As Session Opens, Fall Looms Large

Elections Put Lawmakers Under Pressure

If election-year politics turns the upcoming Maryland legislative session into a tug-of-war, a handful of centrist Anne Arundel lawmakers may end up feeling like the rope.

Anne Arundel is considered a conservative-leaning county, with a number of moderate Democrats serving in districts the Republicans would like to claim. The entire legislature is up for reelection this year. And with a handful of highly partisan votes looming, anyone who is a potential swing vote could end up being tugged from both sides in the legislative session that begins Wednesday.

In January 2005, Maryland Republicans released a series of advertisements targeting three moderate Democratic senators, all from Anne Arundel, for supporting their party's position on a pair of bills that divided the General Assembly at the time. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) vetoed both bills approved by the Democrat-controlled legislature; Democrats later overrode one veto and reached a compromise with the governor on the other. Of the three targeted lawmakers, two voted to override Ehrlich's veto of a bill to reduce medical malpractice premiums for doctors.

The episode placed the three senators -- Philip C. Jimeno, James E. DeGrange Sr. and John C. Astle -- in an awkward position. They had won election in a county where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans but where Ehrlich reaped nearly 65 percent of the vote in 2002. Considered moderates, they vote with the Republicans at times, and GOP lawmakers tend to rely on their votes to win passage of some partisan bills. But Maryland Republicans would like to win the seats for their party because they believe the districts lean to the right.

"The real focus was on the November election, to try to get those seats," Jimeno said.

The three senators and other moderate Democrats in the Anne Arundel delegation, including Dels. Joan Cadden, Mary Ann Love and Theodore J. Sophocleus, could find themselves under pressure this year when the time comes to show their hands on a variety of high-stakes bills.

Democrats say they will seek to override Ehrlich's vetoes on several bills passed last year, setting the table for potentially volatile election-year debates on such weighty issues as the minimum wage and benefits for employees of retailing giant Wal-Mart.

Local lawmakers say Wal-Mart will probably be the defining issue. The legislature in April passed, and Ehrlich vetoed, a bill that would require companies with more than 10,000 workers in the state to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits or contribute to the state's health insurance program for the poor. Wal-Mart is the only business known to be potentially affected.

Jimeno said he sided with the Republicans on the Wal-Mart bill, in a vote that fell largely along party lines. An effort to overturn the veto would be packed with pressure because at the end of the last session, support for the bill in both chambers of the legislature was close to the three-fifths majority needed to override. The senator said he "would not be surprised" to see another attack this year targeting the centrists on that or another high-profile vote.

Every seat in the state Senate and House of Delegates is up for reelection in 2006, as is the governorship. And two Republican Anne Arundel delegates, John R. Leopold and David G. Boschert, have said they will run for county executive this year. Seasoned lawmakers say they know what to expect.

"There are going to be a lot more bills that come forward, [from] people who are looking for action, for their name in the paper," said Sophocleus. "It becomes especially important in an election year, because they want to go back to their constituency and say, 'Look what I've done.' "

Anne Arundel's House delegation is almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats and could be particularly vulnerable to partisan politics this year.

Love, chairman of the delegation, predicts "a very contentious year. And I think the election plays into it. All of us are going to be running for office, whether we say we are or not."

Sophocleus and other lawmakers said the 2006 session could bring another partisan fight over the legalization of slot machines, a perennial issue promoted as a way to fund one or another government program without raising taxes. During past sessions the governor has encouraged, and Democratic leaders have opposed, the legalization of slots.

Legislation against sexual predators may also leap to the fore in the coming session. In recent weeks the governor has proposed strengthening penalties against sex offenders, as has Martin O'Malley, the Baltimore mayor and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, along with Anne Arundel State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee, a Democrat, and a handful of lawmakers from the county. It's a good issue in an election year, lawmakers say, because sex offenders have few allies.

Among the flurry of bills pre-filed for the 2006 session, perhaps the measure of greatest local interest is one proposing a change in the process for selecting members of the school board.

The pre-filed bill picks up an effort that succeeded in the House but died in the Senate last year. With sponsors including House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), the bill would subject newly appointed school board members to a retention vote by the electorate for the first time in modern history.

"And the delegation will be divided on it," Busch said.