D.C., Maryland and Virginia Politics

D.C., Maryland and Virginia Politics

WTOP political commentator Mark Plotkin was online Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. ET to Fenty and the D.C. council fighting to control Washington's schools, whether Del. Marshall is still running against U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in Maryland, and what difference the Beltway Primary possibly can make.

The transcript follows.

Archive: Mark Plotkin discussion transcripts

Plotkin joined WTOP after 10 years as a political analyst for WAMU radio. He has been active in D.C. and national politics since attending George Washington University in the late '60s.

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Washington: What is your assessment of the impact of the late Hilda Mason's career on D.C. politics? The accomplishments listed in her obituary were very impressive and not congruous with the impression I had of her when she was last on the council, when I thought she was rather disengaged and not a particularly good member. Did I just not catch her at her best?

washingtonpost.com: Vocal Former Member Of D.C. Council Pushed Home Rule, Education (Post, Dec. 18)

Mark Plotkin: I think your opinion of Hilda Mason unfortunately was drawn from her last few years where she sometimes was not her hold self. She was courageous and consistent on issues that were important to her and the city. She served on the school board and on the council. In fact, she was the longest serving member in terms of total years. She was a trailblazer on statehood, and as you know was elected under the statehood party banner. Her husband, Charlie Mason, who worked in her office voluntarily, was a great giver of charitable causes and considered brilliant. They made quite a team. Whenever there was a question on education, she was there and she described herself as the "grandmother of the world." She lived a long and productive life, and to liberals or progressives, whatever they want to be called, she was always a consistent vote and voice on their side.

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Arlington, Va.: Now that he is the acting -- as well as the effective -- attorney general, do you know when Peter Nickles moved into the District to comply with the residency requirement?

Mark Plotkin: Peter Nickles is a long-time family friend of the Fentys and obviously a confidant. Everybody feels that Linda Singer left her role as D.C. Attorney General because of Nickles's efforts to budge into her territory. You are right, he still lives in Virginia and the announcement from the mayor's office was that of course they would comply with district law that this position would be filled by a D.C. resident. He has been given a waiver on his present position, but everything I understand about this is that he has no way out if Fenty wants to name him Attorney General. He must move into the city. He promised to do that when he was first appointed council, but has not done so.

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Lynchburg, Va.: The New Jersey State Legislature, with New Jersey governor's approval, abolished the death penalty in that state. Would either the Maryland and/or Virginia lawmakers consider passing a bill that would abolish the death penalty in either state?

Mark Plotkin: I don't think Virginia would abolish the death penalty because I don't think this would get through the Virginia Legislature. Maryland has a death penalty but I believe the executions have been put on hold. Just for your information, the District has no local death penalty, but someone can be put to death in Washington by federal law. The death penalty in Virginia is always a big political debating point. If you'll remember Tim Kaine said that he was personally against the penalty but would enforce the law and his oath of office. He repeatedly said during the campaign that he would apply the same standards in terms of clemency as if he were for the penalty. But the initiative that was taken in New Jersey recently, which the governor signed, I don't think you are going to see such successful action in Maryland or Virginia, especially not Virginia.

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Henrico, Va.: Now that State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds has made his announcement that he will run for Virginia governor, what are your thoughts? Specifically what are his chances of getting the Democratic Party nomination? If he wins the party nomination, what are his chances in a general election against any of the Republican opponents?

Mark Plotkin: As you know, Creigh Deeds almost got elected attorney general the last time he ran for statewide office. He lost by a few hundred votes. So he now has some beneficial name recognition statewide. Brian Moran definitely is going to run. He's been traveling around the state trying to get known. He's well-known in the legislature because he's the chairman of the Democratic caucus, but that doesn't mean much to most, or any voters. He's from Northern Virginia, which is an advantage because about a third of the votes are cast there, but that also means that the rest of the state does not know much about him, and he is trying to rectify by that traveling around the state. I would think that the Democrats would have a primary, not a convention, for this 2009 race. Moran has a disadvantage in that some Northern Virginians now know of Deeds and voted for him when he ran for Attorney General. His name being on the ballet at least identifies him not for the first time. It's Moran's challenge to get known and to distinguish himself in the rest of the state. Yes, Brian Moran is Rep. Jim Moran's brother. In fact, some say "the better behaved brother." I'm sure both Moran's appreciate that comment.

