Chairmen wield power, influence on Assembly

Successful legislation is often built on sweat and circumstance, a product of hard work and the right politicians pushing for a change in the law.

For winemakers and wine lovers, the 2010 General Assembly session showed both ways the legislative pendulum can swing, with the culmination of years of effort to reform Maryland's winery regulations but another delay on eliminating the ban on shipping wine directly to consumers.

Their priorities were aided - or, some say, hindered - by Del. Mary Ann Love, D-Glen Burnie. She not only chairs the local House delegation but also leads the House's Alcoholic Beverages Subcommittee, placing her at the head of the line for scrutinizing liquor bills.

Subcommittees are one of the first steps in the legislative process. In them, small groups of politicians gather to tap into a bill's benefits and flaws. Although the subcommittees take on specific areas of legislation such as pensions, banking and minority health disparities, their chairmen and chairwomen are the wonky links in the chain of power threading through the presiding officers.

Like the chairmen of full committees, the leaders of subcommittees often find themselves laden with the mantle of hero or villain, savior or obstructionist, depending on the fate of an individual's priorities.

"It is an interesting job," said Love, 70 years old and a member of the House since 1993. "I got a lot of bruises, but I am a big girl."

Love was the House sponsor of the Maryland Winery Modernization Act, which clarifies previously arcane and conflicting statutes by creating a single statewide license for wineries, allowing them to sell at farmers' markets and ending restrictions on such things as having tables and chairs for customers.

Kevin Atticks, executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association, described it as a "complete reformation … bringing the laws into line with the evolution of the industry."

"We really have been in an unstable legal situation. Every day a winery was open to inspection and all kinds of liabilities."

Love said she helped arrange meetings before the session between representatives of the wine industry and alcohol retailers and wholesalers in order to work out their disagreements on the bill.

"The best thing we did … was to bring both sides together," she said. "It is interesting down here (in Annapolis) … how much you don't know about one another."

Atticks said Love proved to be an "invaluable resource" in such cases.

"She was an advocate early on in this process," he said. "It was Chairman Love who really pushed forward."

Consensus search
This process is emblematic of how Love says she tries to approach her job in leading a subcommittee and the local House delegation.

"I like to bring people together," she said.

But there can be a fine line in public perception between consensus-building and unending delay - as can be seen in the continuing debate over whether to allow direct wine shipping to customers.

The House version of that failed bill had 80 legislators as sponsors, a majority of the chamber that included politicians as disparate as the conservative Republican Del. Don Dwyer of Glen Burnie and Del. Tom Hucker of Montgomery County, once the executive director of the liberal advocacy group Progressive Maryland.

But several important names were missing, including Love's, and advocates for the bill said legislative leaders were enslaved by alcohol lobbyists. They dismissed arguments from distributors that the bill could lead to underage drinking.

In a resignation statement in March, Adam Borden, former executive director of Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws, said the resistance in this year's General Assembly session, which ended earlier this month, can be traced to this being an election year.

"Our leaders fear angering what is arguably the most generous political patron in the state at a time that every incumbent delegate and senator desperately needs campaign funds," his statement said.

The rhetoric has cooled a little since then, although Paul Hoffstein, who took over for Borden as MBBWL's interim executive director, placed some of the blame for the bill's defeat at Love's feet.

"She has been a problem and consistently a problem," he said.

Love's own campaign finance reports open the door for such criticism.

In September 2009 alone, she received more than $2,000 in contributions and ticket purchases from groups and businesses associated with the alcohol industry, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. Contributors included Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits, owned by County Councilman Charles Ferrar, the Maryland Beer Wholesalers Association and Anheuser-Busch.

The power of committee and subcommittee chairmen also has become an intense target of scrutiny this year for advocates in areas such as sex-offender and drunken-driving laws. These advocates have focused on the way one powerful person can stop what a whole chamber may want.

"The committee system tends to attract people who are against things," Hoffstein said. "The numbers are on our side. The system is not on our side."

Delay with purpose
Love disputes this, saying that when it comes to her votes or the contributions to her campaign accounts, there is no reason to think she is doing anything unusual or unethical.

She also believes lobbyists can provide valuable information for busy legislators whose duties involve many different subjects.

"The idea that all lobbyists are bad is another bad idea too," she said. "It is just the way the process is."

Love said her primary concern during the session was passing the modernization laws because all parties agreed on them. She insisted that she had no ideological opposition to direct shipping. But trying to take up a controversial bill could have endangered the other reforms.

"Both sides should have a fair shot at everything," she said. "I won't have it any other way, because you won't get anything done."

Next year could be the turning point for the direct wine shipping bill. Love and other legislative leaders have said in public and in conversations with advocates that it will be a priority.

"I made them a promise," she said.