Summary of April 25th Forum, Laurel, Maryland
Panel One: Progressives Challenging Incumbents: Delegate Karen Montgomery, who is running for the State Senate against Rona Kramer in District 14 and Dana Beyer, who is running for delegate in District 18, both pointed out that in Maryland, the defeat of progressive legislation is often attributable to Democratic legislators who are, at best, moderates. Therefore, they said, progressives should hold candidates to a higher standard than just being Democratic. A participant from the audience stated that unless an elected representative or candidate supported campaign finance reform, they should not be considered a progressive.
Panel Two: What Went Wrong? Why Didn't Good Bills Make It Through the General Assembly? Critical Insights of Legislators: Senator Mike Lenett, Del. Roger Manno, Del Sheila Hixson, Senator Jamie Raskin, Senator Paul Pinksy, Senator David Harrington, Del. Karen Montgomery, and Del. Tom Hucker
Lenett – Open government measures are very important. They give progressives more voice. We need procedural reforms so that we actually get votes on legislation. Currently, many measures are killed by putting them in “the drawer.” Legislators would pass more progressive bills if we could get a vote on the measures. We should consider changes that would make it harder to just put bills in the drawer, such as guaranteeing a committee vote on all bills filed by a certain deadline, allowing each legislator a minimum number of bills that must be guaranteed a committee vote, or a petition process to force a committee vote.
Manno – A big obstacle to progressive legislation is the quality of representatives we send to Annapolis. Our expectations are too low. We don't need people who sometimes vote right but often don't support us when no one is closely watching.
Hixson – Progressives should never quit. You must keep pushing for your issues and that includes talking to representatives who don't agree with you.
Raskin – There are politicians who are interested in justice and there are politicians who are interested in power. We need to get the right kind of representatives elected and then organize to pressure them to do the right thing.
Pinsky – The state is an arbiter of class forces. On one side are the liquor lobby, the Chamber of Commerce, developers, etc. Next session, we need to assess our resources and pick issues very strategically that have a chance of winning. Combined reporting can pass next year if we work on it.
Harrington – Representatives are able to get away with things by calling themselves progressives. We need to check people carefully to see if they are willing to stand up for the right thing, even when it's not popular and powerful interests are fighting us. As progressives, we also need to make tight arguments in favor of our measures so that the opposition sees that we're serious and that it will be difficult to oppose us. And we need to stick with issues - sometimes it takes years to win.
Montgomery – On progressive health care bills, the biggest problem we faced was drug (pharmaceutical) companies. We need to chip away on our issues, even if it takes years to win a complete victory.
Hucker – The system is set up to defeat progressive legislation. To win, we need good ideas (a sound philosophy) a good sponsor for the legislation, careful attention to process (reaching out to opponents, seeing where compromises are necessary), hard work, and grass roots pressure. It's easy to block reforms; to win everything has to go right.
Points Made in Discussion: Legislator - Progress on abolishing the death penalty is also possible next session.
Legislator - We need to keep pushing for campaign finance reform. Mike Miller has been hot and cold on this and may not strongly oppose.
Participant – It is frustrating to progressives that many bills get put in “the drawer” and never get a vote in committee.
Participant - We need to raise expectations and awareness of what's going on in Annapolis. Most people in Maryland don't know who their state legislators are! We should work to change the culture in Annapolis by electing true progressives and by increasing public awareness about state issues. This would make good legislators better and make mediocre legislators private citizens.
Panel Three: What Failed? What Succeeded” Why? What's to Be Done for Next Year? Prospective of Progressive Activists. Ryan O'Donnell, Common Cause; Sean Dobson, Progressive Maryland; Pat Elder, Peace Action Montgomery: David O'Leary, Sierra Club, and Ken Stevens
O'Donnell: It's good that Progressive Working Group got its profile raised this session – I'm proud of that. But something is wrong in Annapolis when campaign finance reform doesn't even come up for a vote, but a bill to impeach the Attorney General because of his opinion on gay marriage gets voted on. Nothing was really done this session on campaign finance reform. We need to work together even more closely on our legislation.
Elder: We scored a victory on ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) tests, but there are more peace issues we need to address. We won on ASVAB in part because we made it an issue of student privacy and civil rights, not solely an anti-war issue. Also, we were a real presence in Annapolis and talked to many legislators to explain the issue, including those who had been opposed to our legislation at first. We figured out a way to talk about privacy and civil rights issues and not just peace. We also worked with partners with more lobbying experience, and insiders helped us dissect the committees for problem areas.
Dobson – I have been lobbying for 10 years and it used to be worse. We got at least 7 good labor bills. But for the bluest state in the country, what happened in Annapolis is not good enough. The problem is still the State Senate which really operates as a 'good old boy' network. Miller is conservative but pragmatic so he will give us progressives a few things. In this year's elections, we need to defeat conservatives. We should see how all progressive groups can come together around some candidates.
Stevens – We need to realize that we're in a long-haul fight on many of our progressive issues, but we need to keep pushing even if we don't make progress at first.
O'Leary – Environmental groups came in with a very limited agenda this session. We made some progress, but it was limited and even things that were pass were pared back. (See legislative wrap-up below). The press focused on divisions among environmental groups.
Discussion of Next Steps:
-We need a stronger Annapolis presence during the session.
-Clean water is a winnable issue that should be a priority
-Stay-at-home-moms – I am one and I'm willing to organize other such moms and go to Annapolis regularly to lobby for progressive issues
-We need to go door-to-door in the home districts of targeted conservative legislators, especially Senators, to challenge them on the issues.
-We need a scorecard to identify legislators who are undermining progressive legislation
-Progressive Working Group should be a co-sponsor with Move-On in the Community Forums - “Time to Stop the Corporate Raid On Our Democracy!” (This was approved by voice vote. See below for more information.)
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