Category: Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary

Government’s First Obligation

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The first obligation of government is to keep people safe where they live, work, and play.

I’ve said that many times over the years.

Today I extended that obligation to include “the school that their children attend.”

I spoke at a press conference about legislation that will be introduced in Annapolis next month in response to the tragedy at Newtown.

I will be introducing one of those bills.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/md-senators-set-to-revive-previous-gun-bills/2012/12/19/c8d7d344-4a14-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_story.html

Two years ago, in response to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Delegate Luiz Simmons and I introduced a bill to create a task force to study access to regulated firearms by individuals with mental illness.

That group will issue its report in the next two weeks.

In 2010, I introduced legislation to prevent “straw man” purchases, which allow handguns to end up in the hands of persons who are legally prohibited from possessing those weapons.  It would have required purchase permits to obtain a firearm.

“Bagel Brain Jews Want Your Bullets and Your Guns,” read the headline on a flier distributed in response to the legislation, which Senator Brian Frosh also introduced.

When I spoke today, I said that we should have a rational discussion about guns, respecting the views of all parties.

A different set of numbers on the death penalty

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“The death penalty seems to be for Negroes alone,” Thurgood Marshall wrote to Roy Wilkins in the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in a letter dated June 7, 1935.  As a young attorney in Baltimore, Marshall was defense counsel in several capital cases.

There were 16 executions in Maryland between 1930 and 1939 – 12 for murder and 4 for rape. All but two of the men executed were black.

Yesterday, Ben Jealous, the President and CEO of the NAACP, discussed repeal of the death penalty with Governor Martin O’Malley.

From press reports, their conversation centered on a different set of numbers – 24 in the Senate and 71 in the House.  Those are the minimum number of votes needed to pass a bill.

Our head count gives us the necessary votes to repeal the death penalty.  Now it’s time to verify.

The Marshall letter and 1930’s statistics are in Professor Larry Gibson’s Young Thurgood, a fascinating account of the future Justice’s early life and legal career in Baltimore.  I’m only a few chapters away from Marshall’s lawsuit that integrated the University of Maryland School of Law.  Some thirty years ago, I met the plaintiff in that case, Donald Gaines Murray. 

 

Results – Electoral and Profound

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Looking forward and looking back.  That doesn’t officially happen until Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, appears on New Year’s Day.

But you don’t have to wait until then.

The results are now official for the 2012 election.  The Obama-Biden ticket carried the 41st District, 87,829-10,155.  The Dream Act and marriage equality won by a wider margin than they did statewide.  The slots bill lost by 110 votes out of 95,728 cast.

Now that the new lines for the 41st District have been approved by Maryland’s highest court, it’s time for me to start meeting my new constituents in Cylburn, Levindale-Sunset, Hoes’ Heights, Keswick, Medfield, Wyman Park, Uplands, and Irvington.

For now, by mail.  Next spring, door-to-door.

—

I saw Lincoln last weekend.

Shortly after the opening credits, President Lincoln is advised to abandon his effort to pass the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery. “The votes aren’t there,” he is told.

Lyndon Johnson faced similar counsel about civil rights legislation shortly after he assumed office. “What the hell’s the Presidency for?” LBJ responds, according to Robert Caro’s Passage of Power.

In both cases, the President prevails.

All of this, I believe, is relevant to decision making in Washington and Annapolis – on matters ranging from the fiscal cliff to the repeal of the death penalty.

Mitt Romney is not the problem

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The Republican nominee is being thrown under the bus for saying that he lost the election because, in part, free contraceptives were among the gifts President Obama gave to Democratic constituencies.

However, Mr. Romney is not outside the mainstream of today’s Republican party, as the following examples demonstrate.

When the Maryland General Assembly adopted the marriage equality bill, only one Republican senator and two Republican delegates voted yes.

Twenty years ago, when the legislature enacted the law protecting a woman’s right to choose,  three GOP senators and ten delegates voted yes.

Three years ago, I successfully introduced a bill dealing with the removal of human remains from a burial site.  Among the people who can arrange for the reinterment is a domestic partner of the decedent.  For that reason, 28 Republican delegates and all but one of the GOP senators voted no.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  That provision applies to states and localties with a documented history of discrimination in their election laws.

