Senate

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.

In less than five minutes, Tom Kiefaber said, he was left with nothing. "They've taken my home, my principal residence. They've taken my job," Kiefaber, the one-time owner and operator of Baltimore's storied Senator Theatre , lamented Thursday morning. He was standing feet from the steps of the Baltimore County courthouse, where minutes earlier his home and 8 acres on York Road in Sparks had been auctioned off. "My mission at this point is to retrieve my home from this corrupt nonsense," he said.

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.

The Maryland Senate passed an income tax increase and a shift of some of the cost of teacher pensions to the counties Tuesday, averting more than $500 million in so-called Doomsday budget cuts that otherwise would have taken effect July 1. On the second day of what is expected to be a three-day special session, the Senate voted 27-19 for the $264 million  tax  package, with the chamber's 12 Republicans and 7 Democrats opposed. The vote on the budget companion measure that includes the teacher pension shift was 33-13.

"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.

What does it take to get a bribery conviction in Maryland? State Sen. Ulysses Currie, who took a quarter-million dollars from a grocery store chain to advocate on its behalf, and who told no one about the arrangement, was just found not guilty on several counts of bribery by a federal jury in Baltimore. Apparently, corrupt public officials need not take paper bags of cash under the table anymore; they can just get their lucre by direct deposit. If this is to become the new standard in Maryland, a lot of lobbyists are about to be out of a job. Why bother hiring them when corporations can simply put lawmakers on the payroll?

SEVEN YEARS AGO, I attended the inaugural symposium of the Carter Presidential Center of Emory University in Atlanta. It was called ''A Middle East Consultation,'' a mundane title that in no way captured the vigorous, illuminating dialogue that it spurred between various diplomats, academics and other pooh-bahs from this country and abroad.The very fact that the affair was co-chaired by two former living presidents -- Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford -- gave it a certain uniqueness and stature that set it apart from the run-of-the-mill, think-tank colloquies where pedagogues and pundits regularly suck their thumbs and furrow their brows over global agendas.

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.

After beating back a series of challenges in the House of Delegates, lawmakers are poised to give final approval Wednesday to a plan to raise the state income tax to fund schools, police and Medicaid. The legislation, introduced Monday by Gov. Martin O'Malley and backed by the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, would subject top-earning Marylanders to the seventh-highest income tax rate in the country, according to the National Tax Foundation. Their rate now ranks 10th. The measure also would raise taxes on some tobacco products and fees on some state transactions.

The tea party's waning impact on the country's politics has been continuously reported since the movement's success in the 2010 elections. Well, the tea party has not gone away. In Indiana's primary election May 8, liberal Republican Senator Richard Lugar was beaten handily after 35 years in office by conservative rival Richard Mourdock, who was backed by the tea party ("GOP Senate stalwart falls," May 9). The liberal media and their supporters seem to believe that if they keep reporting tea party's death, it will simply go away.

The hit men of the tea party can carve another notch in their collective gun belts this week with the ouster of Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Senate. Whatever mojo the conservative firebrands had in the 2010 GOP primaries, when they ousted party moderates right and left, is apparently still working for them. Longtime incumbents are not easily toppled, but Mr. Lugar's vulnerabilities were well-documented prior to Tuesday's Indiana primary: The six-term senator is 80 years old, has lived in Northern Virginia for decades (despite using a 1970s-era address for voting purposes)

Democratic members of the Maryland Senate  caucused Wednesday morning  in Annapolis, apparently summoned by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller to discuss the prospects for special sessions of the General Assembly this year. More than half the members of the Senate's majority party got together at 8 a.m. in the James Senate Office Building. Senators said they expect Miller to take soundings on how much support he could count on for plans to raise income taxes to avert hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has asked members of his Democratic caucus to set aside May 14 and 15 for what he hopes will be a two-days-and-out special session to revive a tax increase bill that died the last night of the regular session and avert more than $500 million in cuts to state programs. Miller put the senators on notice  they can expect to be back in Annapolis those days at a caucus of the chamber's majority Democrats Wednesday morning. The Senate president emphasized that the expected special session this month would deal with budget issues only -- and not with the matter of casino gambling, which contributed to the turmoil of the last days of the session.

Two Baltimore County senators, unhappy with their new districts under the governor's General Assembly redistricting plan, have sued to have the map overturned, contending that it gives Baltimore City extra representation at the expense of the county. Sens. Delores Kelley and James Brochin, both Democrats, asked the Maryland Court of Appeals to invalidate the redistricting plan, which automatically took effect this year when the legislature did not move to replace Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan with one of its own. The plan is especially disadvantageous for Brochin, whose district would become heavily Republican under the plan devised by O'Malley and legislative leaders.

SHOULD THE inspiration strike to tune into the Senate's yakathon on judicial nominations, look carefully for strings manipulating lawmakers as they speak. So thoroughly have outside interest groups that fuel political campaigns taken control of the body, few senators still seem to have a will of their own. This puppet show can best be viewed in the debate over prospective judges, where the shots are called by extremist groups on both sides of the ideological spectrum - mostly over the issue of abortion.

The United States Senate has voted itself a $23,200 pay raise in exchange for banning the thousands of dollars in outside speaking fees that most members pocket each year. Almost certain to become law, the raise would close the gap between the $101,900 that senators now pay themselves and the $125,100 paid to the 435 members of the House.The Evening Sun wants to know whether you approve of the pay raise for the senators.The call is local and must be made from a tone phone. The SUNDIAL number is 783-1800 or, in Anne Arundel County, 268-7736.

The historic Senator Theatre closed Thursday to begin renovations, said an operator of the movie house, which opened on York Road in 1939. The theater will be closed for six-to-nine months, said James "Buzz" Cusack, who runs the North Baltimore landmark with his daughter, Kathleen Lyon. When it reopens, the building will house a restaurant and three new theaters as well as the original auditorium, he said. The renovations will cost more than $3 million, Cusack said.