Category: Delmarva items

Tonight there’s word about the untimely passing of Delegate K. Bennett Bozman of District 38B. The Virginia native was a graduate of Washington HS in Princess Anne and the University of Maryland. He’s survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren – my sympathies go to them with their loss.

Despite the fact I never met the man nor did I agree with most of his votes, I’d really rather have seen him be defeated by the voters this November and get to enjoy his post-Assembly years than leave this world as he has.

But life must go on for the rest of us, and I had an interest in finding out the procedures for replacing him. From the Maryland Code:

Section 13. Vacancy in office of Senator or Delegate.

(a) (1) In case of death, disqualification, resignation, refusal to act, expulsion, or removal from the county or city for which he shall have been elected, of any person who shall have been chosen as a Delegate or Senator, or in case of a tie between two or more such qualified persons, the Governor shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy from a person whose name shall be submitted to him in writing, within thirty days after the occurrence of the vacancy, by the Central Committee of the political party, if any, with which the Delegate or Senator, so vacating, had been affiliated, at the time of the last election or appointment of the vacating Senator or Delegate, in the County or District from which he or she was appointed or elected, provided that the appointee shall be of the same political party, if any, as was that of the Delegate or Senator, whose office is to be filled, at the time of the last election or appointment of the vacating Delegate or Senator, and it shall be the duty of the Governor to make said appointment within fifteen days after the submission thereof to him.

(2) If a name is not submitted by the Central Committee within thirty days after the occurrence of the vacancy, the Governor within another period of fifteen days shall appoint a person, who shall be affiliated with the same political party, if any as was that of the Delegate or Senator, whose office is to be filled, at the time of the last election or appointment of the vacating Delegate or Senator, and who is otherwise properly qualified to hold the office of Delegate or Senator in the District or County.

(3) In the event there is no Central Committee in the County or District from which said vacancy is to be filled, the Governor shall within fifteen days after the occurrence of such vacancy appoint a person, from the same political party, if any, as that of the vacating Delegate or Senator, at the time of the last election or appointment of the vacating Senator or Delegate, who is otherwise properly qualified to hold the office of Delegate or Senator in such District or County.

(4) In every case when any person is so appointed by the Governor, his appointment shall be deemed to be for the unexpired term of the person whose office has become vacant.

(b) In addition, and in submitting a name to the Governor to fill a vacancy in a Legislative or Delegate district, as the case may be, in any of the twenty-three counties of Maryland, the Central Committee or committees shall follow these provisions:

(1) If the vacancy occurs in a district having the same boundaries as a county, the Central Committee of the county shall submit the name of a resident of the district.

(2) If the vacancy occurs in a district which has boundaries comprising a portion of one county, the Central Committee of that county shall submit the name of a resident of the district.

(3) If the vacancy occurs in a district which has boundaries comprising a portion or all of two or more counties, the Central Committee of each county involved shall have one vote for submitting the name of a resident of the district; and if there is a tie vote between or among the Central Committees, the list of names there proposed shall be submitted to the Governor, and he shall make the appointment from the list.

In a nutshell, the Democrat Central Committees of Wicomico and Worcester counties will have to get their heads together within the next month and pick a successor to Delegate Bozman who will have to be approved by the Governor. He or she will have the advantage of incumbency only if there’s a special session since the General Assembly isn’t slated to meet otherwise until after the 2006 election.

After the proper period of mourning, it’s going to be interesting to see the jockeying for position that occurs among lower shore Democrats trying to get on the list submitted to the state. They’ll have to suck up to both parties in this instance, as the Republican Gov. Ehrlich gets the final say.

It also may bring up the question of age in some of the the local races. While they may be in fine health, Democrat Rudy Cane turns 72 next month and his party cohort Norm Conway is now 64 years old. Republicans Page Elmore (67) and Addie Eckhardt (62) are also among the grayer set of Delegates.

Regardless of affiliation, it’s a sad day in Delmarva as a distingished citizen and public servant has passed away in an untimely manner.

