featured – Page 14 – Sandy Rosenberg

One flight up and hiding the ball

I usually walk up one flight of stairs.

But when Governor O’Malley is taking the elevator, so am I.

We were headed to the annual eve-of-session luncheon for Democratic elected officials.

When we reached the 2^nd floor, the Governor was met by a gaggle of reporters.

In response to a question about the death penalty, he said, “There may well be a majority of Senators who support repeal.”

Senate President Miller has said that the bill will be debated on the Senate floor only if there are the necessary 24 votes for passage.

So the Governor’s statement is good news.

—

My colleague and I had agreed to introduce a bill.

One person at the meeting stated, “We hope this bill will pass under the radar of its likely opponent because that group has far more costly issues to deal with this session.”

I responded: “The first contact should be from us, explaining the need for the bill. Otherwise they might think the worst.”

Everyone agreed.

You don’t try to hide the ball.

Getting the deed done

January 8, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

You don’t always need to pass your own bill in order to accomplish your objective.

That’s what I told 100 members of the Maryland Association of Non-Profits at their pre-session meeting today.

The Governor’s budget bill can be the vehicle for these groups to make legislators and the executive branch aware of deficiencies in existing programs.

Put a human face on the problem with a witness at the budget hearing, I advised. Then lobby the subcommittee to adopt language asking the state agency to examine the problem.

For instance, committee narrative in the budget bill resulted in the Thornton Commission, which successfully recommended a major increase in funding for K-12 public schools in the state.

Another way of quietly getting the deed done:

You have a problem that needs to be addressed in a bill someone else will be introducing.

You can wait until the bill is introduced and offer an amendment, or you can try to get your concern addressed in the legislation before it’s introduced. I adopted the latter approach at a meeting this morning.

Full disclosure: I’ve already requested that 19 bills be drafted, and I have quite a few more on my spreadsheet.

My first sentence of this blog began, “You don’t always need to pass your own bill…”

Government’s First Obligation

December 19, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The first obligation of government is to keep people safe where they live, work, and play.

I’ve said that many times over the years.

Today I extended that obligation to include “the school that their children attend.”

I spoke at a press conference about legislation that will be introduced in Annapolis next month in response to the tragedy at Newtown.

I will be introducing one of those bills.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/md-senators-set-to-revive-previous-gun-bills/2012/12/19/c8d7d344-4a14-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_story.html

Two years ago, in response to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Delegate Luiz Simmons and I introduced a bill to create a task force to study access to regulated firearms by individuals with mental illness.

That group will issue its report in the next two weeks.

In 2010, I introduced legislation to prevent “straw man” purchases, which allow handguns to end up in the hands of persons who are legally prohibited from possessing those weapons. It would have required purchase permits to obtain a firearm.

“Bagel Brain Jews Want Your Bullets and Your Guns,” read the headline on a flier distributed in response to the legislation, which Senator Brian Frosh also introduced.

When I spoke today, I said that we should have a rational discussion about guns, respecting the views of all parties.

A different set of numbers on the death penalty

December 14, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“The death penalty seems to be for Negroes alone,” Thurgood Marshall wrote to Roy Wilkins in the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in a letter dated June 7, 1935. As a young attorney in Baltimore, Marshall was defense counsel in several capital cases.

There were 16 executions in Maryland between 1930 and 1939 – 12 for murder and 4 for rape. All but two of the men executed were black.

Yesterday, Ben Jealous, the President and CEO of the NAACP, discussed repeal of the death penalty with Governor Martin O’Malley.

From press reports, their conversation centered on a different set of numbers – 24 in the Senate and 71 in the House. Those are the minimum number of votes needed to pass a bill.

Our head count gives us the necessary votes to repeal the death penalty. Now it’s time to verify.

The Marshall letter and 1930’s statistics are in Professor Larry Gibson’s Young Thurgood, a fascinating account of the future Justice’s early life and legal career in Baltimore. I’m only a few chapters away from Marshall’s lawsuit that integrated the University of Maryland School of Law. Some thirty years ago, I met the plaintiff in that case, Donald Gaines Murray.

Results – Electoral and Profound

November 29, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

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 41^st 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 41^st 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 13^th 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

November 16, 2012November 16, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

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

November 7, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“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.”

Casting my vote

November 1, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The first voting booth I entered was at the Cross Country Apartments. I accompanied my father.

I guess I was in third or fourth grade. I’m pretty sure my father voted the Democratic ticket.

This past Sunday, I went to the early voting center at what was my junior high school.

The lines were very long. It would take two hours before you could vote, people were told.

This turnout was even more impressive, I said to several people, because “they” were trying to prevent people from voting (No electioneering is allowed inside the polling place; so “they” not the GOP.)

When I got home I emailed a bill drafting request to allow the State Board of Elections to increase the number of early voting centers and to extend the duration of early voting to the Sunday before the election.

Today, the lines were shorter, and there were chairs for everyone in the old gymnasium.

75 minutes later, I had cast my vote.

Next Tuesday, I’ll spend virtually the whole day at Cross Country School. For the last two hours, Rachel, my niece, will accompany me.

I went there (and will be there again on Nov. 6)

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I don’t write someone else’s testimony, except when I do.

I attended the Baltimore Educational Equity Summit of Teach for America last Saturday.

At the concluding session, I got into a conversation with a kindergarten teacher and told her that I was working on a bill to expand early childhood education (pre-K).

“The benefits of pre-K are evident in a kindergarten class by the end of the first week,” she replied.

“Will you testify on this bill?” I asked. “Yes,” she said.

Then I told her, “What you just said will be the first sentence of your testimony.”

Senator Bill Ferguson and I met yesterday to discuss the legislation. We’re calling it “Race to the Tots,” modeling it on President Obama’s education reform grant program, “Race to the Top.”

—

I also met a TFA member who’s teaching science at Cross Country Elementary School.

“Have you been there?” he asked me.

“I went there,” I responded. “I was in kindergarten the year it opened – 1955.”

I’ll be there again on Election Day. Can you volunteer for two hours that day? Please let me know.

—

Last week, I wrote about the implications for abortion rights if Gov. Romney wins. The fate of choice and other issues before the Supreme Court are discussed in “The Court and the Future of Everything You Hold Dear” by Jeffrey Rosen.

Lilly Ledbetter and the facts of the case

October 18, 2012 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Perhaps the President forgot the facts of the Supreme Court’s decision in Frontiero v. Richardson.

The Air Force had denied certain medical and dental benefits to the spouse of Lieutenant Sharron Frontiero. Her husband sued and won.

“Classifications based upon sex, like classifications based upon race, alienage, or national origin,” wrote Justice Brennan, “are inherently suspect, and must therefore be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.”

The American Civil Liberties Union attorney arguing on behalf of Joseph Frontiero was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Lilly Ledbetter law also protects both men and women – from unequal pay and other discriminatory treatment in the workplace. President Obama was not alone Tuesday night when he referred only to women as the beneficiaries of the law. Many elected officials describe our civil rights laws as protecting only people of a certain gender or race.

(Since Governor Romney never mentioned the Ledbetter statute in his response, one can only guess how it was summarized in his debate binders.)

I think I know why I remember the facts in Frontiero. I read it in my law school class on Sex Discrimination and the Law. My professor was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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