Tag: marriage equality

A caucus Groucho would not want to be a member of

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The Maryland Democratic Party’s “center-right legislators have shrunk to a handful,” writes Barry Rascovar, a former editorial writer at the Baltimore Sun.
The Republican Party faces a similar problem.
None of the three GOP legislators who voted for marriage equality is returning to Annapolis.  Two were elected to local office, Senator Alan Kittleman and Delegate Wade Kach; Del. Robert Costa has retired.
Five years ago, I introduced legislation listing the family members who are allowed to remove a deceased’s remains from a burial site and reinter them elsewhere.  An amendment to remove domestic partners from that list was supported by 32 Republicans.  Only two voted against it.
Twelve Republican members voted in 1991 for the choice legislation that the voters approved on referendum, 68-32%.
For nearly 40 years, compromise language has authorized Medicaid funding of abortions because of a woman’s mental health.  An amendment to strip that language received 48 votes in the House.  All but six of the 48 were Republicans.
No Republicans voted for the Firearm Safety Act of 2013.
I tried to find out how many GOP members of the new legislature were endorsed by the NRA, but you must belong to the NRA to view its endorsements,
As Groucho Marx would say, that’s not a club that would accept me as a member.

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.”

 

March 2 – Scholars and op-eds

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           I doubt if I’ll be in the class picture of legislators at yesterday’s signing of the marriage equality bill.
            I was in the back of the group and caught only a bare glimpse of the camera lenses and cell phones.
           Right afterwards, however, Delegate Keiffer Mitchell introduced me to Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
           Keiffer’s grandfather, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.,  was the chairman of the Leadership Conference.  His lobbying of the Congress was instrumental in the passage of the civil rights laws in the 1960’s.
            “Delegate Rosenberg is a scholar of the civil rights movement,” Del. Mitchell kindly said.
—
            This morning, the Sun ran dueling op-eds on marriage.
            “All children, no matter who their parents are, must be protected under the same set of laws,” read the second sentence of the column written by Joe Solomonese, president oif the Human Rights Campaign.
            Children were mentioned three more times in his essay.
            People “should be able to vote their consciences in November without fear of being labeled ‘intolerant bigots,’” wrote Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien.
            The Cardinal referred to intolerance on three additional occasions and the “draconian dictate” of the law once.
             If the referendum debate this fall is about children and civil rights, the marriage equality bill will be approved.
             If it is about intolerance, it will fail.

A man I never met

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       The marriage equality bill has passed the House of Delegates, 71-67.

       This is what I said during the floor debate:

       I have never been discriminated against because I am a Jew.

       But I stand here today because Thomas Kennedy believed that religious freedom was more important than his political future.  (Delegate Kennedy sponsored the Jew bill, which allowed Jews to serve in the Maryland General Assembly.)

       I stand here today because a man I never met, my grandfather, Samuel Isadore Rosenberg, left Tsarist Russia to come to a land of freedom. 

       I stand here today because Jacob Edelman also fled oppression and became a member of the Baltimore City Council and chair of the Maryland Human Relations Commission. 

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

        I will proudly vote yes on this bill. 

Intricacies and exigencies

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            I wrote my floor speech on the marriage bill in my head last night. 

            I put it on my hard drive this morning. 

            I hope to give it before the weekend. 

            Unless the opponents succeed with parliamentary delays,  the bill will be voted on by the full House on Friday.

 —-

            I always try to work off of my document – except when I don’t.

             If everyone’s using my words, I’m shaping the discussion.

             I have delegated that crucial task to others for two of my bills. 

             House Bill 460 would require the police to get a search warrant before getting your cell phone records from your service provider.  The prosecutors and police that I met with last week know far more about the intricacies and exigencies than I do.  I asked them to draft amendments, which my co-sponsor and I will review, along with the Public Defender.

             An economic inclusion plan requiring the developer to hire people from the surrounding neighborhoods is part of the State Center project in Baltimore.  House Bill 523 would require that such plans be adopted for all state construction projects of $25 million or more. 

             Executive Branch officials informed me this afternoon that the Governor very much likes this concept.  I asked them to draft an English narrative of how we should do this.  That draft will then be discussed by the interested parties and if agreement is reached, become the amended bill. 

             In both instances, I know the goal I want to reach, but the designated drafters understand the details far better than I do.

The power of persuasion

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            Gov hasn’t found the two votes yet, but he has the power and the skill to “persuade.”

            That’s how I responded to a friend’s email about the status of the marriage equality bill. 

            That analysis equally applies to the revenue measures that Governor O’Malley discussed in his State of the State address.  And on those issues, he needs to “persuade” more than two members. 

            “How much less education do we want?  How much less public safety?” declared the Governor. 

            If my colleagues agree that their constituents would answer “none,” they will vote yes. 

            One thing for sure: the next 70 days will be a case study of how many tough votes we can make in one session.

Three of a different kind

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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 talked about abortion, a tax credit for donations to parochial schools, and the death penalty, in that order.

The Catholic Church and I are on opposite sides on social issues (choice, stem cells, and gay rights) but on the same side on death penalty repeal, poverty issues, and aid to parochial schools.

You don’t always count to 71 the same way. (71 votes are needed to pass a bill in the House of Delegates.)

But when you do reach that number, you always cash your ticket.  And move on to the next race in the Senate.

Whatever it is, we’re against it

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

          We’ve never passed a perfect bill. 

             When I explained to the Democratic Caucus why all amendments to the marriage equality bill had to be rejected, that’s how I began. 

            Adopting any change now would kill the legislation because the Senate will not take it up again this session.  This isn’t the first time we’ve been in this “take it or leave it” situation. 

            When abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and death penalty bills reached the House floor after surviving Senate filibusters, I had to deliver the same message. 

            (The House has returned the favor on slots legislation.) 

            The first three amendments offered on the House floor were defeated by 20-vote margins. 

            However, the debate on the next amendment prompted my seatmate, Delegate McIntosh, and me to think that this vote would be close. 

             So I was all set to rise and explain my vote, buying time for our whips to speak to those delegates who had yet to vote.  Before I could be recognized, the Speaker intoned, “The Clerk will take the call.” 

             The amendment failed, 63-72, a nine-vote difference. 

              When we looked at the print copy of the roll call to see who had switched sides, one name was conspicuous.  Mine.

               In my eagerness to speak, I had forgotten to vote.

March 9

  • My Key Issues:

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