Senate

The Maryland Senate passed Gov. Martin O'Malley's gambling expansion bill on a 28-14 vote Friday, sending the legislation to a more closely divided House of Delegates for a decision when the the General Assembly's special session continues into a second week Monday. Approval came in the early evening after senators spent much of the afternoon debating and defeating amendments proposed by Republicans and a conservative Democrat opponent of the key provision allowing a casino in Prince George's County.

Del. Guy Guzzone, a Columbia Democrat, announced Thursday that he will run for Sen. Jim Robey's open Senate seat in 2014. "Join with me, together we're going to continue to do good things for this community and for the state," Guzzone told a crowd of approximately 250 supporters inside the Ridgely's Run Community Center in Jessup. Guzzone's annual pizza party fundraiser was attended by notable politicians such as Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, along with numerous state delegates and county council members.

Charles McC. Mathias Jr., Maryland's liberal Republican who served three terms in the U.S. Senate, where he gained enduring bipartisan respect for his conscientious approach to controversial legislation, died Monday from complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 87. Born in Frederick, Mr. Mathias retired from the Senate in 1986, ending a career on Capitol Hill that began with his election to the House of Representatives in 1960. He was elected to the Senate in 1968. Called a "maverick" Republican by some, he was a consistent supporter of organized labor, an occasional dove on defense issues and an early advocate of revitalizing the Chesapeake Bay when that was not a significant issue.

The marble hallway trod for centuries by Maryland politicians will host perhaps its most sinister character when actor Kevin Spacey arrives for work next week. Television crews from the political thriller "House of Cards" began transforming Maryland's State House into the backdrop for scenes this week, remaking the House of Delegates chamber to resemble that of the U.S. Senate. Production will take over the State House on Monday and Tuesday, closing the more than 230-year-old building to the public during filming of the Netflix drama, which stars Spacey as scheming Majority Whip Francis Underwood.

The Senate approved Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed expansion of early voting Monday night, sending the legislation to the House of Delegates. Senators voted 35-12, with most Republicans opposed, to increase the number of days and hours that early voting centers will remain open. The bill would increase the number of early voting days from six to eight starting in 2014. The hours of voting would be longer in presidential election years. O'Malley's proposal follows a presidential election that saw voters waiting in line for hours at the limited number of early voting sites in each county.

The ouster of a half-dozen state Senate incumbents in this week's primary elections is likely to deepen the partisan divide in Annapolis, analysts said, nudging the Democratic majority to the left and the Republican minority to the right. On the Democratic side, Local 1199 of the progressive Service Employees International Union helped to replace four incumbent senators, including George Della of Baltimore, with challengers seen as more liberal. On the Republican side, conservatives cheered the election of conservative House Minority Whip Christopher Shank of Washington County over moderate Sen. Don Munson.

"30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin broke down the difference between the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate the other night on David Letterman's show.  His take?  The House = "Jungle" The Senate = "Poshest golf club"  Seriously, Baldwin's impression of the genteel southern gentlemen who inhabit the Senate is quite funny. Watch below:     

The state Senate has just one bill on its agenda Wednesday: the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Act. "We've cleared the desk," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller told senators Tuesday morning. "We have nothing else to do tomorrow aside from that bill. " Debate on the contentious measure to allow same-sex couples to marry is expected to run into Wednesday evening and carry over to Thursday. Miller has told senators to clear their weekend schedules in case an expected filibuster extends into Saturday.

In your recent editorial on Maryland and campaign finance reform you state that in addition to the limited liability corporation (LLC) loophole, there are others sorely in need of attention ("A boost for campaign finance reform" Feb. 17). We very much appreciate Gov. Martin O'Malley's support of this bill, just as we appreciate the report done by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler on several needed campaign finance reforms. What distinguishes this major loophole from the others, and what you would not know from reading the attorney general's report, is legislation to eliminate it has passed the House of Delegates six times in the past 10 years.

Arguing that the two-party system is corrupt, a Montgomery County businessman is pouring his own money into an independent bid for the U.S. Senate from Maryland. Rob Sobhani, 52, who announced his candidacy this month, is the first candidate to buy television ads in the general election race for the seat now held by Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat. The spots have been aired heavily in Baltimore and Washington. "Our politics is broken," Sobhani, a political economist and energy entrepreneur from Potomac, says in one 30-second spot.

