Author: delsandy

Thank You!

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People like to be asked for their vote and thanked for their vote.

Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that.

I asked for your vote with my work over the last four years – on issues in Annapolis and on problems back home.

I write now to thank you for your vote in the Democratic primary.

My colleagues, Senator Jill Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges, and I received more votes than any other General Assembly candidates in Baltimore City.

That’s a tribute to our working together on your behalf and to your exercising your right to vote.

Now it’s time to turn to the general election in November and the legislative session next winter.

The choice for Governor is clear.

I supported Wes Moore in the primary because of his positions on the issues and his broad experience in the public and private sector.

Wes Moore has pledged to implement a Service Year Option program that will enable Maryland high school graduates “to serve for a year in a public service role in exchange for job training, mentorship, and other support, including compensatory tuition at a Maryland college or university.”

During my career, I have enacted legislation to encourage students to enter public service.

Wes and I have already discussed this issue, and I look forward to working on it with him in Annapolis.

We also agree on two issues – reproductive health care and gun safety, that the Supreme Court has put on our agenda.

We must make access to reproductive health care affordable and accessible for all women so that they can receive the treatment they choose.

The Maryland law licensing the carrying of handguns in public must now be revised.  We must ensure public safety consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

There’s lots of work to be done.  I welcome your thoughts on these and other issues.

Thank you again for your support.

I Work With Others

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I don’t get things done by myself in Annapolis.

I work with others.

Most often, it’s my colleagues in the General Assembly.

I need their advice and their support to pass my bills.

That’s why I’m proud to be running with Senator Jill Carter and Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges.

The 41st District has been well served by our joint efforts.

I also work with our state-wide elected officials.

They can set the tone for the debate on policy issues.

They can persuade reluctant legislators to vote the right way.

I’m also proud to be supporting Wes Moor for Governor, Katie Curran O’Malley for Attorney General, and Brooke Lierman for Comptroller.

Each would bring to his or her job the skills and knowledge to have a positive impact on Maryland’s future.

Whether you’re voting by mail, during Early Voting from July 7-14, or on Election Day, July 19, I ask for your support – for myself and for these other worthy candidates.

Unsettled Law

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Crafting an appropriate response for Maryland to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade will be quite a challenge.

New issues arise almost every day.

If a health care provider in Maryland advertises online that it provides abortions, can the provider be penalized if it treats a Texas resident?

The National Right to Life Committee has already drafted model legislation.

What can we do in response in Annapolis?

A pro-life leader in Maryland spoke last week of the need to provide healthcare and other services for newborns and young children.

I’ve begun discussions to seek common ground for a lobbying effort next year with a representative of this leader’s organization.

We will also have to revise Maryland’s handgun licensing law, which is very similar to the New York law the Supreme Court struck down.  .

“Months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New York’s law governing the carrying of handguns was unconstitutional,” the New York Times reports, “Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers had already started to discuss how to counter the spread of firearms.”

Similar planning is taking place in New Jersey.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/nyregion/gun-law-ny-nj.html

No such bipartisan discussions in Maryland, where Governor Larry Hogan and gubernatorial candidate Kelly Schulz claim that abortion and gun safety are “settled law.”

Still Work To Be Done To Preserve Choice

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“It’s very sad.”

\         That was the response of my niece, Rachel.

She was the first person I reached out to this morning after learning that the Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade.

I first discussed abortion with her when she was a student at Boston University.

Now she’s the mother of two girls.

America will be different for them, even if they remain in California.

Women there, as in Maryland, will still be able to decide when or if they want to have children,

Both states have passed laws adopting the principle of Roe: the state does not restrict a woman’s choice until her fetus is viable – capable of sustained survival outside the womb.

Anticipating today’s bad decision, this year’s General Assembly passed legislation broadening access to reproductive health care for women of lesser means.

There’s still work to be done.

The Texas anti-abortion law authorizes lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.

One of the issues my colleagues and I are already working on for next session is how to prevent people from suing a Maryland resident under this law.  .

When Roe was decided in 1973, I learned about it on the CBS Evening News in my grandmother’s hotel room.  She was in New York for the night, and I was a law student.

Rachel had not been born then, but she worked the polls in 1992 when our legislation adopting Roe was approved by the voters, 62%-38%.

