“It’s early,” I said.

Survey of state Senate finds narrow majority oppose repeal read the headline across the front page of today’s Baltimore Sun.

So I sought to calm the waters at the start of our weekly strategy meeting on death penalty repeal. I also noted that vote counts are fluid before the public hearing on a bill. It’s tomorrow in the Senate.

Prior to our discussion, I spoke to someone who had been the chief legislative officer (lobbyist) for a previous Governor. “When you held that job,” I asked him, “didn’t the Sun run a story mid-session saying that the Administration’s agenda was in deep trouble with the General Assembly?”

You are right and they were wrong, he replied. I had a similar conversation with another former chief legislative officer.

Later in the day, I told someone in the Governor’s Office that a story written days before the Special Session of 2007 would have said that there wasn’t enough support to pass a slots bill or tax increases. However, when the roll was called, the votes were there.

After I recounted that conversation to an Annapolis veteran, he made the valid point that how a legislator makes a decision on the death penalty is not the same as with slots.

We’re still counting.

—-

“It’s the end of welfare reform.”

I didn’t say that. Joe Scarborough did on MSNBC this morning.

I checked with a bipartisan expert on the issue, Sheri Steisel of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Her response: “It’s from the Heritage Foundation. (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/wm2287.cfm) It’s totally wrong. Ron Haskins, the leading Republican staffer on welfare reform, agrees that in an economic downturn, the federal government needs to increase spending to meet the case load demand.

“There is no change in work requirements or time limits on eligibility for cash assistance. Those are the key elements of the welfare reform Congress enacted in 1996. There’s no new entitlement.”

So much for transparency, accountability, and accuracy from the loyal opposition.

Today, I preached to the converted.

Governor O’Malley had already spoken to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) ministers and congregants. Repeal of the death penalty was one of the issues he discussed.

Not an enviable position for me to be in on the program.

I quoted Nelson Mandela at the dedication of the new Constitutional Court of South Africa, “The last time I was in a court room, it was to learn whether I would be sentenced to death.”

I said that the men on death row were far different from Mandela. “They have committed heinous acts. But, to paraphrase the Sermon on the Mount,” I continued, “we should judge our society by how it treats the least among us.”

Sometimes the words sing, and sometimes the audience listens to every word.

Today was one of those special occasions.

I try to practice what I preach.

“Don’t use notes when you’re testifying on a bill or making your oral argument,” I tell my law school students. “Know the issue well enough so that you don’t need notes as a crutch.”

I spoke without notes when I testified on my voting rights and Lilly Ledbetter legislation last week. What those bills would do and why we need them I can speak to with passion.

Not so with two bills dealing with wills that I introduced at the request of the Maryland State Bar Association. Estates and trust law was one of the many business-oriented classes that I didn’t take at law school.

So I made sure that a lawyer from the Bar Association would be sitting next to me to help me answer any questions that arose.

On Tuesday, I’ll be testifying on my bill to require that when an inmate makes a post-conviction claim of innocence, a judge must hold a hearing on the merits.

I met with attorneys from the Office of the Public Defender last week. They told me that such a claim would not be heard today if filed after a certain time period, and I practiced the arguments I would make.

My pre-testimony testimony left me with a better understanding of the issue. But I still want an attorney sitting next to me at the witness table.

“When your employer decides to discriminate against you, he or she does not send you an email.”

That’s how I began my testimony on the Lilly Ledbetter bill.

The Supreme Court said that the law required you to sue within 180 days of the first illegal act, whether or not you knew or should have known that your rights had been violated.

The Congress, recognizing the realities of the workplace, decided that you can obtain back pay and other relief for violations that occurred up to two years before you file a complaint.

Twelve months ago, when I first spoke before this committee, I was probably the only legislator in the room who knew who Lilly Ledbetter was. Not this time around.

A bill signing at the White House has done wonders for her name recognition.

And the hearing today appeared to do well for the prospects of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009.

When we arrived at the baseball complex, my taxi driver asked, “Are you a trainer?”

“No,” I replied, “I’m a catcher.”

Over the next four days, I tagged two runners out at the plate.

The second time, I caught a one-hop relay throw from shallow right field from former Oriole pitcher Dave Johnson, turned, and made the tag.

Then I took the ball out of my glove to show the umpire that the runner’s slide had not jarred it loose. But I did it so quickly that the other bench yelped that I had made the tag with my glove while the ball was in my hand.

I may be relaxed behind home plate, but I don’t catch throws from the outfield with my bare hand.

The ump correctly signaled “Out.” A reverse Elrod!

The economy and the Orioles’ 11 consecutive losing seasons made this the smallest Fantasy Camp I’ve attended. There were enough players for only four teams, compared to 12 teams at my first camp 15 years ago.

So our post-season contest on Sunday morning for the Division 2 title would determine which team finished third in a four-team league.

After batting .200 in the six-game regular season, I singled to right with two out in the seventh, driving in a run that put us ahead, 7-5. By my next trip to the plate, leading off the bottom of the ninth, the score was tied.

I walked on five pitches. After a station-to-station trip around the bases, I scored the game-winning run on a single up the middle.

On this day, I was Mr. February.

—-

Two Yankee Stadium stories from the former Orioles at the camp:

With Dave Winfield batting in the eighth inning, Rick Dempsey signaled fastball to starter Mike Flanagan, who shook him off. Dempsey again put down one finger. Flanny threw a fastball that Winfield deposited in the upper deck.

The next day, the busts of the Yankee greats on the monuments in left center were still upturned towards the flight of Winfield’s ball.

