Maryland's Eventful Assembly
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While it is never wise to write history in advance, the 2005 Maryland General Assembly session provided more than enough material to prudently rough out the next few chapters. It took major issues, pivotal events and a three-year buildup of acrimony between the Democratic legislature and the Republican governor to perfectly set the mood for the 2006 session and the statewide elections to follow.
After a tragic series of teenage driver fatalities, the legislature built on the previous work of Sen. Roy Dyson (D-St. Mary's) and Dels. William Bronrott (D-Montgomery) and Adrienne Mandel (D-Montgomery). With the strong backing of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) it passed a host of new restrictions aimed at saving young lives and making roads safer.
It is now a felony to intimidate a witness in Maryland. The passage of this law was Ehrlich at his best. For weeks the bill languished in the House Judiciary Committee, blocked by Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George's). The governor visited with House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) to ask him to get Vallario to move the bill. That effort, plus the work done by Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery) to win a favorable compromise, gives law enforcement a needed tool to combat drug dealers and organized crime.
Ehrlich, addressing a health care problem that is quickly reaching critical mass, backed a bill sponsored by Del. John A. Hurson (D-Montgomery) that provides an annual $23 million increase for the state's network of private health clinics that provide care to the working poor as an alternative to emergency rooms.
In his state of the state address, Ehrlich urged all members to rid Annapolis of the "Capitol Hill assassin politics" that he thinks degrades state government. Later that day, the House Republican caucus sent out a news release extolling the virtues of its refusal to vote for Busch as speaker and refused to applaud after he'd won. Busch pushed back, punishing Minority Whip Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert), who last year promised all 43 Republican votes to anyone who would run against Busch, by taking his seat at the front of the chamber from him. And throughout the session there were the frequent furnace-faced rants of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who howled at Busch whenever the speaker outfoxed him on slots legislation.
Ehrlich won some battles on the budget and business tax credits, but he took his lumps elsewhere. For the third time he failed to reach a consensus on slot machines, and when the Senate showed its teeth to him on medical malpractice tort reform, he orphaned his top legislative priority. He lost his proposed tax cuts for retired veterans, and his Office for Children, Youth and Families was eviscerated. However badly he may have been treated by the legislature, some of his worst injuries appear to be self-inflicted.
A deal to sell 836 acres of St. Mary's County woodland to a construction company ended up not only outraging people but also resulted in the legislature passing a proposed constitutional amendment restricting the governor's ability to sell parkland; the measure will be placed on the 2006 ballot. A poll taken by Partners for Open Space shows that 72 percent of Maryland voters plan to support it. And worse, according to a Baltimore Sun poll reported April 17, 55 percent of voters believe that Ehrlich is doing a poor job of protecting the environment.
Then there is the case of the self-described Prince of Darkness, Joseph Steffen. It's hard to calculate what benefits his bosses thought could be gained by parachuting him into various state agencies to ferret out, intimidate and fire state employees he alone considered disloyal to the administration; but it's easy to figure out the cost to Ehrlich. Once the rock was lifted on his chat-room rumors regarding Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's alleged infidelity, the harsh light that was cast on the rest of his "work" ended up tarnishing Ehrlich's image.
Ehrlich managed to come through the two previous sessions with his poll numbers and image intact. But the Sun poll now has Ehrlich trailing O'Malley 45 percent to 39 percent. And while this last session may have roughed Ehrlich up a bit more than previous ones, his own people may have thrown him under the bus.