Who is the face of American liberalism? Who is the face of American conservatism? In Washington politics and on social media these days, the king and queen of "base" politics are two freshman U.S senators — Texas' Ted Cruz for conservatives and Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren for liberals. The fast rise of these two politicians, both less than one year into their respective terms, is directly tied to the nation's harsh liberal-conservative divide. Studies show political polarization in Congress is now the highest since Reconstruction.

The Sun has developed a bad case of selective memory when it comes to judicial nominations ("Judicial profiling," June 5). When President George W. Bush nominated candidates for judgeships during the years that Republicans controlled the Senate, the Harry Reid-led Democrats, for the first time in history, filibustered several of them, including a Hispanic nominee for the same D.C. Court of Appeals they are complaining about today. There was no cry of outrage from The Sun then about this shameful practice, nor was there any attempt by The Sun to play the race card, despite compelling evidence that the filibuster was done solely to prevent Mr. Bush from appointing a Hispanic to a high-profile judgeship.

Two Republican members of the Maryland Senate will announce their plans over the next few days to leave the legislature and run for the top executive positions in their home counties. Sen. Barry Glassman plans to announce his bid for Harford County executive Saturday in Havre de Grace. Senator Allan Kittleman will kick off his campaign for Howard County executive Tuesday in Columbia. Glassman, 51, would succeed David R. Craig, who announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola, who was elected to the Maryland Senate in 2002 as its youngest member and appeared destined for higher office, said Thursday that he is leaving the General Assembly to return to private life. Garagiola, a Montgomery County Democrat, said his resignation will take effect Sept. 1. Under Maryland's Constitution, he will be replaced by a candidate chosen by his party's local central committee. Now 40, Garagiola was 30 when he defeated the last Republican senator to represent increasingly Democratic Montgomery County.

Privacy advocates expressed outrage Thursday over revelations that the National Security Agency has been collecting telephone records of virtually every phone call made in the United States for seven years, but the Obama administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers defended the program as both legal and necessary. Top House and Senate lawmakers who oversee the NSA, which has its headquarters at Fort Meade, said they had been briefed regularly on the domestic surveillance operation and dismissed concerns that the collection of phone logs was overly intrusive.

It was 21 years ago last month that Harvard-educated attorney Robert Wilkins was traveling in a car pulled over for going 5 mph over the posted speed limit on Interstate 68 in Western Maryland. But rather than receive a ticket, the group, all African-American and all members of the same family, were forced to stand by the road while their vehicle was searched and a drug-sniffing dog summoned to the scene. They had been returning from a relative's funeral, and the fruitless investigation caused them to be detained for 45 minutes.

Taking a hard line on the owner's responsibility for a pet's behavior, the state Senate on Thursday unanimously passed its version of a bill intended to reverse a court decision declaring pit bulls an inherently dangerous breed. Senate passage sets up a likely conflict with the House, which has taken a significantly different approach to the issue of a dog owner's liability for bites. Both versions of the bill set the same rules for all breeds, without singling out pit bulls, but the two chambers set different standards for a dog owner to avoid liability when a pet bites someone.

More out of fear than conviction, the Senate postponed its scheduled vote yesterday evening on Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. It did so mainly for the sake of appearances, not in hope that there will be any real clarification of Professor Anita Hall's charge that Judge Thomas harassed her sexually some years ago -- a charge he denies.The Senate made its decision, as Sen. John Kerry, D.-Mass., among others, said in floor debate, because otherwise many Americans, especially women for obvious reasons, would believe the Senate did not take complaints of this sort seriously.

Who doesn't admire former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole? Wounded World War II veteran, part-time comedian (Mr. Dole once described a meeting of former presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon as "see no evil, hear no evil -- and evil"), former presidential candidate and all-around decent man, Mr. Dole was a part of government for much of his life. Therein lies the problem for some who stay in politics and government so long that it is easy to lose perspective and think cutting deals is more important than winning the argument.

Recently, The Sun drew attention to the rise of poverty and hunger in our region ("Poor people in Balto.'s suburbs outnumber those in city," May 21) while Maryland's senators turned their backs on those who need help buying food. I was saddened and disappointed by the failure of U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin to do the right thing for our at-risk neighbors and friends. Our senators voted against the farm bill amendment that would have restored the $4 billion in cuts to the food stamp program, or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)