For Ruben's Senate Posts, the Maneuvering Has Begun
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page GZ03
Never mind that the general election is still six weeks away. The jockeying is underway to fill the shoes of outgoing state Sen. Ida G. Ruben .
Ruben, a District 20 Democrat who joined the Senate in 1987, campaigned for reelection in the September primary by touting her leadership roles: She is the Senate's president pro tem, a largely ceremonial office; sits on the Budget and Taxation Committee; and leads the Montgomery County Senate delegation.
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Her defeat to newcomer Jamie Raskin , an American University law professor, opens up those positions. Raskin is running unopposed in November.
Senators said it is up to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) to recommend a successor for the position of pro tem, whose major duty is to take the gavel when the president is off the floor.
Miller will also select a senator to fill Ruben's seat on the Budget and Taxation Committee. Montgomery has had three senators on the committee for at least a dozen years, and delegation members say they hope Miller will maintain that tradition. The smart money is on Del. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. , the Democratic nominee for Senate from District 19. Madaleno is a member of the House Appropriations Committee; he was a government budget and legislative analyst for more than a decade before being elected delegate in 2002.
"Rich is the most likely successor," said District 16 Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D).
The Senate delegation will elect a chair at a meeting after the general election. Once again, the smart money already knows whom to bet on. "It would be premature of me to say I'm going to be chair, but the bottom line is at this point I have the support of a majority of the senators," said District 39 Sen. P.J. Hogan .
Day-Laborer Site Located
Gaithersburg city officials have found a potential site for a county-funded employment center for day laborers.
City Manager David B. Humpton announced this week that the City Council will consider a storefront at the Festival at Muddy Branch shopping center, on Muddy Branch Road near Interstate 270. The managers of the shopping center have provided a letter of intent to lease 2,050 square feet of space at the eastern end of the property, city officials announced in a news release.
"It is centrally located in the city, public transportation is readily available, and it is easily accessible by contractors and workers," Humpton said in the release.
The council plans a work session on the proposal at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday at City Hall. If the community does not object to the location, the center could open later this fall, Humpton said.
The Montgomery County Council has been pushing the city to find a place to accommodate the laborers, most of them immigrants who had been gathering each morning in the parking lot between another shopping center and Grace United Methodist Church on North Frederick Avenue. City police began barring the laborers last month from that location after the shopping center's owner requested that they no longer congregate there.
