Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore City Democrat, was surprised Friday when a reporter told her she had won the prize as the freshman senator who was the lead sponsor of the most bills ? 22 this session. She thought it would have been more likely one of the two Montgomery County lawyers who sit behind her, although they were in the running as well.
But it was no surprise to her seatmate, Sen. James Robey, the former Howard County executive, that he had the least of any new senator. The one bill he plans to sponsor, related to a fatal traffic accident last year, has not come out of bill drafting yet.
“I?m following the advice of the leadership,” said Robey, at 66 the oldest of the new members of the Senate. That advice was to “take your time and learn what goes on.” But Robey is co-sponsor of 49 bills, including some of the major initiatives of the session on election law, health care, smoking and the environment.
Also taking the advice, Sen. Bryon Simonaire, the Anne Arundel County Republican, has only introduced two bills, and co-sponsored 20. But he was able to get more than half the Senate to sign on to one of the two bills, restricting awards of legislative scholarships.
The differences among the freshmen reflect a difference in style, background and even the procedures of the local delegations in the jurisdictions they represent. Robey noted, for example, that bond bills for Howard County are introduced by the entire delegation after they are reviewed, not individually as in other counties.
Pugh, who was appointed to the House of Delegates in 2005 after serving on the Baltimore City Council, points out that she is “the only returning person from the district,” where all the delegates are new. She asked the former delegates who didn?t return what they would have introduced and put those bills in as well. Seven of the bills call for state bonds to finance capital projects in the city.
Without those bills, another former delegate, Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, might have been the freshman with the most bills as lead sponsor ? 21. More than half of those involve aspects of juvenile and child services, a field in which he?s taken the lead in past years.
