Delegation

Del. Jolene Ivey was elected to chair the all-Democratic Prince George's County House delegation Wednesday, succeeding Del. Melony Griffith. Ivey, 51. was first elected in 2007 and had previously served as second vice-chair. The Prince George's delegation is the House's second-largest, with 23 members, and often plays a pivotal role in close votes. Griffith, 49, has served two two-year terms as delegation chief. The delegation has a tradition of limiting the chairmanship to two terms.

Del. Steve Schuh was elected Friday to chair the Anne Arundel County delegation to the General Assembly. Schuh, a Republican from Gibson Island who is also a candidate for county executive, takes over from Del. Nic Kipke, a Pasadena Republican. Kipke was named House minority leader.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake took her case for cutting a deal that will bring table games to a planned downtown casino to the city's House delegation last night, telling lawmakers the legislation expected to be considered in a special session next week will put cash-strapped Baltimore on the path to increased revenue. Meeting with the all-Democratic delegation at the recreation department headquarters at Druid Hill Park, the mayor urged the lawmakers to put aside their desire to use what is expected to be a closely contested vote for maximum leverage.  But she asked them to also consider the $45-$50 million in additional revenue the city expects to gain each year if table games are approved.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

A spokesman for the developer of the Maryland Live Casino received a warm reception from a hometown crowd Thursday morning when he appeared before the Anne Arundel County legislative delegation to warn of grave damage to the Arundel Mills facility if Gov.Martin O'Malley's propoed gambling expansion legislation goes through the General Assembly unchanged. Cordish Cos.executive Joe Weinberg told county senators and delegates that the developer made its original bid to build its giant slots-only casino based on the assumption that there would be no competition from a rival inPrince George's County.

Del. Steve Schuh was elected Friday to chair the Anne Arundel County delegation to the General Assembly. Schuh, a Republican from Gibson Island who is also a candidate for county executive, takes over from Del. Nic Kipke, a Pasadena Republican. Kipke was named House minority leader.

Baltimore members of the House of Delegates will vote unanimously against any expansion of gambling in Maryland unless at least three conditions are met, delegation chairman Curtis Anderson said Monday morning as the General Assembly rushed toward what could either be adjournment or overtime. Anderson said the 18 city delegates would not vote for the gambling expansion sought by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller unless: 1.  The budget conference restores $2.5 million the Senate stripped from the capital budget for expansion of the Baltimore Convention Center.

Baltimore County's House and Senate delegations have voted to support County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's push to raise liquor and business license fees. Most of the fees have not been changed in more than 40 years. Kamenetz has described the increases as modest, affecting chain stores, parking garage operators, dry cleaners, restaurant owners and other businesses. State officials said they worked out a compromise with Kamenetz that lowered the increases and would not give the county authority to adjust the rates without further General Assembly approval.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Maryland's delegation to the Republican National Convention doesn't include any headline speakers, but there is a nationally recognized figure within its ranks: Anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist. Norquist, the founder of Americans for Tax Reform, is staying at the same Tampa hotel as the 37 delegates, 34 alternates and party guests this week. Norquist, who lives in Washington, reached out to Maryland Republican leaders months ago to request four rooms from their hotel block.

The Anne Arundel County delegation to the General Assembly has voted to approve a House bill that would transform the county's school board from its current nine-member, all-appointed model to a body with five elected and four appointed members. Delegate Steve Schuh, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill with Republican delegate Tony McConkey, said the bill calls for five seats elected by district, three at-large seats and one student board member seat. Schuh said the measure would be phased in over time as current board members' tenures lapse.

State Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. of Pasadena, who was involved in a powerboat crash last August that injured him and several others, will plead guilty Tuesday in Annapolis District Court to operating a boat while drunk — part of plea deal that his attorney said includes prosecutors not seeking a jail sentence. "I truly regret the incident of Aug. 22 of last year," said Dwyer, 55, at a Monday news conference in Glen Burnie. The collision of his boat with another vessel injured Dwyer — he suffered a broken foot and neck injuries — and six others, including four children, on the other boat.

