Friday, April 11, 2008

Winners, losers, and the conclusion of the session

E-mail this article \ Print this article

Charles E. Shoemaker⁄The Gazette
Sen. Roy P. Dyson embodies the exhaustion that many in the State House felt as the General Assembly limped its way through one long, long session that seemed to begin in November and ended in the first minutes of Tuesday. The clearest winnerthis year was Nancy Grasmick.
Didn’t we just do this?

The special session seems like only yesterday. Maryland passed landmark legislation to tax computer services, dumped millions into cleaning up the Bay and took great strides in providing health care to the uninsured.

Now here we are six months later, and none of that is intact. Twenty-two days of legislating down the drain.

Which brings us to the annual — and it appears, in some years, semi-annual — rite of picking who’s toast and who’s most from the previous lawmaking session.

Gov. Martin O’Malley straddles that toast-most line. He helped repeal the $200 million tech tax, but it would not have even existed had he not called the special session in the first place. He helped get a deal for Prince George’s hospital, but it took two years.

And then there are the Mikes. Legislative strife was at a minimum, so maybe they deserve a gold star ... for doing their jobs.

Winners

Bad drivers

They can still talk and text on their cell phones, and unless they’re in MoCo, they don’t have to worry about speed cameras catching them doing it.

Nancy Grasmick

Somehow, the first item on the governor’s to-do list — ‘‘fire school superintendent” — got scratched. Her suits must be made of Teflon.

Education

Long-promised, never-before-included Geographic Cost of Education Index and $333 million for school construction. Higher education sustained cuts, but officials say they can still freeze tuition for a third consecutive year. Community colleges got a record $81 million for construction projects. Teacher pensions will be covered by the state and not shifted to the revenue-strapped counties.

Black caucus

It engineered the DNA debate and forced the guv and the Dems into making some key concessions.

C. Anthony Muse

Muse was elected chairman of the Prince George’s County Senate delegation after Gwen Britt died in January and immediately raised his profile in the same-sex marriage debate and in working a bill to keep the Prince George’s hospital system open.

Prince George’s delegations

Under the stewardship of Muse and House Delegation Chairwoman Barbara Frush, county lawmakers seemed to show a unity not seen in past sessions — especially last year, when a hospital deal fell apart in the session’s final hours.

Geeks

Businesses banded together and successfully pushed for a repeal of the computer services tax. Learning their way around Annapolis will help some of the more successful of the bunch when they return to lobby on other issues, such as the revenue-replacing millionaire’s tax. Rob Garagiola and Talmadge Branch worked behind the scenes to get the repeal passed. Both strengthened their positions for leadership promotions.

Bob Enten and Tim Perry

The first hired guns of the computer services lobby who got the ball moving on a repeal. In January, it was a long shot, but by mid-late March, it was the cause célèbre of Annapolis. Perry was a regular in Mike Miller’s office. His connections to the Senate proved valuable in getting the repeal through.

Kevin Kelly

Took Allegany Power to task for charging customers a fee for energy-efficient light bulbs without approval: a dumb move that infuriated some customers. Kelly then pressed the case with the Public Service Commission, which eventually led to Allegany executives agreeing to refund the money and swallow the cost of the bulbs. His legislation to require customer approval before levying a surcharge passed both chambers with only one nay vote.

Foie Gras lovers

Bill to ban the fatty liver died. Vive les foodies!

Don Murphy

The former delegate-turned-lobbyist wins points as co-chairman of John McCain’s Maryland campaign and one of the few state GOP figures to get behind him from the get-go. Can’t say that about RLE.

Andy Harris

Knocked off Wayne Gilchrest in the primary and got to use the Senate as a soapbox that kicked off his general election campaign.

Slot machine advocates

Elimination of video bingo machines may give the November gambling referendum more of a boost. They also picked up the support of MSTA, a big win, and MACo, which was expected. Added Fred Puddester to head the campaign.

Central committees

Britt’s death and Del. Robert McKee’s resignation kept central committees from both parties busy and relevant as they nominated successors.

Bob Zarnoch

The legislature’s longtime legal guru is tapped for the Court of Special Appeals in his fifth attempt for a judgeship in the past two decades.

Shoes

Dino Wright and his nephew, Damon Ford, are getting steady traffic at the shoeshine station that’s been idle for several years.

Losers

Monty’s millionaires

Pols said repealing the tech tax would leave Montgomery with a lose-lose proposition: new taxes or cuts to transportation dollars. Higher taxes on upper incomes hurt the most in MoCo, which has more millionaires than any other jurisdiction. With cuts to transportation as part of the repeal package, those millionaires could find themselves — or their chauffeurs — stuck in traffic.

Peter V.R. Franchot

The out-in-front comptroller can claim few victories this session. He irked senators by distributing salaries of high-paid state employees to the media. His shop offered a conspiracy theory that Miller was after his high-priced aides. As a final blow, the Senate insisted on budget language that restricts the state fiscal czar from spending outside his constitutional sphere. And then there’s the begathon-hopeathon debate, which put him at odds with O’Malley and Nancy Kopp. He was an early supporter of repealing the tech tax, but that was going nowhere until the guv hopped aboard.

Immigration reform

No se puede.

Rush Baker

When Gwen Britt died, Baker appeared to be the likely successor, having the support of Prince George’s Senate heavyweights. But David Harrington won a narrow vote, leaving Baker on the sidelines — at least until 2010, when the county exec job is open.

Enviros

Maybe expectations were too high. After a green 2007, O’Malley was getting kudos. Bills pushed by the governor to increase energy efficiency and strengthen the Critical Area Act, which limits shoreline development, both passed. But the critical area reform was pared down from its original intent, and when budget realities hit in March, the trust fund for Bay cleanup was cut in half. A bill aimed at reducing global warming emissions was scaled back and ultimately killed in the House Economic Matters Committee in the session’s final hours. And the implementation deadline to eliminate phosphorus from detergents was pushed back six months.

E.J. Pipkin

Pipkin lost the District 1 congressional primary to Andy Harris, then had to sit near him in the Senate chamber. Pipkin’s speeches during floor debates and lone votes against legislation sponsored by counties that were not his had some wishing that he’d won the primary and taken his show on the road.

The Follies

New ethics rules essentially killed the mid-session tradition that allowed lawmakers to let their hair down and poke fun at one another. Annapolis could have used some lowbrow comedy, given the long, moribund shadow cast by the November special session.

Death penalty opponents

New Jersey repeal did nothing to help the cause here.

Soybean

Smith Island cake becomes the state dessert, walking is approved as the state exercise, but a bill that would make soybean the state crop wilted.

Push

Voters

With central committees nominating — and O’Malley appointing — five legislators in the past six months, voters lost their right to choose. But a bill permitting a special election to fill petulant loser Al Wynn’s seat in Congress and record Democratic turnout during the February presidential primary proves that there is still interest in making the people part of the process. Now, about those superdelegates ...

 Top Jobs

 Search Directories

Search all directories

Resources

 Search Directories

Search all directories
or pick a category below to search now

Categories