Bad press can be good – if it’s early. A critical article can make the arguments against your bill, giving you time to prepare a response to the issues opponents will raise at the public hearing. An opinion piece masquerading as a news story in the Annapolis Capital presents that opportunity for …more >
Our first deadline is next Tuesday. That’s the day I must request that a bill be drafted and be guaranteed that it will receive a public hearing. So I began the day by reviewing the ideas and conversations – not to mention my dead bills from last year, that could become legislation and …more >
I’m not going to Orioles Fantasy Camp this year. Instead, I spent the day at Camp Amherst College, where students are on campus but classes don’t resume until next week. I was on a Career Choices panel on Non-profit and Public Service. Networking was the buzzword among my fellow alumni. …more >
“Our focus must be jobs, jobs, jobs,” declared a Democratic leader. “The Republicans will say, ‘Taxes, taxes, taxes.’” The individual or party that frames the debate usually wins it. We’ll know the outcome in 83 days. — “As legislators, we make a lot of decisions – from answering a constituent’s email questioning why we voted …more >
I’m back from the planet Digital. I’m upgrading my website, delsandy.com, and got a one-hour lesson on its bells and whistles this morning. The smartest thing I did was ask one of my twenty-something staffers to accompany me. She can tutor me from now until session ends. By then, hopefully, I …more >
At the race track, when you try to pick the first three finishers in exact order, it’s called a trifecta. I had a trifecta of sorts this afternoon – consecutive meetings with the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, the lobbyist for the Catholic Conference, and the Senator who is the leading proponent of marriage equality. We …more >
The most important legislation I worked on this past summer won’t have my name on it. The Governor introduces the resolution redrawing the boundaries for our legislative districts. If you can’t be elected in your new district, you can’t pass any bills. So my 41st District colleagues and I met early …more >
When I was 10 years old, Aunt Margie took me to the U.S. Senate gallery. “See that person strutting around like a peacock,” she told me. “That’s Lyndon Johnson, the Majority Leader.” Today, as I began my 30th year in the House of Delegates, Aunt Margie was in the gallery in Annapolis, with …more >
“None of us is safe as long as there is a death penalty,” declared Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP, at our death penalty repeal press conference. (Kirk Bloodsworth had made that very clear to me at breakfast. An honorably discharged Marine with no criminal record, Kirk was sitting on Maryland’s death row …more >
My workday began and ended in Baltimore. That won’t happen again until April because the legislative session starts in two days. Education reform was the topic of my meeting at the Canton Starbucks. Senator Bill Ferguson and I discussed with a reporter our bills to repay the college and graduate school debt of …more >
