Rare Special Session Has Its Mysteries and Its Charms

Regular General Assembly sessions — except when they are interrupted by the plague — have a certain common rhythm to them.

But special sessions are a different matter. They don’t call them special for nothing.

About an hour and a half before the General Assembly was scheduled to gavel in for its first special session in over nine years, about a dozen advocates and lobbyists were standing outside the State House on Lawyers Mall. Supporters of legislation to provide paid family medical leave for Marylanders — which won’t come up until the regular January 2022 session — were preparing to hand out coffee and muffins to lawmakers as they hurried to their 10 a.m. floor sessions.

Leonard L. Lucchi of the firm O’Malley Miles Nylen & Gilmore used an observation from the notorious bank robber Willie Sutton to describe lobbyists’ reflexive habit of standing outside the State House to greet lawmakers as they’re passing by.

“Why do I rob banks?” Sutton once famously said. “Because that’s where the money is.”

Advocates for paid family leave are hoping Democratic legislative leaders add a fourth “C” to their list of top priorities for the 2022 session: cannabis, climate, choice and…care. The coffee and muffins were part of their persuasion campaign.

“They know we’re here,” said Clinton Macsherry, director of public policy for the Maryland Family Network. “They see us. They hear us.”

But January seems like a long way off. The legislature is meeting this week to adopt a congressional map that will be used for the 2022 election and the decade to come, to consider whether to override two dozen of Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s vetoes from the prior legislative session, and to elect a new state treasurer.

The redistricting is the sexiest thing on the agenda, and it’s attracting a considerable amount of publicity — even national attention. But in an interview, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) wanted to emphasize the potent policy implications of the veto override votes, some of which started taking place Monday.

“We are really moving some big policies forward, particularly around protecting the middle class,” he said. “…I know we’re talking a lot about redistricting, but there are a lot of policies that are going to be taken through the finish line this week and I think it’s important that those are part of the larger story.”

Hogan is hoping that lawmakers this week consider two emergency anti-crime bills that he is proposing. But the chances of that happening are slim to nil.

The Senate did read Hogan’s bills across the desk Monday morning, and Ferguson said they would be assigned to the appropriate committee. But the House didn’t even bother with that formality.

‘I have a cozy little nook’ 

Even with a fairly limited agenda, there is a measure of uncertainty and confusion around this special session. It follows a session in 2020 that was cut short by COVID-19 and a 2021 session that was dominated by operational changes and coronavirus protocols. Some of those protocols remain, while others are slowly being dispensed with.

On the Senate floor, Ferguson joked that everyone was missing the “Sena-pods,” the plexiglass and wood structures that surrounded each senator’s desk during the regular session earlier this year.

“It’s pretty remarkable to think what’s happened since April when we left and where we are today,” he said. “It’s certainly been an ongoing experience, extraordinary in every way. We have seen ups and downs. We have seen personal losses, we have seen victories. …And through all of it, the work has not stopped. It has not stopped for a single day. Because this is one of those once-in-a-hundred-year moments when the job of public service is more important than ever.”

In the House of Delegates, the morning quorum call was held open for several minutes, as many lawmakers were delayed by a multi-vehicle crash that snarled traffic on Interstate 97 heading into Annapolis.

With the addition of four new delegates during the interim, plus new assignments for certain members, as well as the re-merging of the chamber after half of the members sat in a temporary annex across the street earlier this year, several lawmakers were spotted referring to a seating chart to find their desks on the House floor.

“If you don’t know where you’re seated, see the sergeant-at-arms,” Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) announced.

Jones, in a bright yellow blazer, at times pointed lawmakers to their new seats.

Some other lawmakers were moving into new offices and getting used to new roles.

“Can’t you see our smiles?” Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) said as she and Del. Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Anne Arundel) walked from the State House to their offices following the morning House session.

Kipke and Szeliga were, respectively, House minority leader and minority whip for seven years, before giving up the jobs in the spring. Now, the new minority leader, Del. Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany), and minority whip, Del. Christopher T. Adams (R-Eastern Shore), share a suite of offices reserved for Republican leadership.

“I have a cozy little nook,” Szeliga told Kipke as she went to inspect his new office, which is down a corridor where several other Anne Arundel delegates have their office spaces.

In an interview, Kipke said he was relieved to have given up the leadership post.

“I had an enormous amount of stress all the time,” he said. “Now I can dedicate more time to my family and my district.” Not only that, his new corner office has a patio.

During a lull in the House floor action Monday evening, as lawmakers were preparing to consider several vetoed bills, Del. Mark N. Fisher (R-Calvert) rose to pay tribute to the new GOP leaders — “my good friend, the gentleman from the Eastern Shore” (Adams) and “my good friend, the gentleman from West Virginia (Buckel).” That was an arch reference to a letter Buckel and other lawmakers from Maryland’s westernmost legislative district wrote earlier this fall to the West Virginia Legislature, seeking to join that body.

Also moving into a new office this week — right next door to Kipke’s — was Del. Anne R. Kaiser (D-Montgomery), who stepped down as chair of the Ways and Means Committee earlier this fall. Immediately following Monday morning’s House session, Kaiser was at her new office, hammering a decoration made of old Maryland license plates and designed to look like a crab onto her office front door.

Speaking of transitions, House Economic Matters Committee Chair Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince George’s) is the overwhelming favorite to be elected state treasurer later this week. He’ll replace Nancy K. Kopp (D), who is stepping down as treasurer after almost 20 years on the job.

Davis’ committee held a virtual hearing Monday afternoon on discrepancies in real estate appraisals in Prince George’s County. But anyone expecting a big committee farewell to Davis from the panel he has led since 2003 may have been disappointed. Neither Davis nor Del. Brian M. Crosby (D-St. Mary’s), the new Economic Matters vice chair, were on the livestream.

Instead, Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) ran the hearing. Wilson’s near-certain ascendance to committee chair is one of the worst-kept secrets in Annapolis. After asking some questions at the hearing, Del. Steven J. Arentz (R-Upper Shore) turned the meeting back over to Wilson by saying, “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh…Mr. Future Chairman.”

Wilson showed that he still has something to learn about running virtual meetings. He muted himself just before adjourning.

“Crap, can you guys hear me now?” he said after a couple of awkward seconds.

Danielle E. Gaines contributed to this report.

[email protected]

Disclosure: Leonard L. Lucchi is a member of the Maryland Matters Board of Directors.

Republish