Candidate name: Jamie Raskin

Party affiliation: Democrat

Place of residence: Takoma Park, MarylandÊ

Date of birth: December 13, 1962

Place of birth: Washington, D.C.

Current occupation: Professor of Law, director of Law & Government Program, director of Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, American University, Washington College of Law

Education: B.A. , Harvard College; J.D. Harvard Law School

Community associations:Chair, Maryland State Higher Education Labor Relations Board, Montgomery County Hate Crimes Commission,Takoma Park Election Redistricting Task Force, Takoma Park Gun Violence Task Force, Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer Association Coach and Division Coordinator, Temple Sinai

Professional associations: Board member, FairVote Board member, Public Justice Center Member, ACLU U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division— Transition Team (President Bill Clinton) American Civil Liberties Union

Family:Wife - Sarah Bloom Raskin Children – Hannah (14), Tommy (11), Tabitha (9)

Campaign office address: 10125 Colesville Road, #121, Silver Spring, MD 20901

Campaign telephone: (240) 398-3635

Link to candidate’s web site:www.raskin06.com

Link to state Board of Elections campaign finance database

a. Ensure a first-class education for all of Maryland’s children: Education is the driving passion of my life. I am an educator, and I’m the only candidate for the District 20 delegation—Senate or Delegate—with kids in public school. I’m going to fight for the success of every student in Silver Spring and Takoma Park just like I fight for my own children. And I’m going to fight for the teachers too because I am one and I know that good teaching is hard work.

We have thousands of kids with no access to a good pre-k program. Montgomery County has 12 public schools that are not meeting proficiency standards, and five of them are in District 20. College tuition has skyrocketed by 40 percent since Ehrlich became governor, and many middle-class families are struggling to put their kids through college.

I will do everything in my power to push for smaller class sizes, fund new school construction, close the achievement gap, support better pay and benefits for educators, and secure affordable college tuition for Maryland’s young people.

b. Establish universal health care in Maryland: There are more than 700,000 people in Maryland who live every day without health insurance; nearly 20 percent of them are children. I’m committed to putting Maryland on the path toward universal health care for all of our citizens, starting with coverage for all children and assistance for small business owners, eventually building toward a statewide universal system. We should also push for common-sense solutions like ensuring that our hospitals, such as Holy Cross and Adventist, have the resources to service the uninsured who are currently stretching hospital resources thin.

Ultimately, we need to treat health care as a basic social commitment and right of citizens, and we can start in Maryland.

c. Reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously: We need to make visionary investments in major road improvements and construction, better bus service and expanded mass transit to give us precious time back with our families. This is a critical quality-of-life and environmental question for our region. We should develop a comprehensive transportation plan, and its centerpiece should be the inner Purple Line, which—if done right—will help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve our environmental situation, contribute to community coherence and expand the reach of our Metro system in important ways.

We are choking on traffic, wasting millions of hours of our time every year sitting in cars. We need a comprehensive transportation strategy that liberates us from three decades of traffic, environmental degradation and gridlock. Imagine what our area would be like today had we not made a visionary investment in the Metro system back in the 1970’s–-there would be an additional 600,000 people on the roads and highways instead of underground. We need visionary new leadership with a commitment to tackling our transportation and environmental issues in tandem.

How would you rate the performance of the current representatives of your district: excellent, good, fair or poor? Why?

Only Fair. There are two basic problems with the business-as-usual machine politics practiced by my opponent: (1) a continuing lack of creative and visionary legislative leadership on the major statewide problems that confront us and (2) a corresponding failure to engage the people who live in our district—educators, public health specialists, transportation experts, environmental activists, carpenters, public interest lawyers, mothers and fathers, pediatricians, epidemiologists, musicians, health care workers, and so on—in our politics and to use their extraordinary talents to change the direction of public policy in the state.

While the incumbent has certainly cast some votes I agree with, there are far too many important votes where she is simply borne along by big money lobbyists, special interest politics and machine thinking. For example, in 1999, when progressive Senators like Chris Van Hollen opposed the proposed energy deregulation as a dangerous fraud on the public, Senator Ruben ignored all the evidence and voted seven times for the utility deregulation bill. Although Senator Ruben picked up campaign contributions from utilities, the public got stuck with the tab: our utility bills are soaring by 38 percent, meaning that the average family in Silver Spring and Takoma Park will end up paying an extra $468 a year because of this policy.