Consequently, they must obtain approval from the Justice Department or a federal court before making any changes to their laws.  This past month, several states were prevented from implementing voter-identification laws or changes in early voting.

If the Court rules that this requirement is unconstitutional, the Obama administration would introduce legislation to protect voting rights.  When President Johnson sought Republican votes for civil rights legislation, he appealed to their membership in the “party of Lincoln.”

Absent a major reversal, such a plea today would fall on deaf ears.

At and after the polls

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             “In a society that respects differences, that welcomes the minority, we all benefit.”

               During the debate on marriage equality, I said that on the House floor.

Outside Cross Country Elementary School yesterday, I distributed Question 6 literature but had very few conversations that went beyond “I hope you’ll support marriage fairness.”

At lunch time with my family, I ran into Sara Lee Jacobson, the daughter of Rabbi Abe Shusterman, who Bar Mitzvahed me.

He was a leader in interfaith relations and organized a group from Har Sinai to go to Dr. King’s March on Washington.  My father was on the bus.

“Your father taught me about Judaism and its role in protecting minorities, ” I told Sara Lee.  “It’s one of my core beliefs.”

I had more than chills up and down my spine.

—

The first thing I did in my office this morning after was to heed Tip O’Neill’s advice and thank the people I had asked to volunteer at the polls yesterday.

                 “During a political campaign, you try to touch as many minds and hands as you can, especially on Election Day.

                 “In office, you try to touch people’s lives.

                 “Your work yesterday will have an extraordinary impact on the lives of so many gay and lesbian couples, their families, their friends, and their fellow citizens, who now live in a society that provides more respect for a minority.”

 

Casting my vote

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The first voting booth I entered was at the Cross Country Apartments.  I accompanied my father.

I guess I was in third or fourth grade.  I’m pretty sure my father voted the Democratic ticket.

This past Sunday, I went to the early voting center at what was my junior high school.

The lines were very long.  It would take two hours before you could vote, people were told.

This turnout was even more impressive, I said to several people, because “they” were trying to prevent people from voting (No electioneering is allowed inside the polling place; so “they” not the GOP.)

 When I got home I emailed a bill drafting request to allow the State Board of Elections to increase the number of early voting centers and to extend the duration of early voting to the Sunday before the election.

 Today, the lines were shorter, and there were chairs for everyone in the old gymnasium.

75 minutes later, I had cast my vote.

Next Tuesday, I’ll spend virtually the whole day at Cross Country School.  For the last two hours, Rachel, my niece, will accompany me.

I went there (and will be there again on Nov. 6)

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I don’t write someone else’s testimony, except when I do.

I attended the Baltimore Educational Equity Summit of Teach for America last Saturday.

At the concluding session, I got into a conversation with a kindergarten teacher and told her that I was working on a bill to expand early childhood education (pre-K).

“The benefits of pre-K are evident in a kindergarten class by the end of the first week,” she replied.

“Will you testify on this bill?” I asked.  “Yes,” she said.

Then I told her, “What you just said will be the first sentence of your testimony.”

Senator Bill Ferguson and I met yesterday to discuss the legislation.  We’re calling it “Race to the Tots,” modeling it on President Obama’s education reform grant program, “Race to the Top.”

—

I also met a TFA member who’s teaching science at Cross Country Elementary School.

“Have you been there?” he asked me.

“I went there,” I responded.  “I was in kindergarten the year it opened – 1955.”

I’ll be there again on Election Day.  Can you volunteer for two hours that day?  Please let me know.

—

Last week, I wrote about the implications for abortion rights if Gov. Romney wins.  The fate of choice and other issues before the Supreme Court are discussed in “The Court and the Future of Everything You Hold Dear” by Jeffrey Rosen.

Lilly Ledbetter and the facts of the case

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Perhaps the President forgot the facts of the Supreme Court’s decision in Frontiero v. Richardson.

The Air Force had denied certain medical and dental benefits to the spouse of Lieutenant Sharron Frontiero.  Her husband sued and won.

