My bill list keeps getting longer and shorter. I kept quite a few bill drafters busy this summer and made an additional request today, my first day in Annapolis of my 32nd year as a member of the House of Delegates. Clint Bamberger argued the 1963 case where the Supreme Court required that the prosecution …more >
I sweat the details. Four schools in the 41st District will be renovated in the first year of the $1 billion plan that will eventually transform every school in the City. Senator Lisa Gladden, Delegates Jill Carter, Nathaniel Oaks, and I have attended planning meetings with students, their family members, and neighbors at Arlington and …more >
“He was a very strong presence without being conspicuous about it. If a fight broke out, he would try to negotiate. He knew who started it; he knew how to let everyone withdraw from it. He could get opponents on policy to see there was a principled compromise.” In Annapolis, he might be called Soft …more >
“You may remember the bus ads that declared, “Virgin. Teach your kids it’s not a dirty word.” The creative mind behind that campaign was Hal Donofrio. I was one of the political minds that helped initiate it. With some research help from the clipping service maintained by my grandmother, mother, and brother Bruce and more …more >
I plead guilty to introducing legislation after reading an article in the New York Times. This time, however, my idea was fit to draft before the Times found it fit to print. According to a front page story today about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: There is a framed copy of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair …more >
Inside baseball can make the difference between winning or losing a game. Or passing or losing a bill in Annapolis. Every bill gets a fiscal note. It’s our budget staff’s best judgment as to the cost to implement the legislation. A high fiscal note and your bill is dead. If the bureaucracy does not like …more >
I want to be in the room when decisions are being made on my bills. That means the bill hearing and voting session, which are open to the public, and the pre-meeting meeting of my committee’s leadership before the votes are cast, which is not public. If the bill is not in my committee, I …more >
Public policy and public improvements were both on my plate this week. I got my first bill draft for next year’s session, and I received the Mayor’s letter announcing her approval of the $8 million spending plan for slots revenue in the Pimlico Race Track neighborhoods. Two Supreme Court decisions that narrowed the protections against …more >
I don’t always read former Governor Ehrlich’s weekly column in the Sun. I hardly ever listen to right-wing talk radio. For the same reason: accuracy is not their objective. However, I did read yesterday’s column. Below is my letter to the editor in response. Dear Editors: Former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. is entitled …more >
I again had the honor of reading from the Declaration of Independence before the start of the 4th of July parade in Roland Park. Yesterday, for the first time, I prefaced Jefferson’s declaration by drawing on the words that others have spoken about freedom and democracy. “A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires …more >