Although Senator Ruben now reportedly describes these votes as the ‘‘worst” of her career (Coffeehouse documentary, July 13, 2006), there are many other good candidates for that description. Senator Ruben has pushed hard to double individual campaign contribution limits from $10,000 a year to $20,000 a year. This proposal is obviously not designed to help the vast majority of Marylanders who give, at most, a couple hundred dollars a year, but rather the tiny number of inside players and special interest lobbyists who ‘‘max out” their campaign contributions to incumbents.

Similarly, Senator Ruben now says she opposes the death penalty, but she clearly voted for it in 1998, and she has never cosponsored Senator Lisa Gladden’s bills to repeal the death penalty in Maryland. Where is the principled leadership?

Similarly, without consulting the Chair of Montgomery County’s Democratic Central Committee, Karen Britto, or any of the precinct officials in District 20, Senator Ruben earlier this year introduced a measure to try and abolish the at-large central committee positions, a transparently political move that was rejected unanimously by the Montgomery House delegation.

But, beyond these disappointing legislative maneuvers and the failure to provide strong leadership on environmental protection, universal health care and other key issues, what troubles me most is the breakdown in communication and collaboration between the Senator and the community. The Senator has no town meetings, makes only rare appearances at public forums and does not appear to be interacting in any meaningful way with the vast majority of people who live in our district. Indeed, the Senator’s volatile and heavy-handed response to the Blair High School students’ Silver Chips Newspaper in June is nicely emblematic of her relations with the community generally. According to the Washington Post, she failed to respond to numerous requests from the Blair student journalists for a meeting and then, when she failed to obtain their endorsement, became ‘‘irate” and began making demands on the principal totally inconsistent with the First Amendment. Sadly, the examples can be multiplied.

As Silver Spring and Takoma Park’s State Senator, I will provide respectful, responsive and energetic leadership that opens the door to the enormous talents and expertise of our citizens by including them in regular town meetings and the legislative process.

Do you support amending the constitution to give the legislature more budget authority?

Yes, with vigor and seriousness. Of all the state legislatures, Maryland’s is most disempowered in relations with the governor and almost completely subject to the budgetary whims of the executive branch. This has led to predictable results in Maryland over the last four years when Governor Ehrlich has underfunded or slashed funding for education and health care. Granting the legislature more authority in the budgetary process will check executive abuses and allow proposed funding for local concerns, such as transportation in Montgomery County, to receive a fair hearing in the budgetary process.

In 2004, the Senate took up this matter in the form of SB 370, which would have allowed for a change in Maryland’s Constitution to give more budgetary authority to the General Assembly, and thus to the elected representatives of Maryland’s families. Nearly every member of the Montgomery County Democratic delegation supported this bill, but my opponent voted with Gov. Ehrlich to oppose it. The incumbent’s vote was not only remarkable for its betrayal of the interests of the legislative branch but astounding for another reason: Senator Ruben was actually a sponsor of the very legislation she voted against! She has offered no public explanation for this flip-flop.

I will stand strong with my fellow Democrats to pass a constitutional amendment to grant the legislature real decision-making power over budgetary issues.

Is the rate of growth in Maryland too fast, too slow or about right, and why?

In relation to our transportation infrastructure, environmental protection mechanisms, and affordable housing supply, the rate of growth has been too fast. While the new business and residents moving to Silver Spring and Takoma Park are welcome and terrific, the structural conditions for positive growth have not been put into place. Thus, many long-term tenants have gotten caught in the housing squeeze and can no longer afford to live in their own apartments. Similarly, much development in Montgomery County has been haphazard and ill-conceived, producing situations like Clarksburg and leaving more and more of our neighbors spending their lives in traffic jams instead of with their families. We need to catch up with our growth and then create the conditions for new waves of people to settle and grow here successfully.

What programs would you like to add or cut from the state budget? How would you pay for additional programs? What would you do with the money from any cuts you make?

