House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch

In this podcast, House Speaker Michael Busch spoke to reporters about the budget and the cuts that would have to be made if tax increases don’t pass. “Only 16% of Marylanders are being asked to pay a little more.”

Republicans at news conference in State House rotunda object to special session.

In this 3-minute podcast from Duane Keenan, hear from an angry Michelle Jefferson from We the People Carroll County. She came to Annapolis to protest the special session . “Shame on them for not doing the people’s work in the time frame that they had… They raise our taxes, we put less food on the table. Go in there and find me a skinny legislator.”

Senate President Mike Miller

In a second 3-minute podcast, Duane Keenan talked to Senate President Mike Miller. He says, “It would have been nice if we could have got it done in the 90-day session.”  House Republican Leader Tony O’Donnell said, “There is no way that we should be here.”

Speaker of the House Mike Busch presides over the last few minutes of the 2012 legislative session.

Duane Keenan talked to Speaker of the House Michael Busch and different members of the legislature about the abrupt ending of this year’s legislative session and what may come next.

State House complex at sunset by Thisisbossi at Wikimedia Commons

As members of the General Assembly began their last day of the 2012 session on Monday, they reflected on the session, what has been accomplished, and what is still left undone. Duane Keenan filed this podcast.

Republican candidates for the 6th District congressional seat share their views with the audience at the AARP/MarylandReporter.com debate

AARP and MarylandReporter.com sponsored a 6th District debate for all congressional candidates on Sunday. Duane Keenan was there and produced a podcast featuring the Republican candidates. You can listen here.

Charles Bailey, John Delaney, Rob Garagiola, Ron Little, Milad Pooran

The candidates for the House of Representatives in the 6^th Congressional District participated in two debates Sunday sponsored by AARP Maryland and MarylandReporter.com and held on the Germantown campus of Montgomery College.

Webcasts of the two debates will be available at MarylandReporter.com later today, and the debates will run 12 times each on cable channel 10 in Montgomery County.

Here in this podcast, Duane Keenan talks to Hank Greenberg, state director of AARP Maryland, and Elizabeth Homan of Montgomery College. Then the five Democratic candidates introduce themselves: Charles Bailey, John Delaney, Sen. Rob Garagiola, Ron Little, and Dr. Milad Pooran.

A podcast of the Republican debate will be available Tuesday.

Union leader Mark Coles talks about the jobs a casino at National Harbor will bring to Prince George's County.

Some want Maryland to expand slot machine gambling, and one possible site is National Harbor in Prince George’s County. The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the proposal Friday. Here is a podcast with a proponent of the new site, and opposition from the developer from the casino at Arundel Mills.

Labor leaders, like Mark Coles of the Washington DC Building Trades Council, support slots at National Harbor.  He recently spoke at a rally in favor of the proposal.

Other potential sites include Rosecroft Race-Way and the former site of the Capital Center.

Those about to open the Maryland Live slots facility at Arundel Mills Mall are opposed to expanding the number of gambling locations, but would be in favor of adding table games to existing sites.  Here’s Joe Wineberg of PPE Casino Resorts, the group developing Maryland Live, speaking at the hearing. He said the National Harbor site would hurt the prospects for his facility.

Senate President Mike Miller

While only Democrats voted for it,  eight of them sided with Republicans in rejecting the measure, which will increase taxes. In this podcast from Duane Keenan, Senate President Mike Miller explains that progressive Democrats in his caucus demanded a higher tax on high earners.

“I needed to get 24 votes,” Miller says.  Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin says, “It will cost us jobs.”

“It’s class warfare,” says Sen. Bobby Zirkin in a second podcast from Keenan. “It’s the worst instincts of the Democratic Party,” said the Baltimore County Democrat who voted against the tax hike.

This budget package “reduces the structural deficit 70%,” says Sen. Rich Madaleno, D-Montgomery, who supported the increase.

A protester at the March and Rally for Life wears his views.

Anti-abortion protesters flocked to Lawyers Mall on Monday to protest abortion and the laws surrounding the procedure. Duane Keenan attended and recorded this podcast.

With the state’s referendum laws in the spotlight for the first time in two decades,  some legislators hope to close weaknesses in the referendum process that can open the door to fraud.

Photo by K-ideas

The House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on a bill Wednesday that would adopt several measures implemented in other states to help ensure the validity of referendum petitions. The sponsor of the bill, Del. Eric Luedtke, D-Montgomery, described it as a hodgepodge of ideas meant to start a discussion on preventative measures than can be taken against fraud.

Luedtke made clear that the proposed bill would in no way affect referendums currently underway, such as the same-sex marriage petition drive, and suggested the bill’s implementation date be changed to January 2013 to reflect those intentions.

“This is a discussion best had outside the context of current controversial issues,” said Luedtke.

The bill would enact several changes to protect against fraud, including barring any individual guilty of an election violation from circulating a petition, banning petition circulators from being paid per signature, and extending the period of time outside groups have to challenge a petition for judicial review from 10 to 30 days after certification.

Moreover, the bill would also force petition signers to handwrite their personal information in addition to their signature. According to Mary Cramer Wagner, director of voter registration for the State Board of Elections, local boards only verify that individuals are qualified to sign a petition but do not crosscheck signatures with voter registration forms. This new rule would be an attempt to solve that problem.

Although some Republican members of the committee were receptive to Luedtke’s willingness to discuss changes, it raised the ire of delegates who perceived a double standard in election fraud reform.

Del. Kathy Afzali, R-Frederick, questioned Luedtke’s evidence of voter fraud, citing Republican attempts to pass legislation that would require identification to vote.

“Each session I myself and other delegates have proposed a voter ID bill,” Afzali said, “and throughout this entire committee I have been told repeatedly that there is no fraud in Maryland elections.”

Afzali and other delegates said they wanted to be sure no new laws would create roadblocks for citizens wishing to engage in the political process. However, that criticism was mild compared to some of the testimony heard against the bill.

Several Maryland residents involved in last year’s petition drive to place an act granting in-state tuition to some illegal immigrants on the November ballot testified in opposition. Many asserted that the bill was repressive to voters and questioned its timing.

“Stop trying to pile restrictions on our God-given rights,” demanded one woman, describing the bill as “soft tyranny.” Another man equated the bill to laws present in the South during Reconstruction.

Luedtke admitted that there is no way to ever create a process completely absent of fraud, but asserted that the bill’s intentions were genuine.

“I think this [bill] gets us closer to that goal and with the amendments I’ve suggested I think it would do so without placing a barrier to participation,” he said.

Duane Keenan of MarylandReporter filed a podcast on the bill hearing. You can listen to it here.