Ted Venetoulis: the ‘mind of the reformer’

I first met Ted Venetoulis in the Summer of 1974 when he was running for Baltimore County Executive. In March of that year, the sitting county executive, Dale Anderson, had been convicted on several charges involving contractor kickback payments on public contracts. This came just five months after Vice President Spiro Agnew had resigned after pleading no contest to felony tax evasion. That charge arose from a similar contractor kickback scheme concocted during the time that Agnew was county executive and, subsequently, governor, with the payments continuing even while he served as vice president.