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 and often. We proposed a map that looked very much like our existing district – geographically and demographically.
The 41st District in the Governor’s plan meets both of those criteria.
We lose none of our current neighborhoods and add Roland Park below Cold Spring Lane, Sinai Hospital and its adjacent residential communities, and the Uplands redevelopment along the Edmondson Avenue corridor.
—–
This morning, I introduced the first bill this session that will have my name on it.
House Bill 62 would exempt a professor’s research from a Public Information Act request.
Translation: Someone who disagrees with a professor who took a stand on a public issue could not harass the academic by demanding a copy of his or her research.
This is not hypothetical. It happened during Wisconsin’s battle over union rights and government spending last year and a controversy over climate control research by a former faculty member at the University of Virginia.
For HB 62 to pass, I must demonstrate that it strikes the right balance between the public’s right to know and academic freedom.
