NEWS
By C. Fraser Smith | November 4, 2007
Gov. Martin O'Malley descended the elegant marble staircase of Maryland's State House last week to repeat his administration's insistence that 83 percent of taxpayers will pay no more under his wide-raging tax reform plan than they do now. No one, he said during his eight-minute speech to the General Assembly, then convening in special session, had laid a glove on his claim. No one, in other words, had shown that his numbers were wrong, a snare and delusion to rally support. Of course, the governor and the legislators he addressed knew it would be a tough sell whatever the numbers show.
NEWS
By Thomas W. Waldron | March 19, 1999
A year after ethics violations drove two legislators from office, the Senate and House of Delegates approved a sweeping reform of Maryland ethics laws yesterday, laying the groundwork for final General Assembly passage in the next few weeks.The bill, the first major revision of the ethics laws in 20 years, would for the first time prohibit senators and delegates from voting on legislation in which they have a direct financial interest and ban them from dining out on lobbyists' tabs.The measure would also restrict legislators' ability to take jobs with state or local government, prohibit them from hitting up lobbyists for contributions to their favorite charities and give the Assembly's ethics committee subpoena power to investigate complaints.
TOPIC
By Rick Rockwell and Celina Barrios-Ponce | September 19, 1999
ON A STREET corner in the sleepy provincial capital of Guanare, a man tries to explain Venezuela by using a fresh pastry. From the outside, "it looks big and filled with promise," he says, before biting off a corner. "But look inside. It's less than half-filled." He pokes at the creamy cheese filling. "We expect more."The man whom Venezuelans expect to supply the missing cheese and everything else a country could want is President Hugo Chavez. Since he took office after running as an independent in December's elections, Chavez has promised to break the stranglehold of Venezuela's corrupt two-party system.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | October 17, 1999
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- In the sharpest clash of their three-week deployment in East Timor, Australian troops reported yesterday that they were ambushed and pinned down by armed men and that they killed three of their attackers before being rescued by helicopter.The firefight was a sign of increasing conflicts in the remote territory as the Indonesian National Assembly prepares to vote on whether to accept East Timor's decision six weeks ago to break away and become an independent nation.The mood in the assembly is defiant, defensive and sentimental about the loss of the former Portuguese colony, which Indonesia invaded in 1975 and annexed as its 27th province.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | April 18, 1999
PIEDMONT, Calif. -- When fellow Green Party members persuaded Audie Bock to run for the state Assembly last December, they told her she had a choice. She could run a symbolic campaign by putting her name on the ballot -- or she could campaign seriously."
NEWS
By Thomas W. Waldron | November 30, 1999
WHILE THE MARYLAND political world has focused on the aggressive early fund-raising by potential gubernatorial candidates in 2002, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has also been busy.Although barred from running for re-election, the governor has raised $400,000 this year, money he has said he needs to keep his political options open and advance his "progressive" agenda.So who would give to a lame-duck governor?Lots of people, it turns out, nearly all of them with a manifest reason for doing so.As is often the case in Maryland Democratic politics, the list begins with Baltimore attorney Peter G. Angelos, majority owner of the Orioles.
NEWS
By C. Fraser Smith and Thomas W. Waldron | January 24, 1999
Maryland's cadre of highly skilled lobbyists has become a third legislative house, an unofficial branch of state government run by corporate gunslingers who offer cradle-to-grave political services to lawmakers.Lobbyists help to elect the men and women who vote on their clients' interests. They write legislation, prepare testimony and serve on unofficial committees formed by General Assembly leaders at moments of crisis to forge consensus.They facilitate all of that with a multitude of favors and legislative comforts: lavish receptions, expensive tickets to sporting events, ice cream socials and, most valuable of all, expert information.
NEWS
April 13, 1999
The WinnersBaltimoreA bit of political engineering now allows former congressman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to run for mayor of the city. His supporters persuaded the Assembly to cut the residency requirement for mayoral candidates from a year to six months.Business and utilitiesThey had their way in a complex deregulation bill, including the benefit of the doubt about whether -- and how much -- market competition will help Maryland consumers. Legislators admitted they didn't know whether consumers would be helped.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | September 5, 1999
CARACAS, Venezuela -- On the television screen in Jorge Navarro Diaz's small restaurant, a member of Venezuela's shuttered Congress was complaining that President Hugo Chavez had breached the rule of law and was leading the country into a dictatorship. But Navarro wasn't buying that argument."What those politicians need to do is shut their mouths, get the hell out of the way and let the constitutional assembly do its work," he snapped. "For 40 years, all they have done is rip off this country, and now that we finally have somebody trying to put things right, they are trying to block what needs to be done just to save their own skins."
NEWS
By C. Fraser Smith | October 3, 1999
BY VIRTUE of their talents and a well-tended synergy, lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano and legislator Larry Young rose to the top of their professions. Both became power centers, force fields of influence and action.Even as they progressed, though, friends and colleagues wondered if they weren't heading for calamity. They began to play along the edges -- confident they could avoid a fall.Bereano was the knowledgeable former staff man who had helped to pass important state laws -- the ethics law and the law providing for a special prosecutor, for example.