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Maryland Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s) is vowing to fight a determination by the state legislature’s ethics committee that he cannot hold a job in Prince George’s County government as long as he remains in the Senate.
Muse said he vehemently disagrees with a letter he received from the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics that determined it is unlawful for him to hold a Prince George’s County job while serving as a state senator and that he will challenge it — in court if he has to.
Muse’s comments come as his colleague Sen. Ron Watson (D- Prince George’s) opted to resign from the job he took this summer with Prince George’s County schools, in the face of a similar ruling from the ethics committee. Watson said he also disagreed with the committee’s determination, but decided against challenging it. Muse appears to be taking a different tack.
“We are challenging that, because we think that it’s wrong. We think that every person deserves a job,” Muse said.
Muse did not immediately confirm the nature of his job at the county, nor did he provide the letter from the ethics committee in response to requests from Maryland Matters. Letters issued by the committee are not publicly available.
But a spokesperson for Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy said Muse started a job in October as ombudsman for the county’s procurement office. The $180,000-a-year job is “merit based,” said Sharon Taylor, the spokesperson, and Muse does not serve at the pleasure of the county executive. The position was posted publicly in August, Taylor added, and Muse applied and was selected.
“We assumed that Sen. Anthony Muse followed the state legislative ethics rules before accepting the job, which he was obligated to do,” Taylor said.
Muse noted that legislative job is a “part-time job paying almost no money.” Individual state legislators, who do much of their work during the state’s 90-day legislative session, were paid $55,526 in 2025 and will get a raise to $56,636 in 2026.
“We are in government, and when you get to my age, where else can you get a job, but in government? So we are challenging it, and we’re going to win,” said Muse, 67, who has served in the Senate since 2007.
State legislators, like Muse and Watson, are generally prohibited from holding paid jobs in state or local government, because of possible conflicts of interest. Exceptions can be made on particular grounds.
Deadra Daly, ethics counsel for the General Assembly, cannot speak about individual cases such as Muse’s. But she said state law does not lay out an appeals process.
“They [a lawmaker] might ask the committee to reconsider, but the law does not specify a decision may be appealed,” Daly said. “The law just doesn’t contemplate that. So there is not really an appeals process.”
Nor does the law require the Joint Ethics Committee — a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate — to issue exemptions to lawmakers, it merely allows the committee to do so, Daly said.
“The law says the committee ‘may’ grant an exemption,” Daly said. “So, I don’t know how one would ask a court to require the committee to exercise discretionary authority.”
Muse said he deserves additional opportunity to plead his case.
“That’s what we do down here, we debate, we deliberate, we discuss — until we reach a final decision. And I think that’s my right, as one of the senior senators here, to do that,” he said.
Muse argued the committee should reevaluate its ruling, but that if it doesn’t reverse course, he intends to bring a court challenge.
“I only ask for their patience to deliberate this, and if it goes further we will do a court case that only involves getting an opinion as to who is right, who is wrong,” Muse said. “Judges are the ones who interpret the law, and they should be the ones who decide.”
If a lawmaker does not abide by an Ethics Committee decision, Daly said they could be investigated, and ultimately sanctioned. A complaint from the committee, the presiding officers or a member of the public could trigger such an investigation, she said.
Senate President Bill Ferguson’s (D) office declined to comment on the matter.
An online description for the Prince George’s ombudsman job says its responsibilities include providing “guidance, advocacy, and support to small, minority, County-based businesses seeking to do business with the County. The Ombudsman acts as a liaison between the business community and County government, assisting firms in navigating procurement processes, addressing barriers to participation, and ensuring compliance with applicable legislations and policies.”
State law lets General Assembly members keep paid positions in state or local government if they held those jobs prior to filing for election. It also allows them to work as teachers, non-elected law enforcement officers or emergency responders. A final exemption allows lawmakers to keep nonmanagerial state or local government jobs obtained through a “merit system hiring process,” a standardized procedure or test used to rank applicants based solely on merit.
“The committee is pretty strict,” Daly said of the merit-based exception. “We want it to be very much an objective ranking system. Then, one can’t argue that this person only got the job because the agency was trying to curry favor with the legislator.”
Currently, no member of the General Assembly has such an exemption, Daly said.
“If we look at legislators who have government employment, most of them are people who came in with a government position,” Daly said. “I have a bunch who are teachers, adjunct professors, substitutes — I have a golf coach. I have nobody who has a merit-system exemption right now.”
