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by Mike Sarzo
Prince George's Sentinel
Thursday, August 24, 2006
In the midst of a busy campaign schedule, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) visited The Sentinel newsroom last Wednesday to outline his thoughts surrounding issues including early voting, alternative fuel sources, terrorism and term limits.
Hoyer expressed disappointment with Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge Ronald Silkworth's Aug. 11 decision to strike down early voting provisions voted in by the General Assembly and upheld when Gov. Robert Ehrlich, Jr.'s efforts to garner enough signatures on a petition to force the measure on the ballot failed.
"Voting was made more difficult" by the decision, Hoyer said. "What we need to do in America is to facilitate [voting]. Early voting was designed to do that."
Silkworth ruled that allowing voting on more than one day in November violated the state constitution. He also ruled that allowing voters to cast ballots outside their home precincts violated the constitution.
"Tuesday is not a magic day," Hoyer said, adding that "a lot" of states have early voting. "I'll be interested to see what the appellate courts have to say."
He said that, while the state constitution specifies that elections take place on a Tuesday, that "does not mean you can't have voting on days other than Tuesday." The failed attempt by Ehrlich to garner enough signatures was characterized by Hoyer as people saying "why not" when confronted with the petition.
Even with prices at the pump still hovering around $3 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline despite a drop that saw some gas stations charge $2.88 per gallon for their lowest grade, Hoyer pushed a bill he sponsored called the Program for Energy Security Act, also known as the PROGRESS Act. He said the bill would promote the use of alternative fuels in light of the prospect that China, India and Brazil would place new demands on the world's petroleum supply.
"We need to have a very high focus on energy efficiency," Hoyer said. He added that until the U.S. develops viable alternatives to petroleum as a fuel source, "we're somewhat held hostage to oil developing countries... it is a huge mistake for future generations that are not going to have petroleum."
With national security on the lips of many in the election season, Hoyer said portraying the Democratic party as being weak on terrorism and national defense was inaccurate.
"Democrats are committed to defeating terrorism and defending America," Hoyer said. "Woodrow Wilson defeated the Germans [in World War I], [Franklin] Roosevelt defeated the Nazis and the Fascists in World War II, [Harry] Truman contained communism, [John F.] Kennedy stared down [Nikita] Khrushchev, [Bill] Clinton united the world in defeating [former Serbian dictator Slobodan] Milosevic and stopping genocide in Bosnia."
Over the past few years, Hoyer sponsored a bill that, if ratified, would repeal the 22nd Amendment prohibitions against Presidents serving more than two terms in office if elected or more than one elected term if they assume the Presidency more than two years into their predecessor's term. He said he didn't agree with term limits, and that he received bipartisan support.
"Every two years, I have to be reelected," Hoyer said when asked about his support for repealing Presidential term limits. In a democracy, "the public ought to have the opportunity to retain or reject," politicians. Hoyer said that Republicans who pushed for the 22nd Amendment "feared another Roosevelt," who was elected to an unprecedented four terms, but died shortly after his fourth inauguration.
Hoyer also commented on the Senate race for the successor to retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.).
"Ben Cardin is the most capable legislator I've served with in 40 years," Hoyer said. "He is one of the country's experts in health care, tax fairness [and] fiscal responsibility... I think he will be an extraordinary asset to our country [in the Senate]." He added that there are three good candidates for election as the state's Attorney General to replace the retiring J. Joseph Curran, Jr., with Stuart Simms, the former running mate for Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan, drawing his support.
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