Sandy’s 2015 Legislative Diary – Page 4

My printing adviser

February 2, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | 1 Comment

When I first ran for the House of Delegates in 1982, there was no Facebook or Twitter.

Not even Kinko’s.

There was and still is, however, the union bug.

Kogan Printing, a union shop, had one.

Kogan also had Mary Barban.

Mary’s official title was sales manager.

More importantly, she was the source of great insight into political campaigns – yours and others.

No one paid a short visit to Mary. She would fill you in on her political gossip and you would return the favor.

There were always mock-ups of many candidates’ literature on her desk. If you had good eyes (and the ability to read upside down), you could learn a lot.

After Mary retired, I would call her occasionally to consult with my printing adviser.

Frank DeFilippo sent me to see Mary in 1982. He arranged for her collection of “printed political campaign material, ephemera, and photographs” to be donated to the Maryland State Archives.

http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/pages/speccol/collection.aspx?speccol=5916

Mary died on Saturday.

Her obituary concludes, “In lieu of flowers, please donate to any charity that helps working women with fair opportunity, advancement and justice.”

As always, I will follow Mary’s advice.

The cost of cuts

January 27, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A headline today reads: Fewer gimmicks in Hogan’s $40B budget; solves deficits for 3 years by capping spending hikes

But at what cost?

Does a $157 million cut to K-12 classes and community colleges put our education system at risk?

Would that diminish our attractiveness to businesses that need an educated work force? Affect their employees want a quality education for their children?

The Hogan budget makes that cut.

There is no Democratic alternative yet that would make the spending reductions elsewhere, but there will be.

The decisions we will make on spending priorities and public education policy are what governing is about.

The new bipartisan fair and balanced?

January 26, 2015January 28, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

A former Fox News reporter will be testifying for my bill.

An example of the new bipartisan Annapolis?

Not quite.

Jana Winter reported on the mass shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado.

A trial court judge ordered her to reveal the source for her story about a notebook that the gunman sent to his psychiatrist before the shooting.

However, since Winter was based in Manhattan, New York’s highest court ruled that the state’s reporter’s shield law would be violated if Winter was forced to reveal her source.

My bill would adopt that same standard. A Maryland-based reporter could not be subpoenaed to testify in another state if that testimony could not be required under our shield law.

The reporter, a press lawyer, and I will also meet with the committee chair before the hearing.

It’s not bipartisan. It’s not fair and balanced.

It’s personalizing what would otherwise be an abstract protection of the free press.

What Telford Taylor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg taught me

January 23, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The Speaker of the New York Assembly was indicted yesterday on corruption charges related to payments to his private law practice for which where he performed little or no legal work.

It prompted this anecdote on the front page of the New York Times:

Al Smith, the storied governor of New York in the 1920s who laid the groundwork for the New Deal, has been credited with making a famously cynical remark as he walked through a law school library. He spotted a student, bent over books and reading.

“There,” Smith supposedly said, “is a young man studying how to take a bribe and call it a fee.”

That’s not what Telford Taylor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg taught me at law school.

What I learned was that the rule of law is supposed to apply equally to everyone.

Moreover, when individuals fail to do the right thing on their own initiative, laws – civil rights, consumer protection, anti-trust, among many others, require them to do the right thing.

No Wrong Door

January 22, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

My first bill hearing will be on February 3.

Under the No Wrong Door pilot program, individuals with a range of needs that cross departmental lines would be assisted by one case worker.

The result: greater efficiency for public and private providers; needed services for those in need that would put them on the road to employment or recovery.

We discussed who should testify at the hearing on House Bill 66 and whom we need to meet with before then.

A senior with hunger issues is a better witness than the caseworker who tried to help.

We’ll meet with the new leadership of the Department of Human Resources. As the agency that would need to budget for this program, its support is crucial.

From poetry to prose and numbers

January 21, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

In his Inaugural address today, Governor Hogan declared, “I am prepared to create an environment of trust and cooperation, where the best ideas rise to the top based upon their merit, regardless of which side of the political debate they come from.”

The proof will be in his policies.

As a freshman member of the Appropriations Committee, I learned that the budget bill is the policy document of the state.

Where you spend the public’s money establishes the state’s priorities.

Governor Hogan’s budget bill will be introduced on Friday.

The late Mario Cuomo said, “You campaign in poetry and govern in prose.”

The prose and the numbers are about to take center stage.

No secrets; Bring on the Establishment

January 20, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Nothing is a secret in Annapolis.

A lobbyist asked me today about legislation of mine that is still in the drafting stage. I have discussed the concept with a few people but have yet to introduce the bill.

The lobbyist had a friendly insight: the name of someone who might have problems with my bill.

I reached out to that person right away.

There are no secrets here; you try to avoid surprises.

—-

Two people met with me about a bill that liberals are more likely to support than conservatives.

You want to have judges and lawyers lobby your bill, I advised them.

Members of the establishment supporting a liberal bill will help you with conservatives.

From Selma to Annapolis

January 19, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

In the opening scene of “Selma,” Oprah Winfrey’s character seeks to register to vote.

Asked to recite the preamble to the US Constitution, she knows it.

How many trial judges in Alabama? Without hesitation, the correct number.

Name them, says the clerk. Silence.

Application denied.

The end result of the civil disobedience and violence that follow is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

That law gives the Attorney General of the United States the authority to go to court when there is reasonable grounds to believe that an election law violation is imminent.

My legislation to give that same power to the Attorney General of Maryland passed the House of Delegates in 2013, 91-45. Forty two of the “no” votes were cast by Republicans.

My desire to pass the bill has intensified after seeing “Selma.”

What planet does he live on?

January 16, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

President Obama had lunch at Charmington’s in Remington yesterday.

It’s too hipster for my tastes. The kind of place where you can order alfalfa sprouts on mashed yeast.

The President wasn’t there for the cuisine, however. He made the case for requiring paid sick leave for workers in companies with at least 15 employees. The staff at Charmington’s has that benefit.

To provide balance, the Sun article quoted Sen. Lamar Alexander, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which will consider the President’s legislation.

Americans already have “great freedom” when it comes to work, said the Tennessee Republican, who also said that workers have latitude to choose a career and negotiate for the benefits that matter most to them.

Perhaps the Senator’s contributors and social friends can do that but not the average working man or woman.

That’s what unions are for.

No surprises, no exceptions

January 15, 2015 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Yesterday, I quoted Burke on the need for a legislator to vote his conscience.

Today, a new member asked me when to tell the chairman she would be doing just that.

“Don’t surprise anyone,” I responded. “Let the chairman know in advance.”

That principle is not limited to conscience votes.

Your word is your bond, whatever the circumstance.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2015 Legislative Diary