Jamie Raskin: "This is our government, and we have to make it work for the people"

New state senator reflects on his freshman year in the General Assembly—and looks ahead to next year's challenges.

Interview with Howard Kohn

Jamie Raskin did not have many friends in high places when he was sworn in for his first term as the District 20 state senator in January. By and large, the top rank of Maryland Democrats had supported his opponent, Ida Ruben, the long-serving president pro tem of the State Senate.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

Jamie Raskin, the new State Senator for District 20, passed nine bills this session, a remarkable achievement for a freshman.

Far from being an embattled outsider, though, Jamie became a sort of whiz kid. Colleagues in the legislature even started to use that expression when referring to him.

Nine of the bills he sponsored were approved. Most were in the vein of reformist liberalism, bills on behalf of tenants who now will have the automatic right to buy their apartments and six months to get financing when the buildings go condo, workers who can now file discrimination claims in state courts, and car owners who henceforth will be informed by manufacturers about defects in their vehicles.

Perhaps the most controversial of his bills, a law that will obligate Maryland's electors in the Electoral College to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote nationally even if Maryland voters go for someone else, made it into the editorial section of the New York Times, whose editors endorsed it.

This law will not go into effect until a large majority of other states pass similar legislation, but it marked Jamie's first success with one of the creative trendsetting big-league ideas that have distinguished his career as a constitutional scholar at American University and gave cachet to his District 20 campaign last year.

In April, with the legislative session finished for this year (unless a special session is called), Jamie talked about his freshman season.

What was it like dealing with the lobbyists and other established powers?

There are big-money interests running around, but I had the luxury of not being beholden to them because I didn't take contributions from them. On the other hand, I was willing to meet with everybody. My door is always open, even to conservative Republicans.

There is a wonderful statement from Jefferson where he said, "In matters of style go with the flow, but on questions of principle stand like a rock." I'm willing to hang out with anybody, but in the final analysis I'm going to stand strong with District 20 and the values of the people here.

Some party leaders were a little terrified of me because of the way I came into power. I ran against machine politics with this tremendous grassroots campaign which brought in all kinds of new people. So the leaders were thinking, "Oh, no, here comes Robespierre." They found, you know, a pretty nice guy, maybe Tom Paine. A champion of the people who's actually opposed to the guillotine.

One thing I was adamant about: no matter how much I disagreed with someone, I would never try to humiliate a witness in a hearing or embarrass a colleague in a debate. Public life does not have to be mean.

What was your biggest thrill?

It was thrilling to support excellent District 20 people who are taking on new state positions like Blair Ewing and Rosa Garcia for State Board of Education and Marlana Valdez for juvenile justice monitor.

And I have to say it was a great thrill to get bills passed into law. When I sat with Governor O'Malley and he signed my bills into law, that was fantastic.

Maryland will now observe Constitution Day every September 17 to promote constitutional literacy, the Bill of Rights and voter registration. I decided to introduce that bill after talking to students at Blair and Springbrook who campaigned for me. Now it's the law!

One of my bills that didn't get a lot of attention, but I'm very proud of, was the Consumer Protection Bill against secret warranties. That's when automobile manufacturers realize there's a problem in their cars and will pay for repairs for anyone who comes in and complains, but they won't notify anybody else. No recall. But now in Maryland they have to notify the public, all car owners. I think it can make a real difference. Outside of our homes, the car is the biggest purchase that a lot of people make.

Another bill allows victims of discrimination to sue in state court. It will be much simpler now to get to a jury in a state court rather than go to federal court in Baltimore or Greenbelt to sue under Title VII if you are a victim of sex, race, sexual orientation, or ethnicity discrimination.

People haven't heard of this bill because I gave it a nondescript, boring title. One of the senators suggested it was more likely to go through that way. But now we can call it the Statewide Civil Rights Act of 2007.

Being from District 20 didn't count against you?

No way. People like to tease about District 20 being visionary and two steps ahead, but that's our role. We embrace it. In a place like Annapolis, where it's easy to get jaded and cynical, we bring a surplus of political hope. We've got the energy to find a new direction for state politics. If you look at what the four District 20 reps contributed in this legislative session, there's a lot to be proud of.

Speaker Mike Busch said the other day that the District 20 delegation had more influence on this session than any other delegation. Of course, he was in District 20 when he said it.

It all starts with the people who live here. A large number are engaged in politics and are thinking about the big picture.

As our senator you're the top guy in the delegation, but Sheila Hixson is the senior member by virtue of her status and experience in the House. How was it working with her?

I love working with Sheila. She knows everyone and makes people laugh. Every time I called her to help me on a bill on the House side, she came through. After the National Popular Vote plan made it through the Senate, everyone said it was going to be tough going in the House, but Sheila was the sponsor and got it through the Ways and Means Committee and mobilized a great team on the floor. Her help was a definite highlight for me.

