Legislative Diary

Opening Day

I don’t leave many baseball games in the 7th inning, especially when the Orioles are ahead. But it’s not often that I’ve volunteered to give the prayer to open the session. This is what I wrote and said: “Wait ‘til next year,” they used to say at Ebbets Field, until the Brooklyn Dodgers finally won …more >

Magic Number

Who knows eight? Eight lights of Hanukkah will be the answer at the Passover seder next week. On this Crossover Monday, eight bills of mine are alive and must be worked in the Senate to become law. When the Voter’s Rights Protection Act was on 2nd reader today, no questions were asked and no amendments …more >

Not too late

It was late Friday night, but it felt like early Saturday morning. The second floor session of the day had lasted four hours. Bills on early voting and driver’s licenses for undocumented residents had prompted many amendments and much debate. But the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources had two bills to vote on. …more >

87-52

I knew we had the votes. Today’s death penalty debate began with an amendment that would permit a death sentence for murdering a prison guard or officer, without having to meet the new standards for evidence in the Senate bill. It failed, 61-75, a closer margin than the vote on any of yesterday’s amendments. Our …more >

  • My Key Issues:

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