Maryland’s budget currently has some gaping holes in the areas of health care, affordable housing, education, and the environment. As a State Senator, I would propose a range of new programs to help meet the needs of Maryland’s families:

a. Small business health care tax credits to expand coverage where it is most needed, as under the Maryland Health Care for All! initiative. This would be a first step toward universal health care. The funding for such an initiative could come from a range of sources including creating a statewide buying pool for prescription medication to cut costs by negotiating bulk group discounts for state programs. Additionally, a cigarette tax increase of 50 cents⁄pack could provide greatly needed funds to mitigate costs on our health care system.

b. A new Maryland affordable housing initiative, modeled after the federal government’s Section 8, which would renovate or develop distressed properties to create new affordable housing units, beyond those funded by the federal Section 8 program. Funding for this would come from a new fund established by a tax on new luxury condominium developments and apartment to condo conversions that do not set aside affordable units. I have been representing modest-income neighbors in Takoma Park and Silver Spring as they try to resist ruthless condo conversions that push them out of their communities. I will work to craft policies to defend the interests of both homeowners and tenants who are feeling this squeeze and create incentives for property developers to offer more affordable housing.

c. A statewide program to convert state agency energy sources to renewable energies and to replace older vehicles in the state fleet with fuel efficient, clean-burning vehicles. The overhead for paying for these changes could virtually finance itself through rigorous initiation of mandatory energy conservation and fuel efficiency standards for state buildings and vehicle fleets.

I want us to make Maryland the model state government in terms of energy conservation and investment in renewable energy technologies. We need general laws that will require clean cars and green buildings and create powerful incentives for home insulation and energy efficiency. We should start by making our state government an example for citizens.

d. Full funding for the educational objectives of the Thornton Commission, expansion of state college financial aid, and initial funding for Inner Purple Line development through rigorous enforcement of illegal corporate tax loopholes, such as ‘‘Delaware Holding Company” loopholes, that have in the past allowed mega-corporations to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes by setting up fake companies in Delaware. This practice is illegal, but over 100 corporations are still engaging in this practice, unfairly cheating our state out of dollars that could be spent on health care, education, and transportation.

Are there specific taxes or fees that you would cut?

No, but I would work to ensure that implementation of important progressive legislation such as the ‘‘flush-tax,” which funds Chesapeake Bay conservation, and any car tax or ‘‘user fee” increases are coupled with efforts to minimize regressive effects. I want to ensure that our poorest residents are not harmed by ill-conceived tax policies. Any opt-out provisions or exemptions to these measures must be paired with adequate notification of eligibility to poor residents.

Do you support slot machines for Maryland? Why or why not?

No. Slot machines, as with most forms of gambling, would amount to a steep regressive tax in Maryland, hitting our poorest residents hardest (or at least the vast majority who fail to hit the jackpot!) and bringing with it all the inevitable ills, including organized crime, gambling addiction, prostitution and so on. We can do better than this, and our legislators can be more creative at finding ways to generate additional revenue for our state’s needs. Bringing more gambling to Maryland is a low (and unnecessary)road to development.

Do you support giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants?

Yes, but provided that driver’s licenses are not issued without a thorough background check by the government, both in the U.S. and the applicant’s home country, and other appropriate security measures. Nearly 15 states already grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, with good reason. Although no one supports illegal entry into the country, we know that people continue to enter illegally, so the question is how best to protect our residents from uninsured and⁄or untrained drivers. Issuing driver’s licenses guarantees that even the undocumented will complete training and testing, and carry car insurance.

Do you support in-state tuition to illegal immigrants?

Yes. Children whose parents immigrated to the U.S. illegally are not at fault and should be encouraged to become productive members of society by pursuing a college education. These students should be required to prove Maryland residency and graduation from a Maryland high school. Nearly half the states have already passed similar laws or are considering them.

What is the biggest problem facing higher education and what would you do to solve it?

The biggest problem facing higher education in Maryland is the soaring increase in college tuition that is making it difficult or impossible for families to pay for a college education for their children. We need a first class university system that is affordable and accessible for all. In spite of nationwide tuition increases, some inventive colleges and universities have managed to hold tuition rates stable or even reduce them through methods such as forming cross-campus collaboratives to perform support services. We need to think more creatively about how we can effectuate administrative savings to stem college tuition increases.

