Baltimore County Republicans Top Democrats In Business Scorecard

Baltimore County Republican legislators scored higher than their Democratic counterparts in a ranking of business friendly votes cast in the 2013 General Assembly session.

The grades are part of business scorecard of the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session released byMaryland Business for Responsive Government.

Five legislators from Baltimore County received a 100 percent score from the business group—Dels. Susan Aumann, Joseph Boteler, John Cluster, Pat McDonough, and Kathy Szeliga.

All five are Republicans.

Del. Jim Malone, a Democrat who represents Catonsville and Arbutus, was the only state legislator in either the House or Senate to earn a score of zero from the business advocacy group.

The scores are based on votes cast in committee and on the floor by legislators on 10 business-related bills in the Senate and 12 business-related bills in the House tracked by the League of Conservation voters.

Among the tracked legislation were bills authorizing the creation of electricity generating windmills off the coast of Ocean City [the group opposed] and a bill delaying implementation of the controversial stormwater management fee, sometimes called the rain tax [the business group supported].

The 20 individual bills tracked by the environmental group represent a small portion of the more than 2,600 bills introduced in the House and Senate earlier this year.

Overall, Republicans from the county fared better than Democrats on the scorecard.

In the Senate, the two highest scoring legislators representing Baltimore County were Republicans—Sens. Joseph Getty and J.B. Jennings. Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a Democrat, ranked third.  The five remaining Democratic Senators representing Baltimore County scored 57 percent or less, according to the business group’s scorecard.

In the House, the county’s eight Republican legislators scored 86 percent or higher. The 13 Democrats representing the county in the House scored 67 percent or lower, according to the business group’s scorecard.

Senate

• Sen. Joseph Getty, Republican, 5th District  92 percent
• Sen. Norman Stone, Democrat, 6th Disrict 40 percent               
• Sen. J.B. Jennings, Republican, 7th District 83 percent                
• Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, Democrat, 8th District  50 percent       
• Sen. Delores Kelley, Democrat, 10 th District  57 percent           
• Sen. Bobby Zirkin, Democrat, 11th District  80 percent 
• Sen. Ed Kasemeyer, Democrat, 12th District  50 percent          
• Sen. Jim Brochin, Democrat, 42nd District  20 percent

House of Delegates

• Del. Wade Kach, Republican, District 5B  86 percent      
• Del. Joseph “Sonny” Minnick, Democrat, 6th District  67 percent
• Del. John Olszewski Jr., Democrat, 6th District  67 percent
• Del. Mike Weir, Democrat, 6th District  43 percent
• Del. Rick Impallaria, Republican, 7th District  92 percent
• Del. Pat McDonough, Republican, 7th District  100 percent
• Del. Kathy Szeliga, Republican, 7th District  100 percent
• Del. Joseph Boteler, Republican, 8th District  100 percent 
• Del. Eric Bromwell, Democrat, 8th District  64 percent  
• Del. John Cluster, Republican, 8th District  100 percent
• Del. Emmett Burns, Democrat, 10th District  55 percent
• Del. Adrienne Jones, Democrat, 10th District  38 percent
• Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, Democrat, 11th District  29 percent
• Del. Jon Cardin, Democrat, 11th District  29 percent
• Del. Dan Morhaim, Democrat, 11th District  29 percent
• Del. Dana Stein, Democrat, 11th District  29 percent
• Del. Jim Malone, Democrat, District 12A  0 percent       
• Del. Steve DeBoy, Democrat, District 12A  38 percent
• Del. Susan Aumann, Republican, 42nd District  100 percent
• Del. Bill Frank, Republican, 42nd District  86 percent.
• Del. Steve Lafferty, Democrat, 42nd District  14 percent