classrooms by the start of the next school year. In response, Kamenetz released a plan that accelerated the county's installation timeline by one year. In January 2017, the Board of Public Works voted to restore funding to the jurisdictions.
In September 2016, Franchot and the president of the Maryland State NAACP chapter, Gerald Stansbury, wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the lack of air-conditioning in public schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. They wrote that the sweltering conditions in these schools, predominantly in financially depressed communities, amounted to a "blatant neglect of students' civil rights".
During the 2017 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly adopted a budget that removed Governor Hogan from the process of approving the state's school construction plans and allocate $5 million in funding for air-conditioning projects in city schools. During the 2018 legislative session, top Democratic leaders voted to strip the Board of Public Works of its oversight and management of the state's public school construction program. Despite a veto from Hogan, the legislature overrode the governor along party lines. Delegate Maggie McIntosh, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee and floor leader for the legislation, directly cited Franchot's outspokenness about the air-conditioning issue as a reason contributing to this decision. The legislation established a task force whose membership is appointed by the governor and the legislative presiding officers to oversee and disburse taxpayer dollars for school construction investments.
In June 2012, Franchot criticized the General Assembly for holding a special session for a proposal for a new casino at the National Harbor, which would be the sixth casino in Prince George's County. In a letter to members of the legislature, he encouraged lawmakers to disclose "all contributions from national gambling interests" and warned against approving the casino, saying it would "cannibalize" the venues and "jeopardize the viability of state's casino program". In an interview with the Washington Examiner on gambling expansion in Maryland, Franchot expressed heavy skepticism about the promise of casino revenue being used for educational purposes. "Any education funding that goes into the Education Trust Fund is subject to being raided by the legislature," Franchot said. "That is what's happened historically; that inevitably is what will happen again." He opposed a referendum to legalize table games at the state's casinos. The 2012 referendum passed by a narrow margin, 52 percent to 48 percent.
Franchot opposed a 2020 referendum to legalize sports betting in Maryland. The 2020 referendum passed by a wide margin, 67 percent to 33 percent.
In response to Franchot, Delegates Ben Kramer and Warren Miller introduced legislation forming a task force to study which agency is best suited to regulate the alcohol industry in Maryland. After a hearing in the House Economic Matters Committee that lasted several hours and featured dozens of brewers, elected officials, and other stakeholders who testified in support of Franchot's bill, the committee voted 17–4 to reject the comptroller's legislation. During the 2019 legislative session, Kramer introduced legislation to strip the comptroller's office of its ability to regulate the alcohol, tobacco, and motor fuels industries, instead moving these responsibilities to a governor-appointed commission. The bill passed and was vetoed by Governor Hogan, but the General Assembly voted to override the veto.
In August 2021, the Maryland Board of Public Works voted to accept a contract that would allow an international consortium to begin design work on the plan to add privately financed toll lanes to portions of the Beltway and I-270, with Franchot and Hogan voting to approve the plans and Kopp voting against it. A second contract, which set up a one-dollar-a-year lease arrangement over 60 years between the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transportation Authority, was also agreed upon. On November 19, 2021, the Maryland Transportation Authority Board voted unanimously to approve toll rates on Interstate 270, with prices depending on whether drivers use EZ-Pass or video tolling, the driver's vehicle and amount of passengers, and if drivers commute during hours where traffic is especially acute.
Franchot received endorsements from over 100 current and former officeholders, including former representative Wayne Gilchrest and former lieutenant governor Melvin Steinberg.
On July 1, 2022, Franchot's campaign announced that its workers had unionized with Campaign Workers Guild.
On July 19, 2022, Franchot lost the primary, placing third behind Tom Perez and Wes Moore. This was Franchot's first campaign loss since his run for Congress in 1988. He conceded on July 22, 2022, and endorsed Democratic nominee Wes Moore.
Franchot identifies as an "independent Democrat", holding fiscally conservative and socially liberal views. In December 2014, before Governor-elect Larry Hogan was sworn in, Franchot pledged a bipartisan alliance with the incoming governor, and the two have worked together for various causes on the Maryland Board of Public Works. He has been described by progressive news outlet Maryland Matters as being "closer to Republican Governor Larry Hogan than he is to any elected Democrat."
After the Alabama General Assembly passed the Human Life Protection Act in 2019, Franchot called for a boycott of Alabama-based business and proposed divesting state taxpayer from being spent in Alabama. He later backed down from this stance, voting for a foster care contract with Seraaj Family Homes, an Alabama-based child placement services company, in June 2019.
Following the leak of a draft majority opinion for the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Franchot signaled support for codifying reproductive rights into the Constitution of Maryland. In May 2022, Franchot sent a letter to Governor Larry Hogan, asking him to release $3.5 million in funds to train abortion care providers as part of House Bill 937, or the Abortion Care Access Act. Hogan denied the request.
On July 1, 2022, Franchot announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
During the campaign, Franchot said that he would support limiting or eliminating standardized testing in classrooms. He opposes the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, saying that he would rather shift the state's school curriculum to include teacher buy-ins and lessons that offer students "skill and knowledge about the modern economy". He also opposed tax reforms to pay for the Blueprint's proposals. He later reversed his opposition to the Blueprint, saying, "I was a bit of a skeptic because it didn't have any funding applied to it... I will implement what the legislature wants, but I was skeptical about the dollar amounts".
Franchot has faced criticism from environmentalists for his support of proposals to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270, and to rebuild the American Legion Bridge, but he defends his stance by arguing that most vehicles on the road will be powered by electricity rather than gasoline by the time the improvements are made to the highways and bridges.
In December 2012, Franchot said that he would allow same-sex married couples to file taxes jointly.
After Governor Hogan signed legislation enacting a 30-day gas tax holiday amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, Franchot said that "the hammer" would fall on gas station owners who refused to lower fuel prices. In April 2022, Franchot wrote in an op-ed to Maryland Matters encouraging the Maryland General Assembly to extend the state's 30-day gas tax holiday by an additional 90 days. In May 2022, Governor Hogan wrote to Franchot asking him to suspend the mandated gas tax increase, to which Franchot replied asking Hogan to declare a state of emergency to suspend the gas tax until September. Franchot called for the General Assembly to form a special legislative session to pass legislation giving him the authority to suspend the state's inflation-based gas tax increase, which is scheduled to take effect in July. Legislative leaders rejected Franchot's request, saying that the gas tax hike pause would "not result in Marylanders seeking a price reduction at the pump" and would cost the state over $200 million in transportation funding.
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