Louis L. Goldstein

Louis Lazerus Goldstein (March 14, 1913 – July 3, 1998) served as Comptroller, or chief financial officer, of Maryland for ten terms from 1959 to 1998. A popular politician and lifelong Democrat, he was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1938 and served three terms in the Maryland Senate before winning election as Comptroller. He ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1964.

Goldstein was born in Prince Frederick, Maryland in Calvert County. His father Goodman Goldstein was a Jewish immigrant from Prussia who had settled in the rural area after he was assigned as a salesman to Calvert County by his first employer, a Baltimore retailer. Louis worked in his father's store in Prince Frederick until he left to attend Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and later the University of Maryland, where he received his law degree in 1938. He was elected that year to the Maryland House of Delegates as a Democrat from Calvert County. Goldstein enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the age of 29 following the Pearl Harbor attack and served in the Pacific. Commissioned as an officer from enlisted rank he reached 1st lieutenant. Following the surrender of Japan he was a member of General Douglas MacArthur's staff that investigated Japanese war crimes in the Philippines.

Returning to politics in 1946 Goldstein was elected to the Maryland Senate for the first of three terms. In the Senate he was majority leader from 1951 to 1955 and President of the Senate from 1955 to 1958. In 1959 he was elected to the first of ten terms as Comptroller of Maryland. The politically powerful position entails membership on the Public Works Board with the governor and state state treasurer, granting final authority over most state contracts and purchases. Goldstein ran for Governor in 1964, losing in the Democratic primary eventual governor Joseph D. Tydings.

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