Maryland Democrats

David Sloan, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party for the last four years, said late Thursday that he is leaving that post. The announcement, made via email, comes just a month after Maryland Democrats scored some noteworthy successes in the November election. In addition to winning the state for President Obama with 62 percent of the vote, the party held on to the congressional seats held by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and its incumbent representatives while capturing the 6th District seat held by Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

If you're a liberal living in Maryland, there's been plenty of reason to smile lately. The Old Line State continues to beat a steady path toward leading a new vanguard of progressive policy and politics in the United States. Let's start with last November's elections. Actually, no: To understand why those elections mattered, let's back up two more years to the 2010 statewide elections. Nationally, the 2010 cycle was nothing short of a nightmare for liberals and Democrats. The Democrats lost the U.S. House and, if not for a few self-destructing Republican Senate candidates, would have lost both chambers of Congress.

Maryland has already issued driver's licenses to thousands of illegal immigrants, and Maryland Democrats want to continue this practice. But Maryland passed a law in 2009 to conform to the requirements of the Federal Real ID Act which disqualifies the use of licenses from states issuing them to illegal immigrants as proof of identity. The 2009 law discontinued the issuing of new drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and also prohibits license renewals to those who can't provide proof of legal residency after June 30, 2015.

A moment of silence, please, for the death of the combined reporting bill in the General Assembly. The corporate tax reform measure passed away suddenly last week, the result of a 7-6 vote by the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, which has developed a nasty habit of killing the bill annually. In lieu of flowers, supporters ask that angry letters be sent to lawmakers. It came as no surprise, of course, but that doesn't make the death of combined reporting any less frustrating.

Your recent editorial regarding voter ID laws ("The phantom menace of voter fraud," Feb. 27) rightly criticized the Republicans in the legislature for trying to win votes by tinkering with the voting process. The attempt is clumsy and obvious. They should learn from the Democrats who accomplish the same end much more deftly. They carved legislative and congressional districts in which the Republican votes will be counted but just won't count. There is more than one way to rig an election.

One of the biggest winners in Maryland Tuesday night was not technically on the ballot: the Democratic leadership in Annapolis. All four of the controversial ballot questions were about measures championed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved by the General Assembly, where Democrats hold the majority. And all four were affirmed by the voters. Those measures expand gambling, legalize same-sex marriage, allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants and create new congressional district boundaries.

It has come to this: Election-year tension over Maryland's budget predicament has grown so intense that Republicans and Democrats can't even agree on how to talk about the problem. The General Assembly's top fiscal leaders want Republican lawmakers to gather for an unusual meeting next week to discuss programs that could be reduced or eliminated. Weary of being criticized for irresponsible spending, House and Senate leaders want Republicans to outline exactly where to trim from the state's $13 billion general fund budget.

SOME MOURNED the loss of city-county cooperation. They feared an outbreak of racial or ethnic tension as blacks and whites or Jews and Gentiles struggled for representation. Others decried the outrageous interference of judges in the land of the politician. Most moaned about themselves. In fear and loathing, Maryland Democrats awoke 10 days ago to an altered world. They seemed as bewildered as Dorothy swept out of Kansas and not nearly so brave. They'd been scooped by a judicial tornado and dropped down in alien territory.

MARYLAND Democrats had better hold their applause. Lurking behind Bill Clinton's landslide in the Free State last week were some disturbing numbers.Yes, Mr. Clinton took Maryland by 272,000 votes. But he lost 15 of 24 subdivisions. Combine Bob Dole's totals with Ross Perot's and after absentee ballots are counted it's likely Mr. Clinton will have won only three subdivisions -- Baltimore City, Prince George's County and Montgomery County.Sound familiar? It looks like a carbon copy of 1992 -- and similar in many respects to 1994.

Maryland Democrats, worried that gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey has been too successful in presenting herself as a moderate Republican, denounced her record on environmental issues yesterday.The Annapolis news conference was the first of three the state party plans to use to examine Sauerbrey's voting record in the House of Delegates, promised Peter Krauser, chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party. State Democrats also will issue "report cards" for her positions on education and gun-control issues over the next eight weeks.

