Irate Lawmakers Bolt Chamber In Md. Protest

"We know we're outnumbered. . . . Now they won't even let us participate," said Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R). (Roberto Borea - AP)

Former senator Barbara Hoffman, a Baltimore Democrat who served in the chamber for 20 years, said she could not recall a previous walkout and attributed this one to the increasingly poisonous relations between the two parties.

"Things have gotten so polarized," she said. "It just had to reach a boiling point."

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said two issues were ratcheting up the heat yesterday.

One was the effort to block the State Board of Education's decision to seize 11 low-performing schools in Baltimore, a takeover announced just three days ago. The legislation was drafted and rammed through so fast that a Senate committee wound up holding a public hearing last night, after both chambers had passed it.

Speeches on the bill consumed three rancor-filled hours, with Democrats voting at various points to suspend the rules and to cut off debate when it appeared Republicans were poised to filibuster. Miller, who is the nation's longest-serving Senate president and prides himself on maintaining firm control of the chamber, pushed through a motion to limit debate, over Republican objections.

"Senator, you have 15 minutes to talk," he barked at Minority Whip Andrew P. Harris (R-Baltimore County). "Talk."

After that bill passed, the Senate took up the election bill, which spells out where voters would be able to cast ballots for five days before the upcoming election and would shift more control to the state elections administrator, who was appointed by a Democratic governor.

Republican senators said they were stunned that Democrats had undertaken a major rewriting of the bill in a conference committee, which in this unusual instance included only Democrats. Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Somerset) said Democrats were trying to "shape things to their extreme advantage" by picking locations convenient for Democratic voters and inconvenient for Republicans.

When the bill arrived on the floor, Republicans protested that they had not had time to review the changes. They asked for a one-hour delay. Democrats said it was a procedural tactic, and the request was denied.

"I'm appalled and shocked," said Sen. Sandra B. Schrader, a moderate Republican from Howard County who sometimes votes with Democrats. "To not allow us the courtesy of even an hour, I just don't understand how someone would do that."

Similar unrest roiled the House, as Republicans tried to attach amendments to bills that, if accepted, would have forced a return to the Senate for additional votes. On a measure to remove the governor's appointees to the Public Service Commission, for instance, Del. Jeannie Haddaway (R-Talbot) proposed changing the word "chairman" to "chair."

Still, the House approved two bills responding to looming electricity rate increases -- one to force Constellation Energy Group to return $528 million to customers and a second to effectively replace the utility commission.

Signs of the hurried effort were everywhere. The chief clerk in the House, Mary Monahan, had to run the bills from her first-floor State House office up to the governor's legislative staff and collect a signed, time-stamped receipt to verify that it had arrived.

"I'm too old for this," she huffed as she made her final climb of the day, just before 5 p.m. Shortly after she left, an aide to the governor closed the door and turned the lock.

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.