Maryland Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr. gave newly elected state senators their committee assignments this week, but House assignments are still in flux, with many new and re-elected delegates meeting with Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch next week.
The presiding officers must still be officially re-elected to their positions by their colleagues but face no opposition in the Democratic caucuses. The president and speaker appoint all the leadership posts and assignments to committees, where the bulk of General Assembly work gets done.
Miller, who turns 64 on Dec. 3 and is finishing his 20th year as president, dropped a bombshell last week when he began telling contributors that he would not be seeking re-election in 2010. Miller said he felt obligated to tell people “I don’t intend to raise any money for Marylanders for Miller.”
In the last four years, Miller had raised almost $1.2 million but transferred most of the funds over to committees helping to elect Democrats to the Senate. “I had to raise the money and defend the members,” he said. He will still help incumbents by appearing at their fundraising events, he said.
This set off a flurry of speculation about who might succeed him, but Miller said, “I?m going to continue to lead in terms of policy.”
Miller announced last week that he was naming Baltimore City Sen. Joan Carter Conway to be chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, succeeding Sen. Paula Hollinger of Baltimore County, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Hollinger?s successor in the 11th district, Robert Zirkin, will also serve on the committee.
Miller named Sen. Lisa Gladden, a Baltimore City public defender, to be vice chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee. Sen. James Brochin, re-elected from Towson, moves back to the committee, and Republican Sen. Bryan Simonaire, who won a close Anne Arundel County race, will serve on it as well.
Democratic Sen.-elect James Robey, the retiring Howard County executive, will take a seat on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, replacing Sen. Sandy Schrader, the Republican he defeated. This reduces Republican representation on the 13-member committee, the Senate’s largest, from four members to three.
In the House, all the chairs and vice chairs of the six major standing committees were re-elected, and Busch has said he plans on keeping them, along with House Majority Leader Kumar Barve. House Majority Whip Anthony Brown of Prince George?s County was elected lieutenant governor and must be replaced.