A closely related problem is the large number of immigrant families moving to our area, in part because of the promise of a college education for their children. In Silver Spring and Takoma Park, we welcome these families and the unique world experiences and talents they bring. Yet the state of Maryland makes it difficult for both parents and children to learn English by underfunding language education. Without basic English skills, immigrant families have a difficult time navigating the public school system and fully participating in our vibrant local economy. College becomes an unreachable goal for many immigrant children. We need to fully fund English language instruction for children and parents and ensure that new residents have every opportunity to gain the skills that will enable them to successfully pursue a college education.

Where would you get more money for the Transportation Trust Fund?<P> Within the past several years, Maryland has dramatically increased some fees that are dedicated to the Transportation Trust Fund, including surcharges attached to DUI⁄DWI convictions and moving violations. While some of these fees have generated less income than projected, Maryland has the money to complete current projects. Part of the reason for the slowing in growth of the Transportation Trust Fund is that more Maryland residents are buying smaller and less expensive cars, reducing the tax the state collects on purchases of new cars. This trend is a positive one – and the state should focus its efforts on fully funding mass transit initiatives, encouraging smaller cleaner cars, and reducing hugely expensive new highway construction and widening projects. Given the current volatility in gasoline prices, which disproportionately affects low income and middle class residents, I would tend to oppose an increase in the gasoline tax. Sales taxes are among the most regressive.

What specific transportation projects do you see as priorities for the state?

The two most pressing transportation needs in Silver Spring and Takoma Park are (1) the need to move forward on the inner Purple Line, and (2) the need for a dedicated funding source for the Metro system.

Should there be a dedicated funding source for Washington and Baltimore mass transit?

Yes. One of the most significant problems facing the D.C. Metro system is the lack of a dedicated funding source. A generation ago, a visionary group of leaders from Maryland, D.C. and Virginia came together to build the Metro system in the face of much skepticism but prevailed in pushing a vision of a comprehensive transportation that crossed boundaries of race, class and geography. We need to make a similar visionary investment in our future today.

Would you re-regulate the electricity industry?

Yes. In 1999 the Maryland legislature made a grave error in restructuring Maryland’s electric utility industry. All of us, including my neighbors in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, are now paying for this mistake. This special interest giveaway was sold under the false argument that it would create a competitive market and cheaper energy for Marylanders. None of this has proven true, and in reality utility deregulation gave the power companies far more power without effective state regulation.

My opponent sided with the energy industry and voted for this bill seven times. As a State Senator, I would restore the state’s ability to regulate energy prices, and I would work to roll back the hundreds of dollars in rate increases we’re facing. At the same time, I will work to ban corporate contributions to legislators and to lower contribution limits in Maryland. Our incumbent Senator introduced legislation to double contribution limits from $10,000 to $20,000 in Maryland, but it is precisely this drowning of our political system in special interest money and the lack of political creativity on the part of our officials that allowed the energy industry to push its agenda through the legislature.

Do you believe Maryland’s gun control laws are too strict, not strict enough or just right?

Not strict enough. Just this June, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence highlighted a Baltimore gun dealer who had committed 900 violations of gun laws. Guns sold from that vendor have been linked to 11 homicides, 41 assaults, 49 drug crimes, and numerous other crimes. In my district of Silver Spring and Takoma Park, violent crime and gang violence continue to be serious issues affecting the quality of our neighborhoods and especially the lives of our youngest and most vulnerable residents.

In Maryland we’ve made a good start at regulating handgun sales, but currently shotguns and rifles are exempt from requirements that they be sold with child safety locks. Moreover, there is no requirement that owners actually use these locks. Shotgun and rifle owners are not required to undergo state criminal background checks and these guns are not subject to the crime-solving ballistic fingerprinting requirements that are required for handguns. We need to extend Maryland’s handgun regulations to rifles and shotguns to prevent gun violence in our communities. The devastating sniper shootings we witnessed not too long ago provide proof of the danger of these weapons.

What is your position on abortion?