I think Grandma would be proud of both of us.

Gun Safety – No Longer Settled Law

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We used to have a Handgun Permit Review Board in Maryland.

Starting in 1972, if you wanted to carry, wear, or transport a handgun outside of your home, you sought a permit from the State Police.  You could appeal that decision to the Handgun Board.

In most instances, the State Police allowed individuals to carry a gun only when on the job.  Over the years, there were few reversals of those holdings, until Governor Hogan’s appointees rejected 83% of those decisions in 2018 for being too restrictive.

The next year, Delegate Atterbeary and I introduced legislation eliminating the Handgun Board.

In its place, administrative law judges now hear appeals from the decisions of the State Police.  The full-time job of these judges is to hear appeals from actions taken by state agencies.

However, this structure is in the cross hairs of the Supreme Court.  By the end of June, the court is widely expected to rule that a similar New York law violates the Second Amendment.

What should we do if that happens?

We should seek legal advice from Attorney General Brian Frosh.  What action, if any,  regulating handguns can the Governor take by executive order?  When the General Assembly returns in January, what action can the new legislature and the new Governor take?

During his term in office, Governor Hogan has stated that both gun regulation and abortion are matters of settled law.

That is no longer the case.

 

—

 

A Celebration of Life for my Mother, Babette Hecht Rosenberg, will be held on Sunday, June 12 at 2:30 at the Har Sinai – Oheb Shalom, 7310 Park Heights Av.

 

You are welcome to join us.

Governor Hogan Vetoes Bill to Revive Red Line Despite Bipartisan Federal Support

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A 21st Century transit system for the Baltimore metropolitan region is essential. The bipartisan federal infrastructure bill paved the way for essential federal funding for the Red Line.

I introduced House Bill 632, Baltimore East–West Corridor – Transit Study – Requirements, which would have required updated studies and surveys of the proposed system. HB 632 would also provide that no one will lose their home in order to construct a new rail system. We would not repeat the dislocation families for the Highway to Nowhere.

Governor Hogan’s veto of this legislation rejects an important step towards working for a cleaner and more prosperous future for the Baltimore region.

In anticipation of the Governor’s veto, I asked the individuals below for their response.

Statement of Donald C. Fry Regarding Governor Hogan’s Veto of Legislation to Fund New Red Line Light Rail Study

“It is disappointing that the Governor has chosen to veto legislation that would take another serious look at building a new light rail line to connect the east and west sides of the city. Delegate Rosenberg and state legislators worked hard to come to a consensus to pass the bill this year.

It is important to keep in mind that federal transportation officials have previously given the green light for an east-west transit connection, the Red Line, and backed it with a pledge of $900 million in federal funding. The Greater Baltimore Committee championed the project then and has been extremely supportive of this new legislation.

When Congress took bold steps to pass an infrastructure bill our Congressional members, led by Senators Cardin and VanHollen successfully inserted language that directed that the Red Line could move back into the approved project list pending state action. The veto of the legislation delays the potential for this important transit project that would benefit Baltimore City and the region economically, socially and culturally.”

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s support for the Red Line is simple: transit reduces air and water pollution, which improves the health of people and the Bay. A new East-West transit corridor in Baltimore would provide residents with clean and accessible transportation options after decades of concentrated vehicle traffic, and the pollution from it, impacting lower-income communities and neighborhoods of color.”

-Erik Fisher, Maryland Land Use Planner, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

“We are disappointed to see, once again, that Governor Hogan is denying Baltimore City residents critical transit investments that are essential to addressing racial and economic inequities and reducing vehicle pollution.”

– Josh Tulkin, Director, Sierra Club, Maryland Chapter

A Theory with Deadly Results

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Payton Gendron, who murdered ten people at a grocery store in Buffalo this weekend, was motivated by the replacement theory

So were the deadly shooters in El Paso and Pittsburgh.

This theory contends that “western elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to ‘replace’ and disempower white. Americans.”

However, the concern of conservative elected officials and the right-wing media has been critical race theory.

This academic analysis states that “U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are laced with racism embedded in laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that lead to differential outcomes by race.”

 

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-states-banning-critical-race-theory/

 

No one has been shot by anyone motivated by this theory.

