Louis Lazerus Goldstein (March 14, 1913 – July 3, 1998) was an American politician who served as comptroller, or chief financial officer, of Maryland for ten terms from 1959 to 1998.

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.

Following the surrender of Japan, he was a member of General Douglas MacArthur's staff that investigated Japanese war crimes in the Philippines.

[1][2] Goldstein's father had significant landholdings in Calvert County, to which Louis added, eventually owning about 2,000 acres (810 ha).

Some of this land was sold in 1967 to Baltimore Gas and Electric for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant at above-market prices, prompting criticism.

Former four-term Mayor of Baltimore and two-term Governor William Donald Schaefer later ran for the office of Comptroller in November 1998.

Schaefer, tired of being out of public office, and still popular with a wide support among the electorate, won easily following Goldstein's death.

His Annapolis office was taken apart piece-by-piece after his death at the guidance of his longtime friend and deputy comptroller, Swann, and was replicated at the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum located in St. Leonard, Maryland.