I am pro-choice. I stand for full gender equality, including respecting and protecting a woman’s right to choose. While other states are moving to take advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s erosion of the Roe v. Wade principle, Maryland should stand strong by the codification of Roe and the principle of reproductive autonomy. This means guaranteeing a woman’s safety at medical clinics, ensuring privacy of medical records, preventing enactment of any ‘‘notification” laws, and ensuring the process remains safe and equally accessible for all women. Moreover, we must remain ever vigilant about back-door methods of undermining the right to choose, such as so-called ‘‘fetal homicide” bills, one of which my opponent supported.

Should the Maryland constitution be changed to allow same-sex marriages?

Yes. I will not equivocate or whisper on this issue. To deny the right to marry to same-sex couples is unconstitutional discrimination, and I will work to see this discrimination abolished in Maryland. This year, at the request of Equality Maryland, our state’s leading LGBT rights organization, I testified against a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment to Maryland’s Constitution. At the hearing, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs questioned me about whether marriage discrimination against gay people is required by ‘‘God’s Law.” I replied, ‘‘Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn’t place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

Although my statement was run-of-the-mill constitutional patriotism, I was overwhelmed by the response to my testimony. I received hundreds of letters and e-mails, including some fiery hate mail, but most came from gay and lesbian citizens who suffer from being denied the fundamental right to marry the person they love. For me, this is a matter of basic self-respect for all citizens. Marriage equality is a key civil rights struggle of our time, and I refuse to be on the sidelines, especially when I am running for public office. When we look back on this period, I want to be able to say to my kids that I did the right thing.

Does the state need stricter controls to protect the environment?

Yes. Many of the marine species that were flourishing in the Chesapeake Bay when I was growing up are virtually or completely gone now, and the Bay is choking on pollution and runoff from the poultry industry and other sources.

But to get rid of runoff pollution, we need to deal with runoff corruption. I will introduce a bill my first week in office to abolish corporate and partnership contributions in our elections. These contributions are illegal in many states, from Wisconsin, where they are a felony crime, to Texas to West Virginia. The time has come in Maryland too. We need to make political judgments free of the incredible pressure of large corporate contributions, and we also need to stop the political shakedown of honest Maryland businesses. Unlike my opponent, I do not accept or solicit corporate contributions.

We need to conduct a thorough environmental audit of both internal state practices and private industry every year and establish benchmarks for real progress on all of our key environmental indicators. When the Bush administration pulled the plug on the Kyoto accords, the New England states got together to form a regional compact to comply as much as possible with the Kyoto agreement. We should immediately do the same thing in the mid-Atlantic states.

Maryland should be a leader, not a laggard, in confronting the scary realities of global warming. The Arctic icecap is melting away at a shocking pace and there are dragonflies buzzing in the North Pole. More and more land is being consumed by drought and destroyed by severe weather events like Hurricane Katrina. We cannot pretend that global warming is someone else’s problem. Maryland produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 78 nations on earth. We simply have to act.

I want us to make Maryland the model state government in terms of energy conservation and investment in renewable energy technologies. We need general laws that will require clean cars and green buildings and create powerful tax incentives for home insulation, energy efficiency, clean cars, and green buildings. We must resist the pressure to pave over close-in farmland. We need political leaders to focus on future generations rather than present campaign contributions.

Do you favor widening the Beltway? Do you favor toll lanes? How would you pay for them and how would implement them into the system?<P> I do not favor widening the Beltway, nor do I favor toll lanes as they have been proposed. Meaningful solutions to our transportation problems require us as a community to develop innovative ideas and a comprehensive transportation strategy. Simply building larger roads has proven in the past to be ineffective in relieving traffic congestion. I also believe that it would be grossly unfair and inequitable to dedicate taxpayer money to building roads that only certain segments of the community will be able to afford to use. If toll lanes are considered, the money raised from them should go to fund public transportation.

Do you favor building the Purple Line? What kind of transportation do you favor? How would you pay for it and how would you reconcile the effects as it cuts through dense established neighborhoods?

Yes, I believe that the Purple Line is an essential component of a meaningful solution to our region’s transportation problems. I will dedicate substantial effort toward finding and dedicating appropriate funding streams for this critical objective. I favor a light rail system that attempts to avoid as much as possible disruption and dislocation of existing communities.