Commentary

This week, a group of determined women who have worked quietly behind the scenes to change the face of Maryland politics gathered at a woman-owned brewery in Prince George’s County. If they got a bit rowdy, there was good cause to celebrate. For 10 years, through Emerge Maryland, they have trained 175 Democratic women to run for office, with 17 more women getting ready to begin their training in 2023. This year the hard work yielded some great victories, among them Brooke Lierman, who will be Maryland’s first female comptroller, and Jessica Fitzwater, who eked out a narrow victory for county executive in purple Frederick County. Both are graduates of Emerge Maryland’s first class in 2013.

Sexual assault should be illegal, and marriage should be no defense — it’s an ideal the U.S. has been working toward since the 1970s, when states began outlawing marital rape. In Maryland, loopholes still exist that let people get away with assaulting their spouses. Fortunately, efforts to close those loopholes are intensifying. In the February Zoom hearing about this proposed repeal, faces were somber. Advocates talked about the gruesome ways people have found to exploit these loopholes. Under current Maryland state law, marriage is a total defense to fourth-degree sexual assault — even if the spouse is injured in their intimate areas, even if the contact is abusive, even if the married couple are living apart in a trial separation.

The support that Maryland voters gave to Question 4, the cannabis legalization issue, reminded me that major policy change often happens in a way that feels more like running a marathon, rather than a hundred-yard dash. Back in the last century, as my students like to say — actually, it was 1988 — I gave a speech to a joint meeting of big-city mayors and chiefs of police in which I proposed that the country should consider the decriminalization of drugs, including cannabis. The overwhelming response to that speech was a combination of scorn, derision and dismissiveness.

Gov-elect Wes Moore, D, has a laundry list of plans for Maryland. Moore wants to give students an option to complete a year of service after high school, raise the minimum wage to $15 this year instead of the scheduled increase in 2025 and support small businesses through modernizing the regulation process. One of his focuses, which he discussed repeatedly during his campaign, is to provide free pre-kindergarten for all of the state’s three- and four- year olds in need.

One of the more fortuitous decisions of the Maryland Department of Transportation in recent weeks was the choice not to seek final approval for the controversial multibillion-dollar contract to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 with costly toll lanes until after Gov. Larry Hogan leaves office in January. That decision, announced on Nov. 17, may have been more a matter of necessity than choice, given some unresolved legal challenges, as well as the fact that federal authorities had not given their OK for the public-private partnership proposal, which would involve tolls as high as $22 per mile for tractor-trailers. But it also suits the political circumstances.

A couple of years ago, I was reading a review of a new book about The Beatles. The reviewer noted that while almost every book about The Beatles — and by now there have been hundreds, if not thousands — contains some valuable information about their backgrounds, musical influences, work habits, and personalities, none has been able to answer the essential question: How did The Beatles go, in a few short years, from being a pretty good regional Rhythm and Blues band from the north of England, to becoming, arguably, the greatest composers of the 20th century? In other words, what made them so great?

Let’s say you hold elected office, and a San Francisco-based law firm that specializes in holding polluters accountable approaches your jurisdiction with an offer. So-and-so industry has misled government regulators and knowingly done great harm to your constituents, you are told. The law firm says is filing a lawsuit against these allegedly irresponsible companies, and if you agree to sign on as a plaintiff at no cost, your constituents will share in any financial settlement or court-ordered award, and, thus, potentially be made whole. If the law firm is unsuccessful, it will not charge you a dime. Many of your neighbors — municipalities, counties and states — have already signed on. So, what do you do?