Speaking of sports

Baltimore is a small town.  Everybody knows everybody.

So is Annapolis.  I was reminded of that today.

I was about to get up from lunch at Galway Bay when in walked Terence Smith.

Smith was a reporter for the New York Times, CBS, and the Public Broadcasting System.

I had met him at environmental receptions over the years, but our paths had not crossed since the pandemic.

He knows David Rubenstein, the new Orioles owner, from his work at the Carter White House.

The first person I’ve met who knew David from his post-City College days.

Terence remembered me and the fact that I was working to save Pimlico Race Track.

I was very impressed by his recall of my efforts.

He may have attended his first Preakness before I did.

His father, Red Smith, was a noted sports columnist.

A Positive Relationship

I’m the lead sponsor of 21 bills.

Today was the deadline to introduce legislation and be guaranteed a public hearing.

You have to earn a vote on your bill.

My number one bill deals with the redevelopment of Pimlico Race Track.

It would guarantee that the neighborhoods surrounding the track are consulted on the issues that affect them by the racing authority that will own the Pimlico property.

A positive relationship already exists.

Six of my bills have had their public hearing.

No favorable reports yet.

But no unfavorable ones either.

 

Good Quotes Across Party Lines

28 times.

That’s how often Governor Moore used the word “partnership” in his State of the State address today.

From what you’re written me over the years, I know how much you appreciate partnership across party lines.

The Governor spoke about partnership with the General Assembly – both Democrats and Republicans.

“Partnership isn’t partisan,” he declared.

The Governor also spoke about issues that are of particular interest to me.

“We will protect Marylanders where they live, work, worship, and go to school,” he declared.

“We need to keep investing in lead abatement for children and families, “ he also said.

I’ll use those quotes when I testify on my bills opposing all forms of violent extremism and preventing lead poisoning.

Verbal Jousting

I don’t like it when no one asks me questions after I testify on my bill.

That happened today on my bill seeking to address misinformation about state elections on social media platforms.

Questions give me a sense of what the committee is thinking.

Nonetheless, I will be able to review the written and oral statements of the tech community in opposition to my bill.

It’s likely that House Bill 333 will be referred to the Election Law Subcommittee.

That’s where I’ll learn what my colleagues think about the bill.

PS I enjoy the verbal jousting of answering questions.

I learn from it, and I think I’m pretty good at it.

Too Broad

Twice in five days.

I’ve had to deal with a drafting issue in a bill of mine.

This time, it was not a constitutional question.

It was a fiscal issue.

My bill is in response to one specific case.

However, the effect of the language would be very broad and, according to the opponents, costly.

There were 12 lawyers and lobbyists on today’s zoom in opposition.

Next summer and fall, when I make my bill drafting requests, I need to make sure they’re not too broad.

Better to revise the bill draft, instead of amending the bill.

Election Misinformation and the Internet

Election misinformation is not a new tactic.

Twenty years ago in Maryland, flyers encouraged people to vote on a date two days after Election Day.

I passed a bill making it a crime to knowingly use fraud or other means to influence a voter’s decision whether to vote.

Misinformation has now found a home on the Internet.

How can we regulate the bad actors and not violate the First Amendment rights of websites?

I spoke with experts in drafting my bill.

I sought advice from the Attorney General’s Office.

This bill, as drafted, the AG responded, would be at “serious risk of being declared in violation of the First Amendment.”

On Wednesday, I drafted amendments to address those concerns.

This afternoon, the amendment drafter asked me, “How often do you want the State Board to review the voter suppression action line? Would this be a daily/weekly/monthly thing?”

“Daily within one month of the mailing of ballots,” I replied.  “Otherwise monthly.”

The bill hearing is next Tuesday.

I want the opponents of the bill, as it was introduced, to be testifying about the bill as it’s been amended.

In the struggle together and a visit with Casey Stengel

“Even when there was not a direct impact, you were there.”

Governor Moore said that in his remarks to the Jewish Caucus at a meeting in the Governor’s Mansion this morning.

He was referring, of course, to the civil rights struggle of the 1960’s.

I would add the following, and he would no doubt agree.

When any minority is mistreated, all minorities are mistreated.

The law recognizes that.

The federal Civil Rights Act enacted in 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in public places, schools and employment.

It now prohibits such discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

Over the decades, federal and state civil rights laws have been amended to protect the disabled and sexual orientation, for example.

That has come about because discriminated groups successfully made their case, working together through the legislative process.

I’ve known David Rubinstein, the new Orioles owner, since we were students at Pimlico Junior High.