Maryland has already issued driver's licenses to thousands of illegal immigrants, and Maryland Democrats want to continue this practice. But Maryland passed a law in 2009 to conform to the requirements of the Federal Real ID Act which disqualifies the use of licenses from states issuing them to illegal immigrants as proof of identity. The 2009 law discontinued the issuing of new drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and also prohibits license renewals to those who can't provide proof of legal residency after June 30, 2015.

Maryland Democrats must be oblivious to the fact that people will buy gas where it is the least expensive ("Democratic plan raises gas tax," March 5). People, including truckers, going North or South on Interstate 95 will purchase fuel in either Delaware or Virginia avoiding paying more if Maryland is more expensive. Those who live close to or work in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware or D.C. will purchase their fuel there. How much fuel revenue will be lost by increasing the price with taxes?

Last week, top Maryland Democrats announced their intention to make it more difficult to put statewide policy referenda on the ballot. The move is a clear response to Republicans' success last year in putting to referendum policy questions in the hope of achieving victories the GOP couldn't win in the legislature. The Republicans' ballot plans backfired, most notably the surprising approval by voters of same-sex marriage. But the Democrats, who dominate state politics thanks to large legislative majorities, took notice of the potential threat to their legislative monopoly.

In an unexpected move that could have significant implications for Maryland, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski will be named the first female chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The Baltimore native and Maryland Democrat, who had been the most senior member of the U.S. Senate without a committee gavel, was suddenly in line to head the influential spending panel following behind-the-scenes maneuvering for chairmanships that played out after the death Monday of its former chairman, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

David Sloan, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party for the last four years, said late Thursday that he is leaving that post. The announcement, made via email, comes just a month after Maryland Democrats scored some noteworthy successes in the November election. In addition to winning the state for President Obama with 62 percent of the vote, the party held on to the congressional seats held by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and its incumbent representatives while capturing the 6th District seat held by Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

President Barack Obama no longer needs Gov. Martin O'Malley as a top campaign surrogate, and the Democratic Governors Association is set to elect someone else as its chairman on Monday when the group meets in Los Angeles. But neither development is likely to push Maryland's governor off the national stage. "Once you achieve a certain stature, which I believe O'Malley has, then you are going to remain a sought-after speaker, surrogate, television guest," said Anita Dunn, a national political consultant who was an adviser to the Obama campaign.

IF REPUBLICAN David Duke hopes to retrace Democrat George Wallace's footsteps across Maryland, he picked the right state but the wrong party.Going strictly by the numbers, Duke the kleagle, the newly sanitized Christian, hasn't got a shot as a Republican.Although there are Duke loonies among Maryland Republicans, most of them are mainstream, establishment and middlebrow white-bread types who like to discuss the intricacies of economic policy.But working-class Democrats would be more likely to resonate with Duke's send-'em-a-message politics of welfare reform, urban crime, affirmative action and racial preference programs.

Once bitter adversaries, Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and former Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs are on the same team supporting presidential candidate Bill Bradley. Schaefer joined a list yesterday of Maryland Democratic officials who have endorsed Bradley in his run against Vice President Al Gore. "I have been involved in public service for four decades, and rarely have I met someone with the integrity, honesty and character of Bill Bradley," Schaefer said in a statement released by the Bradley campaign.

One of the biggest winners in Maryland Tuesday night was not technically on the ballot: the Democratic leadership in Annapolis. All four of the controversial ballot questions were about measures championed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved by the General Assembly, where Democrats hold the majority. And all four were affirmed by the voters. Those measures expand gambling, legalize same-sex marriage, allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants and create new congressional district boundaries.

Maryland's congressional maps are a product of the politicians, for the politicians, by the politicians. They were born of the two competing desires of the state's Democratic Party bosses: to give incumbent Democrats the precincts they want to make their re-election efforts easier, and to put one of the state's two Republican-held congressional seats at risk. They achieved their goals - Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett is facing his first serious challenge in years, and none of the incumbent Democrats is breaking a sweat.