In his inaugural address, his budget and his first State of the State speech, Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley showed a desire to proceed deliberatively and build consensus on how to tackle problems such as the budget, education and the environment.
But Democrats in the legislature -- used to acting on their own during Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term -- are not waiting for O'Malley to take the lead.
Legislators are the ones pushing efforts to ban smoking in bars, abolish the death penalty and establish strict pollution limits for cars -- initiatives that have been adopted in more liberal states. In the cases of the car legislation and the death penalty, the governor has signed on to the legislature's initiatives, not the other way around.
And lawmakers are also working to tackle some of the most complicated issues the state faces. Rather than following O'Malley's lead, the powerful heads of standing committees in the state Senate and House of Delegates are developing long-range plans to cut by half the number of Marylanders without health insurance, revamp the state's tax structure and reconsider electricity deregulation.
"I think what has happened over the last four years is that because there were not specific, well-thought-out policies from the executive branch, the legislature stepped into the vacuum," said former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat.
Republicans also say the legislature became more activist under Ehrlich -- though they believe that some measures, such as an increase in the minimum wage and a requirement that Wal-Mart pay more for health care, were wedge issues tailored to the election, not leadership.
Many in Annapolis expect O'Malley to take more of a role in setting the agenda once he acclimates himself. Aides say he is intent on devoting this session to ideas that have the support of a broad consensus to demonstrate to voters his ability to get things done. More divisive policies will come later, after he has had time to sell them to the public, his aides say.
For now, though, legislators are driving the agenda.
It was House Speaker Michael E. Busch, not the governor, who set the goal for reducing the number of uninsured. Del. Peter A. Hammen, the Baltimore Democrat who is chairman of the Health and Government Operations Committee, said he "assembled a number of policy wonks" last summer to start working on a comprehensive bill to improve health care access.
