I introduced my first two bills of the session. 

            Both are repeats from last year that took quite different paths short of passage.

            Here are two not so hypotheticals that could have been addressed if the Voters Rights Protection Act had been enacted.

             Robo calls are made at noontime on Election Day advising voters to “relax” because polling data indicate that a certain candidate has already won.  Flyers are distributed in certain neighborhoods the week before the election urging people to go to the polls on November 6, instead of the real Election Day, November 4.

             Under my legislation, a judge could issue an order prohibiting any further dirty tricks of this nature.  If no violations have yet to occur but there are reasonable grounds to believe that they will, an order could also be issued. 

             The bill failed last year when then Senator (now Congressman) Andy Harris delayed it in the midnight hour on the last night of the session.

             The second bill addresses homeless or abandoned youth who need mental health care.  The law currently requires the consent of a minor’s parent before such treatment can be provided, unless the minor is married or the parent of a child. 

             In many cases, these children have no contact with their parents because they’ve been abused.  Parental approval could be waived by an employee of a homeless shelter, a health care provider, or a social worker, if my bill becomes law.

              This proposal died in committee last year because of concerns that an amendment requiring parental consent for abortion would have been offered if the bill reached the House floor. 

               I know that I need to address that concern if the bill is to pass this year. 

Thursday, January 13

            It was 28 years ago today that I took the oath of office for the first time.

            Fair to say I’m as excited today about what I can accomplish down here as I was at the beginning, I wrote a friend this morning.

             Unlike Washington, we get things done in Annapolis.  Because we make the difficult decisions to balance our budget, we find compromise on other tough issues.  And I’m not constantly raising money so that I can be reelected.

              This year, my new committee assignment means I’ll be intimately involved in a new set of issues. 

              Over the years, I’ve benefited from the advice and counsel of mentors.  One of those people is Ben Cardin, now a United States Senator but my Speaker and district mate in 1983, and still a mentor and friend. 

              Ben told the House today, “This is a great place.” 

               Over the years, several students from my law school Legislation class have come to work here, but a first this year.  A former student, now Senator Bill Ferguson, is now a colleague.  The first but not likely the last, a friend told me. 

                For the first time at the start of a term, my father was not with me.  My brother Stewart, his wife Bonnie, and my niece Rachel joined me for lunch.  My mother, brother Bruce, and nephew Elliot called or emailed.

            “You read all of those lengthy reports,” another delegate said to me. 

            “It’s good that you think I do,” I responded with a smile.

            I tell my staff and my students to keep my testimony and letters to one page.  As Thomas Jefferson said, “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.”

            “Trust but verify,” my colleague said later in the meeting, quoting Ronald Reagan on dealing with the Soviets.

            “In this town,” I said, “it’s trust but codify.”  (Pass a law that puts it in the Maryland Code)

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            What we need in the United States is not division.  What we need in the United States not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another.

             On the night that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, Robert F. Kennedy spoke those words at a political rally in an African-American neighborhood of Gary, Indiana.

               President Reagan’s speech after the Challenger disaster and President Clinton’s after the Oklahoma City bombing have been widely mentioned as models for what President Obama should say in Tucson. 

                The talking heads on MSNBC this morning discussed Bobby Kennedy’s speech.  It is as powerful today as it was that night. 

Tuesday, January 11

In the past, all I could do was reduce spending.

For my first 20 years in Annapolis, I served on the Appropriations Committee, where we cut the Governor’s budget.  We could increase spending for a certain program only if we enacted a new source of revenue. 

Those bills were considered by the Ways and Means Committee, where the Speaker has appointed me the vice chairman for the new term.  This is a committee where I want to be a member, to paraphrase Groucho.

Our jurisdiction includes revenues, education, elections, and gambling.  I will be introducing bills in each of these areas. 

Revenues includes the formulas that determine how much state money goes to Baltimore City and the 23 counties.  To balance the state budget, Governor O’Malley is expected to reduce those payments to local jurisdictions. 

Baltimore City’s highest priority this year will be limiting the impact of such changes, Mayor Rawlings Blake informed the City delegation this morning.  So it’s now one of my top issues as well. 

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Politico.com is a widely read blog about government and politics that features a “daily debate with policy makers and opinion shapers.”  I’m one of the former. 

I was asked for my reaction to Saturday’s tragic events in Tucson. 

Actions and rhetorical excess have consequences.  That an individual “exercised” his Second Amendment remedies is deplorable but not surprising.

 Monday, January 10