Once again, the local Chamber of Commerce building was the setting for our Wicomico County Republican Club’s monthly meeting. This time around we had almost standing room only though as about 45 people were in attendance to hear two of our local candidates for the sheriff’s office being vacated by the current man in charge, R. Hunter Nelms. He decided last year not to seek another term.

But first things were first, the usual club business was discussed. The treasury continues to grow, as does membership. The club now has 185 paid members. Our tri-county (Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset) Lincoln Day dinner is June 9th at the Salisbury University Commons, the theme of the dinner will be a discussion of the anti-business climate that the party in charge in Maryland (hint: it’s not the GOP) has brought about. And ads are available in the dinner program – quarter page is $35, half page is $60, and full page $100. A good idea brought up was having a page of “patrons” as well, for a smaller donation.

A couple other announcements were made , one regarding a joint fundraiser for District 37 GOP incumbents Rich Colburn, Addie Eckardt, and Jeannie Haddaway. (I state it that way since I host a link to another GOP District 37 hopeful, Redgie Lancaster.) The other had to do with a donation the club made to the local YMCA.

We also had brief remarks from Michael James, who’s running for the Delegate nod in District 38B. I’ll have much more from him next month as he will be our speaker for the May meeting. Later on (after our featured speakers profiled below), yet another District 38B candidate who has announced her candidacy but not yet filed, local resident Bonnie Luna, spoke briefly to the gathering and remarked that “one person can make a difference”, also vowing to not just represent her district but the whole lower Eastern Shore.

One final speaker under the “announcement” phase was our newly tapped Wicomico County director for the 2006 Ehrlich campaign, Ellen Andrews. She’s repeating her job from 2002. One thing she spoke of was the petition drive I alluded to a few posts back. I’m not certain I believe that the Curran opinion is valid when I read the MBOE petition form that clearly states, “Acts or parts of Acts passed at the 2005 and 2006 Sessions of the General Assembly, if they are successfully petitioned to referendum, will appear on the next general election ballot (November 7, 2006).” The early voting passed in the 2005 session, Mr. Attorney General (and father-in-law of a Democrat candidate for governor) Curran – go ahead, tell me I’m lying.

She also postulated that Governor Ehrlich isn’t going to select a lieutenant governor running mate until close to his filing, and since he has a couple months yet to do that, it’s possible (in my opinion) that the choice will be controversial. Of course anything to the right of pale shade of moderate would upset the Maryland Democratic Party, so I say go for it and pick a rock-ribbed conservative.

At last we got to our featured speakers. As is custom (and since it really did occur that way) it’s ladies first.

Maj. Doris Schonbrunner is the newest candidate for sheriff on the GOP side. She’s joined a crowded field, but her claim to fame in the race is that she’s the current #2 person at the sheriff’s office and serves in the leadership capacity when Sheriff Nelms is away. In 19 years at the sheriff’s department, she’s served in practically all the possible posts, starting as a dispatcher. She’s currently the director of administration and staff services at the department, thus she’s responsible for their $7 million budget.

Schonbrunner has also spent time on her education, with associate and bachelor degrees to her credit, as well as working on a master’s degree in management and public administration. She’s also an alumnus of the FBI National Academy.

Some of her goals for the department if she’s elected include reopening some of the rural substations, establishing a citizen advisory board on department operations (and otherwise being more encouraging to citizen input), enhancing the school officer project, starting an anti-gang program, and being more aggressive with driving enforcement. She would also like to maintain the lack of turnover in the department, since having experienced officers makes it easier to combat crime effectively.

Then it was Wayne Lowe’s turn to speak. His experience is different, having spent 23 years with the Maryland State Police after a stint working with DuPont. He retired from the force in 1992 and now works for the state attorney’s office as an investigator.

His main interest lies in crime prevention, especially in the aspects of community policing and through programs such as Block Watch. It was through his efforts that Crime Solvers was started here in the late 1970’s. As far as crime in the here and now, Lowe wanted to place an emphasis on stopping drug-related crime and pay more attention to some of the outlying communities in Wicomico County rather than just the immediate Salisbury area.