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Former D.C. OAG attorney: Mark -- about a year ago, when Mayor Fenty announced Linda Singer as his pick for D.C. attorney general, I wrote into this discussion to say that it was a poor choice because she was not a litigator -- indeed, she hardly had practiced law at all in her career. You posted my comment and disagreed, stating that the attorney general's job largely was administrative and that in-court experience was secondary to administrative acumen. I think Ms. Singer's resignation illustrates that you were wrong on that point. Singer's lack of courtroom experience allowed the mayor to marginalize her input. He has relied on Peter Nickles -- who has decades of litigation experience.

Mark Plotkin: Well I guess maybe you were right. I am not a lawyer nor play one as a commentator but I think the mayor relied on Nickles and felt more comfortable with him. If her input was marginalized, then I think she had the right to take a stand and do what she did. Nobody wants to be crowded out of what they think is their given responsibility. I think in the end, this is true of most chief executives -- the decision to rely on someone goes to a personal comfort level. That doesn't mean that the attorney general's prescribed duties should be overlooked or negated. I'm sure as time goes on, we'll find out more about this situation. Right now, Linda Singer is a not blasting anybody, but who knows, more might come out in specifics. In one story I read, there was a perfect example of this when Federal Judge Paul Friedman admonished Nickles for talking so much in the courtroom where the attorney general was supposed to be doing the talking. The story reported that Nickles then stopped talking after he got that statement from the judge.

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Annandale, Va.: Mark, I received one of those computer-generated phone surveys the other night. From the few questions, it appears that Leslie Byrne -- the former congresswoman, former state senator and former lieutenant governor candidate -- is going to challenge Rep. Tom Davis in November 2008. Is this really the best that Northern Virginia Democrats have to offer? Isn't there someone else out there?

washingtonpost.com: Focus on Fairfax: Byrne Wants Her Seat Back (washingtonpost.com, Nov. 8)

Mark Plotkin: I would not be surprised to see Leslie Byrne run for this office. She served one term in The House and then Tom Davis beat her, and as you know she ran for lieutenant governor and just fell short a few hundred votes of winning that office. So nobody can accuse Leslie Byrne of not being politically ambitious. Andy Hurst gave Davis a good shot. Last time he got 45 percent of the vote, and he's told me that he will run again and obviously likes his own chances.

The real opponent for Byrne would be the Fairfax county board of supervisors chairman, Gerry Connolly, who just got re-elected as board chairman. Connolly refused when I -- or for that matter anybody else -- asked him whether he would run for this seat if Tom Davis, the Republican incumbent, decided not to run. Davis dropped to 55 percent in 2006, down from more than 60 percent two years ago -- and the defeat of his wife for the state Senate, I think, might affect his political and personal decision to run again.

The Democratic Party would love to pick up a seat in the Virginia Congressional Delegation. They now lead with eight Republican members and three Democrats. The Democratic Party is going to pour in a lot of money to try and regain this seat. Demographically, it is changing from a Republican or toss-up district to a leaning-Democratic district. The victories of Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Jim Webb attest to this fact. Davis has stayed on because he's a very shrewd and practical moderate who doesn't want to be out of touch with his constituents, but he likely could decide that this is the time to go. He himself has said that his party could lose up to 30 house seats in 2008, and if there is one thing Davis knows it's how to count.

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Riverdale, Md.: Hello, Mark. I have a question about O'Malley's budget plan. Slots will be on the ballot in November of 2008. It would have to be at least another year before the state gets any money from slots. So, what else will have to be done to balance the budget when the legislative session starts in January?