In his first appearance at Yankee Stadium, pitcher Bill Swaggerty got signaled into the game from the bullpen by Earl Weaver. Swags hops into the pick-up truck that transports the pitcher to the dugout, but the driver doesn’t move.

He finally says, “You should roll up your window unless you want to get wet.”

On the drive in, they’re pelted by cokes and beers.

If you can soak them there, you can soak them anywhere…

I haven’t lost one in 27 years, but I had my doubts this morning.

To introduce a bill, a member must take it to the House Clerk’s office. One copy of your proposed legislation is stapled to a sheet of blue paper. It’s called the blue back.

Two days ago, I took a blue back to that office, but this morning it was not on the list of bills I’ve introduced on the General Assembly’s web site.

Did I not take it there? Had I lost it?

We called the Clerk’s Office. They said they’d look for it. My aides anxiously awaited a return call.

One traumatic half hour later, a staffer came up to me on the House floor.

“Your blue back affects the Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority,” he told me. “It’s been so long since we had a bill dealing with the Authority, we’re not sure what committee to send it to. That’s why it’s not on your list.”

“The last bill was probably mine,” I replied. “The very first legislation I introduced – 26 years ago, dealt with the Authority because Loyola College wanted to buy an apartment building, finance it with the Authority, and convert it to student housing, displacing my constituents.”

“That bill went to the Appropriations Committee,” I concluded.

Thirty minutes later, so had this year’s.

—-

“Your written statement mentions dirty tricks performed by Republicans but not any by Democrats,” complained a Republican delegate after I had testified on my Voter’s Rights Protection Act.

“I have a left leaning Google,” I replied.

Afterwards, I kicked myself for not giving a less humorous but politically accurate response.

So when I saw my colleague in the hallway, I told him, “It’s only the Republicans who are trying to suppress the vote in minority communities.”

The Second Amendment Sisters were absent.

Mayor Dixon was testifying on her bill to increase the amount of prison time served for the illegal possession of a regulated firearm.

But where was the opposition?

One thing I’ve learned during my five years on the Judiciary Committee: the Second Amendment Sisters and other gun owners have far more passion and stamina than the advocates for gun control.

Since the Mayor’s bill had been before us last year, I checked the witness list. No one opposed the bill that time either.

I guess it didn’t pass because of some other intrigue.

—-

I got an answer from the Attorney General’s Office to my Ledbetter question, and it’s favorable.

It is my view that the courts are not bound by the holding in Ledbetter in interpreting Maryland laws, but they have frequently looked to federal law in interpreting the State’s employment discrimination laws, and they could do so in this context.

Two of my most important bills this session will have public hearings this week.

The Voter’s Rights Protection Act passed the House last year but not the Senate. The opposite was the case for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.

Preparing for this week’s testimony, however, entails a lot more than just changing the date on last year’s testimony.

Devious minds and technology produce new types of dirty tricks designed to prevent people from voting.

Last November, the Michigan Republican Party tried to prevent every one from voting whose home had been foreclosed – if they lived in a certain suburb of Detroit.

I added a provision to my voting rights bill that would prohibit using an “unverified match list” in this manner unless there is a “signature, photograph or unique identifying number” ensuring that the same individual is on the voter rolls and the foreclosure list.

I left a voice mail this afternoon with someone who has decades of experience in housing and neighborhood preservation, asking if he could testify on Wednesday about the many instances where people live in their homes for a significant period of time after they are foreclosed and remain eligible to vote from that address.

Why do we need this bill?

That’s the question a bill sponsor must always answer.

Why do we need a Lilly Ledbetter law in Maryland if President Obama has already signed the undoing the Supreme Court decision that prevented her from recovering from her employer for giving her male co-workers a higher salary?

I asked the Attorney General’s Office if Maryland courts are likely to rule that the restrictive Supreme Court standard still applies if we don’t revise our law to reflect the changes the Congress has made.

I expect to have the answer before Thursday’s hearing.

Sometimes your bill may be an idea whose time has come.

Governor O’Malley will deliver remarks at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference this Friday.

At the first meeting of the Middle Class Task Force, the focus will be on “green jobs, those jobs that pay well, can’t be outsourced and will help us move toward a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future,” said its chairman, Vice President Biden.

Tomorrow, I will be meeting with Executive Branch officials and environmental advocates about my legislation, House Bill 268 – Welfare to Work – Job Skills Enhancement Program – Green Jobs.

My goal: create a consensus in support of my bill.

It’s the rare bill that gets enacted the first time it’s introduced.

This is the third year I’ve introduced legislation to repeal the death penalty. It’s the first year that Governor O’Malley has also sponsored the bill.

In his State of the State Address, the Governor asked the General Assembly to “follow me in abolishing an outdated, expensive, and utterly ineffective death penalty in Maryland.” He recognized the presence in the House chamber of Benjamin Civiletti, the chair of the Commission that studied the issue this past summer. Afterwards, the Senate President said the bill was likely to pass.

Lilly Ledbetter lost her discrimination case in the Supreme Court in 2007. Efforts to overturn that ruling in the Congress were thwarted by President Bush and a filibuster by the Republican minority in the Senate. A new President and more Democrats in the Senate sent the bill to a White House signing ceremony this Thursday. back links check .

Four years ago, I introduced a bill to add bloggers to Maryland’s shield law, which protects journalists from revealing their confidential sources. Last year, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee adopted a shield law that includes bloggers. This year, I’m reintroducing my bill, this time with the definition of blogging in the federal bill.