Jamie Raskin, proud to be a liberal
District 20's presumptive state senator is eager to take office

by Rajeev Poduval

Weeks after the hustle and bustle of the primary elections, Jamin B. Raskin, sitting in his office at the Washington College of Law at American University where he is a professor of constitutional law, is passionately contemplating his past and future.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

Jamie Raskin at home with his family: (left to right) Tommy, Jamie, Tabitha, wife Sarah, Zola (the dog) and Hannah.

Mr. Raskin traces the roots of his liberal thinking to his childhood. There is one incident involving his father, prominent civil rights and peace activist Marcus Raskin, that still stands apart as the earliest of his political memories. "My political awakening came in 1968 when I was six years old. I was watching television with my sister and brother and a news report appeared saying that my father along with few others has been indicted for conspiracy during the Vietnam War. Those were my first political memories; those were my first real memories--my dad facing prosecution and imprisonment. I was scared and confused. My mom always told the story of my going to the pediatrician, Dr. Washington and asking him whether somebody could be arrested and could still be a good guy. This was the beginning of my political education."

Often referred to as one of "America's progressive intellectuals," Mr. Raskin said he is not afraid of being labeled a "progressive," "liberal" or even "leftist" for that matter.

"The root of the word liberal is liberty. If you are a champion of liberty you should be proud to be called a liberal, and I am proud to be called a liberal. I am proud to be called progressive because the root of the word progressive is progress, and we don't make progress except together in democratic discussions and organizations."

"I am not even ashamed to be called a conservative because I lead a conservative life.   It is true, I lead a boring life; I am a middle-aged, straight, married, white guy with three kids. We spend all our time with friends and families. I am not ashamed to be called a liberal, progressive and conservative. Oscar Wilde said 'I am on the left which is the side of the heart as opposed to the right, which is the side of the liver.' So I will take that too."

Because Mr. Raskin, the Democratic nominee, is unopposed for the District 20 state senate seat in November -- "I am cautiously optimistic" about winning, he says with a smile -- he can afford to start thinking about what may happen when he takes office the second week of January.

If you wonder what a liberal, progressive state senator could possibly do to "a little political system that has just kept people out" for a long time, Mr. Raskin has some answers.

It has been some time since terms such as "green building" entered the mainstream lexicon. However, there have been very few attempts to implement this idea at the political level. Mr. Raskin has concrete plans to put the environmentally responsible "green principles" into practice. "One of the bills that I want to introduce will be for state subsidies to county school systems that build green school buildings. I think all new school buildings should be based on green principles," he said. "They should run on wind power, solar power, and they should be built on conservation principles. Also, we should make environmental changes part of the curriculum in all of our schools because we need to break the old habits."

Environmentalism is no longer part of a rebellious ideology, of course.   Even some corporate thinking is changing in response to warnings of climate change. Industry stalwarts are beginning to see the economic and social threats from climate change as "real."

  Nonetheless Mr. Raskin hopes to inspire the state legislature toward a realm of environmental action that would be far bolder than in the past.

"The environment is the whole context within which we have to decide everything else--from transportation to housing, to campaign finance," he said. "We are facing an emergency, which is global warming.   We are facing profound changes in the weather; we are facing incredible erosion of our coastal areas. The hurricanes are growing more severe, more damaging. Our entire way of life is threatened by global warming. We need a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We know George Bush is providing no leadership on this. So, I want Maryland to be part of a regional coalition to drastically lower our greenhouse gas emissions. We can do it and we can put American ingenuity to work to make it happen."

One of the things Mr. Raskin loves about the Silver Spring and Takoma communities is that they are open to people of different means.

"It's critical that we keep economic diversity," he said. "We are losing thousands of units of affordable housing every year to condo-conversion. At the state level, I favor legislation that would empower the counties to declare housing emergencies and then place a moratorium on condo-conversion and take other steps to protect affordable housing."

Montgomery County is the richest county in the third richest state in the richest country on earth. Yet, Mr. Raskin pointed out, there are about 88,000 people with no health insurance in Montgomery County and tenfold that number statewide.

"We have to start with the value that healthcare should be a right to every person who lives in our state. Way too much money now goes to bureaucracy, and there are real flaws in our healthcare system," he said. "I've created a taskforce of people in District 20 who are experts or practitioners in the healthcare field to help me push for fundamental changes. I am not sure yet which plan makes most sense for Maryland but the value should be clear. We should have a healthcare system that brings everybody in."

Another of Mr. Raskin's top priorities is campaign finance reform. He would like to bring transparency and accountability to the system and diminish the influence of corporations and special interest groups that are often the primary donors to election campaigns.

The political field, according to him, is increasingly becoming the priciest club of the world. Billionaires bankroll political campaigns. To him there is a danger of democracy turning into plutocracy, especially in Maryland.

"There has been a ban on corporate contributions in federal elections since 1907, and a majority of states don't allow corporate contributions," he said. "However, Maryland is way behind the pack here. We need new laws that put up a wall of separation between corporate money and public elections."

Companies usually offer donations to political parties they think they can influence to support their business. By way of example, Mr. Raskin cited the recent controversy over the energy deregulation bill enacted by the legislature a few years ago and the subsequent hike in the electricity rate.

"One of the things that I pointed out during the campaign was that there was a big fight in the legislature over energy deregulation, and my opponent voted in favor of it seven times after receiving campaign contributions from energy companies."

Mr. Raskin is of the opinion that elected officials get a distorted view of the public interest when business lobbies such as real estate developers and energy companies pour money into political campaigns.

"I want to make independent judgments about public policy unclouded by special interest money. I don't think corporations have a constitutional right to get involved in politics."

He believes that reducing their involvement would also have the effect of inviting more involvement by individual Maryland residents, including many who have the expertise to assist legislators as they try to find public solutions for the environment, housing and other concerns.

"I want to be the state senator who opens up the doors of our government to the incredible resources of our community. We have amazing people here, and we need their help to deal with all of the problems of public policy we face now," he said.

The very first bill Mr. Raskin proposes to introduce, however, is to lower the age of voter registration to sixteen.

"I think Maryland should be the first state to get one hundred percent voter registration, and I think an important step toward that goal is to allow young people into the political system," he said. "At age sixteen they are ready."

No comments have been posted to this article.

Want to post a comment to this article? Click here.