“Classifications based upon sex, like classifications based upon race, alienage, or national origin,” wrote Justice Brennan, “are inherently suspect, and must therefore be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.”

The American Civil Liberties Union attorney arguing on behalf of Joseph Frontiero was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Lilly Ledbetter law also protects both men and women – from unequal pay and other discriminatory treatment in the workplace.  President Obama was not alone Tuesday night when he referred only to women as the beneficiaries of the law.   Many elected officials describe our civil rights laws as protecting only people of a certain gender or race.

(Since Governor Romney never mentioned the Ledbetter statute in his response, one can only guess how it was summarized in his debate binders.)

I think I know why I remember the facts in Frontiero.  I read it in my law school class on Sex Discrimination and the Law.  My professor was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

All the Views Fit To Print

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     I have been rightly accused of introducing legislation after reading an article in the New York Times.
     Not this time.
     Tuesday morning, I wrote the Jewish Times, responding to a letter contending that Roe v. Wade would survive a Romney-Ryan administration.
      After I emailed my letter, I read the views fit to print on the editorial page of the NY Times.
      My letter and a link to “If Roe v. Wade Goes” are below.
Dear Editors:
Two words explain why the right-wing cares so much about who will fill the next vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Citizens United.
That’’s the name of the plaintiff in the decision where the court cast aside precedent to hold that there can be no limits on campaign contributions by an individual, corporation, or association.
Justice Antonin Scalia hopes that abortion is the next issue where the Court reverses itself.
The Justice does not consider Roe v. Wade binding precedent, because, in his view, it was wrong, remains controversial and is an issue better left to legislators than judges. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/18/us-usa-court-scalia-idUSBRE88H06X20120918
Despite Governor Romney’s recent efforts to move to the center on reproductive freedom, if elected, he is certain to nominate for the Court only those who meet an anti-choice litmus test.
Even if this doesn’’t result in five votes to discard Roe v. Wade, there would surely be a further erosion of a woman’’s privacy right.
In his recent letter to the editor, Dr. Morton M. Mower writes, ““I can assure you that no one is about to reverse Roe vs. Wade.””
In this instance, a subsequent opinion by the Supreme Court could render that advice woefully wrong.

After the bill is signed…

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The work doesn’t end when the bill is signed.

No question about that with the slots bill because it’s on referendum.  Regardless of the outcome in November, many provisions of the bill took effect on October 1.

Money will now be provided for economic and community development in the Park Heights neighborhoods north and south of Pimlico race track through Fiscal Year 2032.  The end date was FY 2027, before Delegate Nathaniel Oaks and I, along with our 40th and 41st District colleagues, had the law amended at the special session.

That means an additional $90 million for these communities, estimates the General Assembly’s Department of Legislative Services.

Expansion of early childhood education is now a permitted use of the Education Trust Fund.  Senator Bill Ferguson and I have proposed a “Race to the Tots,” a competitive grant program for local school districts to submit a voluntary pre-kindergarten expansion plan.

The justification is in the numbers. In 2011, Maryland children who entered kindergarten from public pre-K were better prepared for school than those who remained at home with a parent/relative. Eighty- three percent (83%) from public pre-K were assessed as fully ready versus 72% fully ready from home-only settings.

The Task Force to Study the Renovation and Repair Needs of Senior Homeowners  was created by House Bill 991.   This summer, we’ve been hearing from providers about the problems seniors face in maintaining their homes and accessing needed assistance.

Last week, Ken Gelula, Executive Director of CHAI: Comprehensive Housing Assistance Inc., and I met with Housing Secretary Ray Skinner to discuss legislation and capital programs that would further the work of the Task Force.

Finally, the Maryland Department of Transportation has recommended that the U.S. subsidiary of SNCF, the French national railroad, not be awarded a MARC commuter railroad contract because another company made a superior bid.

Under the bill that I introduced, SNCF was required to submit documents to the Maryland Archivist about its role in transporting Jews and others to the German border, en route to the Nazi concentration camps. 

A crucial question remains unanswered. What contribution will these documents make to our knowledge and understanding of what took place in Vichy France during World War II?

I am working on finding an independent historian to make that assessment. 

  • My Key Issues:

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