We worked closely together on several of each other's bills. Sheila is a smart, generous and sweet person. We're very lucky to have her where she is. She's one of the two or three most powerful Democrats on the House side.

How about with Heather Mizeur and Tom Hucker, same teamwork with the other two delegates?

Heather and Tom worked very hard, and there was good teamwork all around. Heather got her health care bill through the House, which now requires insurance companies to extend coverage for dependents to age 25 and to cover domestic partners for people whose employers have that policy. And it was great helping get votes for her bill on the Senate side. Same with the Living Wage bill, which Tom pushed hard on the House side.

After the four of us won the Democratic primaries last year, I invited the whole delegation to come together for breakfast at my house, and the first thing Sheila said to us was that there had sometimes been division in the delegation in prior years. She was adamant that we couldn't afford division.

It was a very fine message to give to us, and we agreed to get beyond the old tensions. So, in addition to bringing back a little more democracy and justice and liberty, we brought back plenty of bacon, too. We got $2 million for the Birchmere, and we got big grants for the National Labor College and the Easter Seals building in Silver Spring, which is a project to link the generations. The four of us worked together to get those funds.

I think we are at a moment of optimal effectiveness for Silver Spring and Takoma Park, not only because of the delegation but because we have Peter Franchot as comptroller and Tom Perez as the Secretary of Labor, both from Takoma Park. Plus our community helped get other candidates elected statewide. When my colleagues tried to make fun of me on the last day of the session for getting another bill passed, I told them, "Hey, don't mess with District 20!"

Do you have a sense that a new generation is taking over in Annapolis?

I hope we're creating a new politics that invites a lot more people in, that creates space for everybody. Some of it is generational and some of it is a geographic shift in the center of political gravity in Maryland.

We've got tremendous talent in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, and I want our local people to become an important part of the state government.

Traditionally a lot of the career people and appointed people in Annapolis come from Baltimore. I love Baltimore, but our area has been underrepresented. Now that's starting to change.

As a new kid in Annapolis, what took you most by surprise?

I had heard that legislators don't read the bills, but I wasn't aware that a few legislators don't even read their own bills! That took me by surprise.

Also, I never cease to be amazed by the fact that we always have enough money for the things we don't need, like the Iraq war or the ICC. But the minute you start talking about dental care for poor kids or more resources for disabled adults or money for libraries, then suddenly everyone is extremely budget-conscious.

This is the big challenge for all of us in politics. Can we create budgets that reflect our values rather than trash them? This goes all the way to Washington, of course.

What was your biggest disappointment in this first session?

I was disappointed that we did not dramatically expand health insurance coverage under Medicaid despite the fact that a commanding majority of Democrats believe we need it. We had a plan to pay for it, a dollar tax on every pack of cigarettes, and we had the support. But the plan got ground up in the politics of the budget. The calculation was made by the leadership that we shouldn't undertake a new fiscal obligation until we wrestled the budget deficit to the ground first.

The Republican administration of the past four years left us with a mess because they spent money without raising enough. So we'll have to address the health insurance crisis as part of our attempt to close the budget deficit.

So health care will be in the forefront for next year?

Yes, or possibly a special session in the fall. The Senate is inclined to come back this year to deal with it, though I'm not sure about the House. Ultimately it is the governor's decision. He is the one who constitutionally has the power to call a special session.

Can you imagine Maryland as a national leader on environment and health care and other issues, comparable to California and Massachusetts?

I'm imagining that every day, and trying to make it happen. I can't stand the attitude that we have to sit back and wait for California or Massachusetts to do it first.

The New York Times made it a point to praise the state of Maryland for passing the National Popular Vote bill and getting us closer to real democracy in our presidential elections. The California legislature passed the same bill, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

With Governor O'Malley at the helm, Maryland can really step forward on a whole bunch of issues. We passed the Clean Cars bill to bring us into alignment with California on greenhouse gas emissions, but there are many areas where we can move ahead of California and be innovative and be a leader.

So in that sense District 20 can lead the nation?

I would never say something so grandiose, but I may be thinking it. In Maryland, at least, District 20 has a very special role to play as a wellspring of effective progressive politics.

During my campaign last year I'd knock on doors and find the world's leading experts on global warming, storm water treatment, stem cell research, non-violence, civil rights, you name it. We have the expertise here to change the way Maryland does business.

While it's not true that we're going to move the state capitol to District 20, it is true that the people from District 20 who come to Annapolis, the ones who testify and who participate in the legislative process, are becoming major players.

And now that I've been around the track once, I will be drawing even more on the talent from our community. This is our government, and we have to make it work for the people.

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