The last time I saw David, about three years ago, he asked me, “Are you still keeping score?”

I am.

I have been since I was 7 or 8 years old.

My grandparents, Stewart and Sylvia Hecht, arranged for their eight-year old grandson to meet Casey Stengel, the Yankees manager.

Casey walked into the visitors dugout 10 minutes before the first pitch of a day game at Memorial Stadium.

Casey: I understand you keep score.

Me: Yes, I do.

Casey: There’s a groundball to the shortstop.   He throws it to the second baseman, who throws it to the first baseman.

Me: 6 to 4 to 3.

Casey: You’re better than our scorekeeper.

There’s a reason why Casey is in the Hall of Fame.

 

Mothers and a Friend

Two office visits and a group photo on the House rostrum are worth sharing.

I had just finished a zoom when a lobbyist met with me in my office.

“I find it difficult to pay attention during a zoom,” I told him.  “Too many options are available on my laptop.”

“Plus, you can’t read the room,” he replied, “to see how the legislators are reacting.”

The bill we were discussing would make any FDA-approved opioid reversal drug available in Maryland.

“Unfortunately, there’s a market,” I said.

 

Five mothers from Moms Demand Action met with me later in the day.

One by one, they told me they had lost a child to gun violence.

“Too many mothers in this situation,” I thought to myself.

 

This year is the 200th anniversary of the law school at the University of Maryland.

The school’s dean and alumni were on the Speaker’s rostrum for a photo.

As an adjunct professor, I joined the group.

Afterwards, I said to the dean, “I’m a Bamberger scholar.”

“I know,” she replied.

Clint Bamberger founded the clinic program at the law school.

He was my mentor on lead poisoning prevention and many other issues.

And he was a friend.

Speaker Cardin

US Senator Ben Cardin began his legislative career as a member of the House of Delegates.

He was our guest during Friday’s floor session.

I was honored to speak to my colleagues about his career in Annapolis.

I felt as if I was also speaking directly to Ben.

 

My first speaker is with us today, Ben Cardin.

What we take for granted in terms of the way this house runs and how it operates were reforms when Ben Cardin instituted courtesy deadlines, legislative ethics, open meetings, recorded committee votes.

That was the exception, I believe, prior to Ben becoming speaker and the work he did with his predecessor.

Ben was elected in the historic redistricting class of 1966, the first class after the lines were redrawn after one person, one vote.  The man he would succeed in the United States Senate, Paul Sarbanes, was also a member of that class.

Ben was the first speaker to appoint a woman, Helen Koss, and a Black, Larry Young, as chair of one of one of the standing committees.

He established the Spending Affordability Committee as a compromise. He was instrumental in the creation of the all-payer system, and I know that right now he’s standing up there and saying he’s going to correct any mistake that I make in what I say, because that’s the nature of our relationship.

One of Ben’s leaders, when I asked for his or her, two people, asked, for their thoughts, said: “Ben governed by consensus when that was possible, and when that was not possible without ranker.”

I would only add to that by saying that we were in the same district, then the 42nd district, Ben, Jim Campbell, and myself.  And when we appeared at a community meeting Jim and I never worried that there would be no one among us who would know the answer to any question that constituent might raise, because Ben would always know the answer, and what he has done for this house, lives on through every subsequent Speaker.

Ben, thank you.

 

The video of my remarks and Ben’s is at https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/FloorActions/Media/house-13-?year=2024RS.

Covering Their Tracks

I don’t often listen to podcasts.

“Covering Their Tracks” will be an exception.

It tells the story of Leo Bretholz, who escaped from a train taking him to a Nazi death camp.

I learned about the podcast today from Raphael Prober, one of the lawyer/lobbyists I worked with on this issue.

My response to him follows:

Rafi,

It continues to be one of the greatest honors of my legislative career that you and Aaron [Greenfield] asked me to be the sponsor of the bill imposing responsibility on the French Railroad for its role in transporting to their death Jews and members of other minorities despised by the Nazis.

But not Leo Bretholz.  A real hero.

Several months after our bill passed, I visited Nuremberg, site of the Nazi war crimes trial.  At the end of a day of touring, my guide said, “You have wanted to come here for quite some time.”

“Only since I worked on this legislation this past winter,” I replied.

But I soon realized that I had wanted to come to Nuremberg ever since my Constitutional Law class taught by Telford Taylor, as you know, a chief prosecutor at Nuremberg.

I will listen to the podcast later today.  https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/covering-their-tracks

Sandy

  • My Key Issues:

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