Mark Plotkin: My understanding of this is that enough cuts and revenue will be available in January so that they can try to make a dent in the budget deficit. Even the big money that is supposed to come in from slots will not be in the first year. It will be in the later years, but you raise a very good point.

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Falls Church, Va.: How will the democrats in Northern Virginia select who their candidate will be against Tom Davis next year?

Mark Plotkin: As you know, there is no party registration in Virginia, so you can participate in either party's nominating process. Some in the Virginia Republican Party tried to get voters in their most recent primary to sign some sort of "loyalty oath" that if they participated in the primary, they had to vote Republican in the general election. That idea was ludicrous and really unenforceable, as the last time I looked voting was done by secret ballet. The Democratic Party, as far as I know, never has tried to experiment with this. I would assume that the state party would make a determination or that the Democrats in the Congressional District would make that decision. I am not all-knowing on this but I do know that the candidates, such as Byrne, Hurst, or Connolly, would prefer a type of selection they think would give them the best chance of winning. Tom Davis in the Republican Party, I think, knew from the start that his party was going to have a convention to select the U.S. Senate candidate; he would be in bad shape in that process. As you know, the party did have a convention and will choose, it looks like, Jim Gilmore in May of next year, although the controversial delegate Bob Marshall said on the Politics Program (WTOP, 103.5 FM) last Friday that he surely was looking at competing against Gilmore. Marshall is forbidden by state law from raising money during the 60-day legislative session but was not sure if this applied, because the U.S. Senate is a federal position. He said he was going to check with the Federal Elections Commission to see if that state law conflicted with his Senate aspirations. I think it's interesting that the question of whether or not there should be specific party registration in Virginia is a question that politicians have definitive views on. The last time I asked Gov. Kaine about this, he said he was for it -- as did, I remember, Republican Party Chair John Hager, saying it would be all right with him too. But I don't see the legislature moving in that direction.

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You Are Wrong, Plotkin: A correction and a question: Firstly, Nickels did not get a waiver from Fenty -- the general counsel position was exempted from the residency requirement prior to Nickels. Also, I heard about the way Fenty is using the Sky Suite at the Verizon Center to pay back campaign donors. Great story, but isn't that against some type of campaign laws? It really smells rotten...

washingtonpost.com: Mayor, Council Battle Over Wizards Tickets (Post, Dec. 6)

Mark Plotkin: Thank you very much for the correction, if you are correct. I'm not doubting you -- I thank you if you are. The point I was trying to make is that it looks like Nickles wants to remain a non-D.C. resident. The sky suite story was done by WTOP reporter Mark Segraves and I think it was a great job of reporting, and I'm sure more questions definitely will be raised. All mayors like to take care of their friends and donors and I guess the sky suite follows that pattern.

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Washington: The city's attorney general is supposed to represent the city, not the mayor. Do you think Nickles -- and Fenty -- will respect that distinction? I am not optimistic, if Fenty's actions to date are any indication.

Mark Plotkin: That's a very good point. I think Linda Singer might have had a conversation with the mayor and maybe Nickles too, stressing this point. The mayor likes to have people around him who are completely loyal (I'm not suggesting that Singer was not loyal) and acts very quickly when somebody doesn't match up to his liking. The city council is upset with him about the schools because they feel they are not consulted or included in the right manner. I guess there is enough dissatisfaction with Fenty that if the 2010 election was held today, he would not win all 142 precincts.

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Bethesda, Md.: Chris Van Hollen is head of the Congressional Campaign Committee. How many hours a week does that job take -- hours that aren't spent working on the problems of Maryland's 8th District?

Mark Plotkin: Chris Van Hollen wants to keep his job representing the 8th District. It is considered now a safe seat and he's not worried about a general election challenge from Republicans, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't attempt to take care of his constituents -- because he knows that if he stops doing that there will be serious primary opposition. This allows him more time to try and elect as many Democrats to Congress as he possibly can. Usually you pick a chair of the campaign committee who has a safe seat. This fits Van Hollen.

Thanks for all your comment and questions and corrections.

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