Maryland’s controversial legislative redistricting is again the target of bills designed to overhaul the process and make it less partisan. Legislators are trying to introduce transparency and civic participation into the redistricting procedure, which now leaves the governor in control and the process wide open to political gerrymandering.
Read MoreFirst elected in 1962, Sen. Norman Stone is the longest serving member in the current Maryland General Assembly and the longest serving state senator in Maryland history. He is historical artifact in other ways: one of the last remaining fiscally and socially conservative Democrats – an opponent of tax hikes, abortion and gay marriage, a supporter of labor unions and the rights of workers and crime victims.
Read MoreBehind closed doors, members of the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics presumably spent an hour Thursday morning talking about Sen. Ulysses Currie. As the 12 committee members left the conference room where the morning meeting took place, however, they would not even confirm that much.
Read MoreLegislation to require state contractors and some businesses to use the federal E-Verify program got its typically cool reception at a Senate hearing Thursday. Bills introduced by Baltimore County Democrat Sen. Norman Stone and Washington County Republican Sen. Christopher Shank would prohibit state contractors and businesses using state grants from hiring anyone without checking their immigration status electronically.
Read MoreIn 1960, Norman Stone was so inspired by a young politician named John F. Kennedy that he worked on Kennedy’s campaign. In 1962, when a judge ruled that Maryland needed more members of the House of Delegates to accurately represent the people of the state, Stone threw his hat in the ring to fill one of the new seats.
The Dundalk Democrat from District 6 has been in Annapolis ever since – nearly a half century — and is the longest serving member of the legislature.
Read More
Recent Comments