Editor: Regarding Gov. Martin O'Malley's Gift List: O'Malley's fans in the press and media have proclaimed the governor has had another successful session.  Let us review the gifts that O'Malley has provided for his fellow Marylanders during the past six years: ·       Gas tax hike; ·       Sales tax hike; ·       Alcohol sales tax hike; ·       Rain tax; ·       Flush tax Increase; ...

Isaiah Dixon Jr., a jazz fan, world traveler and four-term state delegate from Baltimore City whose accomplishments included introducing a bill that made cross burnings a felony in Maryland, died of heart failure April 26 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 90. "He took his position very seriously," said Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway, a longtime friend who served two terms alongside Mr. Dixon in the General Assembly. "He thought that he needed to make a difference, and he tried.

Tiffany Alston, the former delegate from Prince George's County who was booted from the General Assembly last year, was disbarred Thursday. She consented to losing her license to practice law for reasons unrelated to receiving probation before judgment in criminal cases involving theft and misconduct. Last year, she was the subject of an indefinite suspension of her law license. According to the Court of Appeals order, she expressed her intent in April to disbarment. She was ordered to pay more than $7,500 to former clients.

A Northeast Baltimore community leader said Wednesday he plans to step down from the city's Board of Elections to run for a state delegate seat. Cory McCray, 30, who lives in Overlea, said he plans to run for the 45th District legislative seat formerly held by Del. Hattie Harrison. In February, Nina R. Harper, 60, was sworn in to succeed Harrison, a Democrat who died Jan. 28 at 84 after nearly 40 years in office. Harper, the executive director of the Oliver Economic Development Corp., was chosen as Harrison's replacement by Baltimore's Democratic State Central Committee and was automatically appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley under the state Constitution.

Del. Ron George, a Republican who operates a jewelry store almost under the shadow of the State House, will go for the political gold as he makes a run for governor in 2014. George, who represents Anne Arundel County, confirmed Tuesday that he has made up his mind to enter the Republican primary race. The two-term lawmaker, who is 59, becomes the second member of the House to signal an intention to run for goveror next year, when Gov. Martin O'Malley cannot run because of term limits.

Maryland Republicans converge on Tampa this week to cast their ballots for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and get energized for the November election against President Barack Obama. "There's just a huge enthusiasm for the Romney-Ryan team, and we're glad to be a part of that," said state Del. Kathy Szeliga, a member of the Maryland delegation to the Republican National Convention. "Even though it's very tough for Romney to get elected here in Maryland, we feel like across the country his message is right: 'It's the economy, and we're the party that's going to turn it around.'" As Szeliga notes, the GOP ticket is likely to be a tough sell in Maryland.

The culmination of the Carroll County Redistricting Committee's three months of deliberation and public input will be presented to the county's delegation to Annapolis on Dec. 13 as part of legislators' annual review of pending issues for the upcoming General Assembly session. But the committee's recommendation - a 4-3 vote by members calling for a change in district lines for the five county commissioner districts - may already be in question, especially since the chairman of the redistricting panel was among those voting against it. The delegation has the final word on choosing the county's five-commissioner-district map, which is being updated this year based on new population data from the 2010 census.

Maryland's U.S. House delegation met Wednesday with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to keep pressure on the agency to fix problems at the troubled Baltimore office and follow up on promises for improvement. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Southern Maryland Democrat who is House minority whip, said Maryland veterans should call their congressmen to report troubles with the regional office, which has one of the nation's highest error rates and largest percentages of backlogged cases.

Three days after the General Assembly ended its 2013 legislative session, there's already a call to bring lawmakers back to Annapolis for what would be their fourth special session in a two-year span. Del. Benjamin F. Kramer, a Montgomery County Democrat, wrote Gov. Martin O'Malley Thursday asking him to call a special session to resolve the issue of how to deal with an unpopular Court of Appeals ruling that pit bulls were "inherently dangerous" and that their owners and their owners' landlords could be held to a standard of "strict liability" when one of the animals bites a person.