I’m an insider. I’m also one of the more liberal members of the legislature. My first year here, I learned that you can often get a lot more done if you’re willing to seek common ground and settle for incremental progress. And you’re more likely to achieve that end if you don’t harden another legislator’s …more >

The tea party movement came to Annapolis today. A resolution to impeach the Attorney General was debated on the House floor and then considered by my committee. There is absolutely no basis in law for impeaching the Attorney General because he wrote a legal opinion on same-sex marriage that some members disagree with. By no …more >

No opposition means there’s no opposition. I hope. No one signed up to testify against my two bills in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. The chairman took note of that after I finished testifying on the first. That legislation deals with legal liability for architectural and design firms when their employees enter on a third …more >

Crossover and Passover coincide this year. Crossover is the deadline for House bills to receive a constitutional majority, 71 votes, and cross over to a Senate committee, which will hold a public hearing on the legislation. Same for Senate bills coming to the House. If you miss this deadline, your bill goes to the Rules …more >

“The Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill then. They oppose this modest change now.” I was speaking on the House floor, in response to another delegate’s point that the Chamber opposed the SLAPP bill I was defending. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are brought to intimidate opponents, usually an individual or a neighborhood association, not …more >

A dead bill in another forum may smell as sweet – eventually. Some of my legislation may not flower before we adjourn, but some of these proposals will be worked on after the session ends. Consigning a bill to summer study often delays the inevitable, but it doesn’t have to. I realized last fall that …more >

I became the lead sponsor of one bill and lost 25 votes on another during this morning’s floor session. Mine is not the only bill that would require the Public Service Commission to make comparative information about electricity prices easily accessible to the public. Last week, I was told that another delegate’s legislation would be …more >

“He’s honest but you gotta watch him.” Chico Marx says that about Harpo in “A Day at the Races.” If I had followed a lobbyist’s advice today, people would have said of me, “He’s for the bill but you gotta watch him.” The lobbyist, whom I respect, asked me about a bill I have co-sponsored. …more >

“Being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition.” If you were glued to the floor debate on CSPAN like I was, you heard that talking point from Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic women. Far too many Americans – both male and female, have decided not to change jobs because a pre-existing condition would leave …more >

Rosenberg is “probably to the left of Bernie Sanders,” writes a blogger on mdshooters.com. Mr. Sanders is a Democratic Socialist and a member of the United States Senate. I meet one of the criteria in Alvy Singer’s cultural stereotype of a Jewish left-wing liberal in “Annie Hall.” I lived on the Upper West Side of …more >