More News

This story was updated at 4:31 p.m. Friday, April 23, 2010.

Del. Saqib Ali announced today that he will challenge incumbent Nancy J. King for the District 39 Senate seat King holds.

Ali announced the challenge on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5 FM.

"I'm a candidate and I look forward to the opportunity to debate and represent my people in the Senate," Ali said during an interview with Nnamdi and WRC-TV reporter Tom Sherwood.

Ali, 35, of Gaithersburg, is a first-term delegate who serves on the House Environmental Matters Committee. He is a software engineer.

King, 60, of Montgomery Village, serves on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. She is vice president and chief financial officer of a family-owned consulting and forensic engineering firm.

Both Ali and King are Democrats.

King, a former Montgomery County school board member, was elected to the House of Delegates in 2002. She was appointed to the Senate in September 2007 to fill a vacancy caused by Patrick J. Hogan's decision to leave the Senate to work as a lobbyist for the University System of Maryland.

Ali and King each vied for the Senate appointment when Hogan resigned. The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee recommended King for the post.

A rift between the two lawmakers has grown since then. A District 39 team kickoff held Sunday at the Flaming Pit in Gaithersburg — scheduled before Ali's announcement — was advertised as including King and Dels. Kirill Reznik (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown and Charles E. Barkley (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown, but not Ali.

"Nancy's terrific," Ali said when asked about why he is challenging King, who lives in Montgomery Village. "This isn't really so much about Nancy."

He later invited King to debate him on Nnamdi's show.

King could not be reached for comment.

During the interview, Ali attacked King's record on an alcohol tax increase and on a combined reporting law. The former would have collected 10 cents for every drink, increasing alcohol tax revenue from $15 million to more than $200 million, according to nonpartisan budget analysts.

The latter is an accounting change that would require large corporations to collect all revenue and expenses onto a single ledger, and then apportion an amount to Maryland. Advocates claim large companies shift profits to low-tax states and import expenses into Maryland to avoid paying state tax. They claim it would net the state treasury millions. Opponents say the state can't predict how a substantive change to accounting rules would affect revenue.

"I don't know where Nancy was on that. Certainly she did not support it," Ali said of King's position on the alcohol tax legislation.

A 2010 bill would have used the tax increase to support several programs, including an expansion of Medicaid to more services for substance abusers and the developmentally disabled.

Pressed by Sherwood on whether King supported the tax or not, Ali said: "She did not support it."

Ali signed on as one of 41 cosponsors to House version of the bill. King was not one of the seven cosponsors of the identical Senate legislation. Neither bill received a committee vote.

"The alcohol industry came in and killed it," Ali said. "And it's just good sense."

Responding to a question from a caller, Ali also criticized King for her stance on combined reporting. The proposal was met with a lukewarm response by lawmakers after Gov. Martin O'Malley included it as part of a tax overhaul during the 2007 special session.

Instead, the legislature approved a 2008 bill sponsored by King that established for a state commission to study the issue. She serves on the committee.

"I've tried to close the corporate tax loophole," Ali said. "The governor tried to close it in 2007 and unfortunately, my senator introduced SB 27, in the special session of special session, which would just keep this corporate loophole, this gravy train, open. And I think that's a mistake."

Funding, public schools, community colleges and the University System of Maryland are important for building Maryland's economy, Ali said.

"If we had combined reporting, where corporations had to pay their fair shares of taxes, if we had alcohol taxes, these things could be funded. We could keep our education institutions top notch," Ali said.

Ali's message during the radio appearance, and that of a campaign website he announced, show that he intends to cast himself against the Annapolis establishment.

Lawmakers "get very close with lobbyists and industry leaders and industry groups. And sometimes those industries have different interests than the people of our districts," he said. He cited the alcohol industry's opposition to a bill requiring an ignition interlock for convicted drunk drivers.

"There's a good ol' boy network at work in Annapolis. And I'm not part of it," he said, adding that if elected to the Senate he would "represent my people more than corporate lobbyists and special interests."

Ali also used the appearance to tout a bill he pushed during this year's General Assembly that called for votes by legislative committees to be posted online.

The bill did not pass, but the legislature's presiding officers agreed to begin posting committee votes online. The committee votes were available on the General Assembly's website for the first time during the recent session.

"It's a great thing for democracy. It's a great thing for transparency and a great thing for accountability," Ali said.