Another focus by Lowe would be in the area of crimes against children. He lamented the end of a regular program he helped teach called “Good Touch, Bad Touch” which explained the differences between things like an innocent hug by a parent vs. inappropriate touching by a classmate or stranger. Wayne also stated that his sheriff’s office would be more inclined to follow up with crime victims after their cases are closed and wanted to stress more outreach by the department to the public – one example was making a few speakers from the department available for organizational functions like our meetings.

Since she is a current member of the sheriff’s department, Maj. Schonbrunner was the beneficiary of most questions from the assemblage. One point that she brought up in response to the queries was the success of a program that allows deputies to maintain the use of their vehicles while off-duty. This was an easy way to show more of a presence in the community, since a criminal likely wouldn’t know if the sheriff’s vehicle out and about was on duty or not. Another item she brought up is that the sheriff’s department is being used more heavily as a backup security of sorts – one example was additional security at the new cineplex in the Centre of Salisbury mall. At the request of the theatre chain, more police are present. The Wicomico County sheriff’s office was brought in after the Salisbury Police refused to take on the extra duty.

The only question that Mr. Lowe had addressed to him specifically was being asked about any budgetary experience, since Schonbrunner noted her budget responsibilities. He admitted to not being fully in charge of putting together budgets during his stint as an officer, but in his work with the state attorney’s office he did assist with their putting together annual budgets. One departmental weakness Schonbrunner admitted to was a lack of success in getting out servicing papers in an orderly fashion. She also cited an increase in the numbers necessary for court security as taking away resources to combat street crime.

I did find out an interesting statistic tonight, though. The city of Salisbury has crime statistics that are 2 to 3 times the national average for similar-sized cities – but Wicomico County crime statistics are half those of similar sized counties. So the challenge for whoever becomes the next sheriff will be to maintain the excellent county crime statistics while working with the Salisbury Police Department to cut down the offenses there and hopefully not just push them out into the county.

As always, Dr. Bartkovich made his push for more candidates for the other spaces on the slate. He also hinted at there possibly being statewide candidates at the Lincoln Day dinner. But his final little announcement was sort of intriguing. The spring state GOP convention will be held nearby in Cambridge on May 13th. Since anyone can show up, I think it may be an interesting little trip to take and see the sausage being ground for myself.

So tonight’s meeting was an interesting one, as meetings that discuss pocketbook issues tend to be. While one may not necessarily think of crime as a pocketbook issue, take into account the $7 million spent on the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department, then add in the lost property and even lives that hardworking taxpayers have to either make up for with their tax dollars, or worse, out of their own pockets. That’s why tonight’s meeting was well-attended and why this year’s local elections are crucial to the success of Wicomico County residents. We had two fine candidates for Sheriff attend tonight, hopefully we’ll hear from others prior to the September primary.

I think the dust has sufficiently settled in Annapolis now to comment about the farce otherwise known as the 2006 session of Maryland’s General Assembly – noted by the Wall Street Journal as America’s worst. (You can’t blame me, I’ve never voted for any of them – I was an Ohioan the last time these folks were elected.)

The interim few days also gave me time to peruse some of the media coverage of the last session day, along with overviews of the session as a whole. I culled items from the Baltimore Sun, the Gazette, the Washington Times, and press releases from both parties in order to read up on the spin and the real results.

The session started and ended with a flurry of veto overrides. At the start the Democrats in the General Assembly made the Fair Share Health Care Act (generally known as the “Wal-Mart” bill) part of the state’s law books and further frustrated Maryland small businesses by increasing the minimum wage $1 to $6.15 per hour. To finish the session, the Democrats blocked efforts by the state to take over the failing Baltimore City Schools, mandated the governor must reappoint and have reconfirmed his Cabinet secretaries if he wins a second term (a clear usurpation of executive power); and overturned Ehrlich’s veto of a bill selecting early polling places that the Democrats in the General Assembly picked out, likely to their partisan advantage.

What was most noteworthy and certainly drew the most attention on the last session day was an attempt to modify proposed electric rate hikes that would begin this summer. The proposed increases came about as a sort of payment due from deregulation legislation that was passed back in 1999, under previous Governor Parris Glendenning. To be more specific, long-term contracts that locked in prices paid by consumer electrical suppliers (particularly Baltimore Gas & Electric) were set to expire and current market rates are set much higher. Instead of possibly 6-10% increases every year from 2000-2006, this balloon mortgage of sorts was slated to force a 72% rate hike on BG&E customers – a group that is a huge voting bloc, possibly the largest in Maryland short of party affiliation.

Legislation to modify these increases managed to make it through the House of Delegates, but the Senate could not ratify the bill in time. Cinderella’s horse-driven coach turned into the pumpkin of a possible special session to resolve the matter.

Moreover, the rate increases aren’t limited to just the Baltimore area, as the juice that runs my computer (and heats/cools my house, does my cooking, etc.) comes from Delmarva Power, who’s also looking to increase rates by a significant percentage. The effects of electrical deregulation have obviously become a contentious issue, and a sidebar to it is a proposed $11 billion merger between Constellation Energy (BG&E’s parent company) and Florida Power and Light. That merger was also held hostage to the whims of the General Assembly, which isn’t too friendly to business interests.

Now, generally I’m a free-market sort of person, and what I can’t understand is how deregulation didn’t work in this instance. I suppose the only explanation I can think of is that because the electrical power industry is so capital-intensive and also quite dependent on other natural resources (coal, natural gas, etc.) that new players and competitors have a difficult time getting started. Conversion is the key in this case – something has to be converted to electricity, at least until someone figures out a way to transform natural lightning into a form useful enough to supply your typical 120 volt outlet.

As it stands now, a guy like me is looking at about $300 a year more for electricity. Strangely enough, my electric bills are higher in the winter than the summer, but most people will see big bills come July and August, just in time for the campaign season to begin. For their part, even though the Democrats in the General Assembly passed the deregulation legislation in the first place and it was signed by a Democrat governor, they’re calling it “Ehrlich’s rate hike.”

And that’s a good part of the spin that they try to attach to their achievements during the 2006 Assembly session. Some items cited in their press release include:

$462 million for schools. The problem with saying that is that Governor Ehrlich sets the initial budget, so that was his amount of money – the D’s simply chose not to cut it.

The “Healthy Air” Act. In other words, more regulation on Maryland’s utilities, which will likely benefit those downwind of us moreso than our state. So I guess Delaware thanks us, while our electric rates go up to cover those mandates.

Fighting the “Ehrlich” utility rate hike. Since no legislation passed, and the Democrats run the General Assembly, I’m not certain that I’d call this a “victory.”

Fighting voter supression. In fact, I’d say the bills passed by the Democrats fight it so well that many people are going to vote 2, 3, even 4 times! And what a surprise, they’ll vote for Democrats.

Stem cell research. The devil is in the details. Personally, the only stem cell research I favor is that performed on non-embryonic stem cells. Any why is it up to the government to fund this research? Wouldn’t one think that a private comany would love to come up with a cure for an ailment that affects a large number of people and be able to profit from that? Maybe they’re seeing how the pharmaceutical industry gets treated by our lawmakers and it forces government to step into the breech.

College tuition. I have an issue with the state funding college tuition anyway. Sometimes I think that the purpose of college has become almost the same as that of a vocational school. You go to school to say, become an architect, and unless you apply yourself to the purpose like I did you don’t learn what is truly higher education, that of critical thinking.

A pay hike for “working families”. First of all, how many “working families” in Maryland really work at minimum-wage jobs? Most of these are held by teens or part-timers, where these low wage jobs exist. The market in Maryland is such that the average Joe working someplace makes far more than minimum anyway. But this measure increases costs for everyone regardless of income.

Minority Business Enterprise. At the risk of pissing off readers who trace their ancestries to sub-Saharan Africa or south of our national border, and even those who are physically capable of carrying and bearing children, I have to say that this should be phased out. I don’t believe in discrimination for or against a certain group, and a leg up to “minority” business enterprises, while necessary a generation ago, is no longer required if you ask me. Even if you don’t ask me, it’s my blog and I say so. MBE should have been sunsetted this year as proposed.

Juvenile justice failures. Honestly, with no kids in Maryland’s system, I’m no expert on whether juvenile justice needed to be reformed. This mostly has to do with a veto override in the first days of the session.

Teacher pension improvements. Yes, now Maryland is in the “middle of the pack” instead of the bottom. What they don’t say is that the teachers themselves will be fronting most of the costs. Need to keep that quiet, like the teachers’ unions would ever endorse a Republican anyway.

Tax relief. As the press release says, “Dems proposed and passed tax relief measures for those in need.” In this case, they determined homeowners, seniors, the disabled, military retirees, and heirs of small business owners were in need. I don’t have a problem with the list, but I wonder how many of these bills were Democrat versions of those introduced by Republicans, which did happen in this year’s General Assembly simply to make sure the GOP could get no credit. Really I’d like to see everyone get a tax cut though, not just a selected few.

For the GOP side, they chose a lighter approach in their view of the session. They selected the “Top Ten Silliest Bills” of the 2006 session. Rather than rehash the list (hey, just go read it – it’s funny in a sad sort of way) I wondered just how our local Assembly men and women voted on these bills! That’s way more important to me.

10. House Bill 1292 did not make it out of committee, no local elected officials were among the sponsors of either this measure or the companion Senate Bill 1017.

9. Senate Bill 983, believe it or not, passed 45-0. Both local Senators were among the 45.

8. Senate Bill 136 was defeated in committee. Sen. Richard Colburn (District 37) joined two other Republicans and 13 Democrats to sponsor the bill.

7. House Bill 1037 did not pass through its committee. No local Delegates were sponsors of the bill.

6. Senate Joint Resolution 15 passed 45-0 as well. Again, both of our Senators voted for the resolution. I have to comment on this one. Let me see, the trek of Lewis and Clark started in Missouri, correct? I went to Missouri for my vacation last year and I took two days to drive the distance. So, back in the days of horseback, that was likely a weeks’ trip or more. What the hell does Maryland have to do with this?!?

5. House Bill 1468 died a quiet death, not even getting a committee vote. None of our local Delegates were involved.

4. Senate Bill 735 was approved by its committee but did not face the full Senate. I’m not able to find out if either local Senator voted for the bill in committee or not.

3. House Bill 681 sailed through on votes of 138-1 and 133-0 (a version amended by the Senate.) All of our District 37 and 38 Delegates voted for this. The companion Senate Bill 824 was voted against by Sens. Colburn and Stoltzfus, but they were outvoted 37-8. I guess the saving grace is that an amendment sunsets the bill in 2010.

2. House Joint Resolution 2 was shot down in committee. No local Delegate was a co-sponsor.

1. Senate Bill 235 was selected as the silliest bill by the Maryland GOP. The bill allows pets to have their own trust funds. Now, I like Sen. Stoltzfus, but his voting for this makes me shake my head. Senator Colburn voted no. The measure passed the Senate 33-13 but no House action was taken.

All I have to say is thank goodness it’s over. At least the state can’t pass any more bills that restrict my freedom and grant goodies to whomever is deemed the chosen few until January of 2007, where hopefully the makeup of the General Assembly is such that any bill vetoed by Governor Ehrlich (assuming his reelection of course) would have the veto stand. I’m not that crazily optimistic that the GOP will suddenly become Maryland’s majority party, but we need to start down that road at some point.

Otherwise we might be wishing to become part of a “greater Delaware” and see what adding the “red” Eastern Shore does to that blue state.