In Annapolis this session, I initiated including language in the budget bill calling upon the executive branch’s Task Force on Preventing and Countering Domestic Terrorism to “determine how to effectively oppose domestic terrorism in Maryland, including, but not limited to, countering online extremism while protecting First Amendment rights.”

A report is due on December 1, 2022.

I’m also working on a response to a Supreme Court ruling that is expected to limit the ability of Maryland and other states to require an individual to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun outside of the home.

Choice is no longer a “settled issue”

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“Some [states] have recently enacted laws allowing abortion, with few restrictions, at all stages of pregnancy.”

Regrettably, we have come to expect such misleading rhetoric in political debate.

That false characterization was made of Maryland’s law during floor debate in Annapolis.

One does not expect to see it in a draft opinion written by an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the  United States.

But this is a draft opinion joined by jurists who misled the U.S. Senate and the American public when they testified under oath about their position on Roe v. Wade.

The Alito draft declares that abortion is “fundamentally different…from the rights recognized in past decisions involving matters such as intimate sexual relations, contraception and marriage.”

No litigator or legislator should rely upon that statement.

The U.S. Senate will vote next week on a bill to enact the holding of Roe v. Wade.

Everybody involved knows that the bill won’t pass.  It will put 100 senators on record on the issue.

The pro-life movement is already strategizing about federal legislation to ban abortions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/02/abortion-ban-roe-supreme-court-mississippi/

They should not be underestimated.

What should we do in Maryland?

If a resident of Texas comes here to have an abortion, the recently enacted Texas law authorizes a private individual to sue the health care providers in a Maryland court.

Connecticut has passed a law prohibiting such actions in its courts.

I will be working with the drafters of that bill on a Maryland version.

Protecting a woman’s right to choose is no longer a “settled issue,” as some have characterized it.

Candidates for governor and the General Assembly must speak to how we should respond to the decision that the Supreme Court will hand down in June.

Why not?

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Growing up in Northwest Baltimore, I used to drive by Cross Keys on my way to City College and Memorial Stadium.

This week, I was asked to speak at a ceremony dedicating the gate house to Jim Rouse, the developer of Cross Keys.

Mr. Rouse was also the developer of Harborplace and the city of Columbia.

In my remarks, I spoke of being on the 21st floor of the World Trade Center this past Saturday and viewing all of the development that has taken place in the more than 40 years since it was built.

“Jim Rouse must have looked out upon the Inner Harbor and envisioned Harborplace,” I said.  “Others may have doubted his vision, but he said, ‘Why not?’”

This week, I met in Violetville Park with constituents and officials from Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to discuss renovation of the site.

Violetville is a new part of the 41st District, after redistricting.

Until now, I had only seen the park from an Amtrak train.

I am working on both of these projects with my 41st District colleagues, Senator Jill Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges.

Hard work.  Real results.

 

 

Jackie Robinson Day

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Jackie Robinson will be honored at every major league ballpark today.

On Monday, the Opening Day of the Orioles home season and the last day of the legislative session, I offered this prayer.

 

75 years ago, on Opening Day in Brooklyn, the Dodgers started a rookie at first base, Jackie Robinson, and broke baseball’s color barrier.

No one will wear Robinson’s Number 42 today or this season.  It has been permanently retired.

Prior to Opening Day in 1966, the Orioles new right fielder and team leader, Frank Robinson, left spring training early.

In Baltimore, no one would rent a decent home to Frank’s wife.  Oriole owner Jerry Hoffberger came to Frank’s assistance and helped him find a home in Ashburton – in the 41st Legislative District.

The next year, this General Assembly enacted Chapter 385, which made it unlawful for a person owning 5 or more dwellings to refuse to rent or sell to persons based on their race, color, religious creed, or national origin.

Honored before the start of Game 2 of the 1972 World Series, Jackie Robinson said, “I am extremely proud and pleased to be here this afternoon but must admit, I am going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at the third-base coaching line one day and see a black face managing in baseball.”

Nine days later, Jackie died.

Two seasons later, Frank Robinson broke another color barrier.  He was the player-manager of the Cleveland Indians.  In his first at bat, he hit a home run.

Watching the game in my Manhattan apartment, instead of studying in the law school library, I cheered – for two reasons.

Frank had made history, and the score was Cleveland 1, the Yankees 0.

It’s Opening Day.  Play Ball.

Amen.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning