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Slot vote abruptly halted by republicans { February 18 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33613-2005Feb17.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33613-2005Feb17.html
Slots Vote Victim of Election Board Furor
Md. Senate GOP's Delay Tactic Assailed
By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 18, 2005; Page B01
Republicans in the Maryland Senate abruptly halted passage of a slots bill yesterday to call attention to their outrage over separate legislation that would tilt control of the state's election machinery from appointees of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) to Democratic officeholders.
The elections bill, which all 33 Democrats in the Senate are sponsoring, was crafted in response to the attempt by the State Board of Elections last fall to oust the state's longtime elections administrator, a Democrat. The effort was decried by legislative leaders and later halted by a judge.
Joseph M. Getty, Ehrlich's policy and legislative director, said Democrats are responding with "scorched-earth" tactics that he considers "ludicrous and abhorrent."
"They create an [administrator] for life that's a dictatorship," Getty said.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said Democrats are seeking only to "correct the wrongs perpetrated" by the GOP-led elections board last fall. The board gained the votes to oust Linda H. Lamone, the elections administrator, after Ehrlich appointed one of his Democratic supporters to a slot on the board reserved for Democrats.
"That was a shot across the bow that cannot be accepted," Miller said. "Whether this bill goes too far has not been determined."
The bill, which was the subject of a legislative hearing yesterday, would abolish the five-member elections board, which currently consists of three members of the governor's party and two from the opposing party, all appointed by the governor.
In its place, the bill calls for the creation of a 12-member advisory panel, eight of whom would be appointed by the administrator, and a commission of seven existing officeholders responsible for hiring and firing the administrator. If created today, only one of those seven slots, reserved for the secretary of state, would be occupied by a Republican.
Republicans have talked about removing Lamone, who was appointed in 1997 by Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D), since shortly after Ehrlich took office in 2003.
The elections administrator has far-reaching authority over local election boards and can play a pivotal role in resolving contested elections, such as Maryland's 1994 gubernatorial race, which was decided by fewer than 6,000 votes. Under current law, the administrator can be removed only for "incompetence, misconduct or other good cause."
Miller questioned GOP tactics of delaying passage of slots legislation -- Ehrlich's top priority -- to put the spotlight on an elections bill.
Miller granted the Republicans' request yesterday that a slots vote be delayed until today. But after the session, Miller said it was not clear when the legislation would be voted upon.
"There might be a vote tomorrow or maybe next week, I don't know," Miller said. "It could be sent back to committee. I'm not saying that's likely, but it's a 90-day session."
Miller, a major slots proponent, said he does not believe that the legislation is in jeopardy in his chamber. Its fate in the House of Delegates, where it has died each of the past two years, is far less certain.
Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Baltimore County), the minority whip, said members of his party were upset by an accelerated hearing schedule on the elections bill. A House panel held a hearing yesterday and a Senate panel plans to hear testimony today, a week earlier than initially scheduled.
Some opponents of the elections bill who planned to come to Annapolis next week will no longer be able to do so, Harris said.
"All of a sudden, we're seeing things get moved up," Harris said. "We're not getting consulted. . . . So we've said, 'Let's slow it down' " on the slots bill.
The elections bill was panned by a string of witnesses testifying yesterday before the House Ways and Means Committee.
"This is a cure worse than the disease," said James Browning, executive director of Common Cause/Maryland, a nonpartisan organization.
Browning said a less "radical" approach would be to adopt additional procedural safeguards for an elections administrator targeted for removal.
Several members of local boards of elections spoke out yesterday against the pending legislation, including Samuel L. Statland, a Democrat on the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
"We would like this system to remain as is," Statland said.
Gilles W. Burger, chairman of the state board, called the current system "a model of good government . . . based on a system of checks and balances in which the major parties have equal opportunity to implement election activities."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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