Notes

Ehrlich's Entrepreneur Agenda

On June 7, Gov. Bob Ehrlich unveiled his comprehensive statewide business agenda to rescue Maryland's ailing small businesses. As a candidate for State Senate District 5, I fully support these initiatives proposed by Gov. Ehrlich and will work to shepherd the corresponding legislation through the Maryland General Assembly.

In an address given to a crowd of over 100 people at Reter's Crab House in Reisterstown, Gov. Ehrlich focused on three main objectives: (1) change the government's negative mindset towards small businesses, (2) solve the unemployment insurance crisis, and (3) lower Maryland's tax burden on business.

Citing the failures of Gov. Martin O'Malley's misguided business policies, Gov. Ehrlich informed the business leaders present that Maryland's national business rankings have been in freefall over the last four years - plummeting from 24th best to 45th worst business climate. Moreover, Gov. Ehrlich noted that 3,000 small businesses have closed in the past year and the statewide unemployment rate has doubled since 2006.

While announcing his proposal, Gov. Ehrlich decried the harsh impacts of O'Malley's 20% increase in the sales tax. The increased sales tax rate harms Maryland retailers that are small businesses by encouraging consumers to cross state boundaries for big-ticket consumer goods or to shift purchases to mail-order and internet sales. Expanding on his commitment to reverse the 20% hike championed by O'Malley, Gov. Ehrlich also explained how this "regressive" tax hike disproportionately hurts Maryland's working families and low income earners.

Gov. Ehrlich concluded before a standing ovation that once elected, the Ehrlich Administration will be "the vehicle for small business people to be heard in Annapolis and for their businesses to prosper in Maryland." 

Memorial Day - Thomas Ocker

The annual Memorial Day parade in Westminster is considered one of the oldest and continuous traditions in tribute to fallen soldiers in the United States. The first Westminster Memorial Day observance was organized in 1868 by Mary Bostwick Shellman who led a children’s parade to decorate the graves of Civil War veterans in the Westminster Cemetery.  My great-great-uncle, Captain Thomas Ocker, was one of the Union casualties who was honored at that first “Remembrance Day” in Westminster.

Like many local men who volunteered for service in the Union Army, Ocker served in the 6th Regiment, Maryland Volunteer Infantry. He mustered in on August 18, 1862 as a private in Company C and was later promoted to Sergeant in the same company. On May 1, 1863, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant of Company F and later was promoted to First Lieutenant on November 17, 1864. He was again promoted on January 23, 1865, to Captain of Company A.

At twenty-seven years old, Ocker was mortally wounded during the Petersburg Campaign in an engagement known as the Battle of the 3rd of April. Union and Confederate troops had fought for over nine months as the Union Army held a siege over the Confederate trenches protecting Petersburg, Virginia. On the morning of April 2nd, General Grant attacked the weakest part of the Confederate fortifications and broke through but lost 1,100 men in fifteen minutes.

In a contemporaneous report filed by Lt. Col. Joseph C. Hill of the 6th Regiment Headquarters, the engagement was described as follows:
“On the morning of the 2nd instant we filed out of our main works and formed the center of the first battle line of the Second Brigade, the One hundred and tenth Ohio Volunteers, on our right and the One hundred and twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteers, on our left. At our about 5 a.m. the command to advance was given, and the line moved forward, completely routing and capturing the entire picket-line of the enemy in our front, after which this command dashed forward and succeeded in planting the first colors on the enemy's works in our front, supported for some minutes by a small band, consisting of six officers and about twenty men, during which time Major C. K. Prentiss, Captain Thomas Ocker, First Lieutenant Thomas Duff, and Second Lieutenant Thomas H. Goldsborough were severely wounded. The regiment being formed, we charged straight down the enemy's works, capturing many prisoners and assisted in capturing a battery of four guns, which were immediately turned upon the flying foe. The colors of the above-named battery were surrendered to First Lieutenant Samuel W. Angel, of this command.”

For his gallant and meritorious service, Ocker was brevetted Major on April 2, 1865. The surrender of General Robert E. Lee occurred at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9th. Ocker died from his wounds nine days later on April 18, 1865. He was buried at the Westminster Cemetery.
A few days later, a Westminster newspaper published the following death notice:

“It becomes our painful duty to-day to announce the death of Captain Thomas Ocker, of Company A, 6th Maryland Regiment. He was wounded in the battle of the 3rd of April, near Burksville, Va, and was brought to City Point Hospital, where he died on Thursday morning last. His remains were brought home on Saturday and interred on Sunday afternoon by the Order of Sons of Temperance, of which he was an honored and faithful member. A very appropriate and touching funeral discourse was delivered by Rev. John A. Munroe, and a few feeling remarks made by Rev. Jonathan Munroe, the remains were followed to their final resting place by the largest concourse of people we have seen assembled on a similar occasion for many years. He was a young man of great moral worth, a true soldier, and held in the highest estimation as well by the men under his immediate command as our entire community. He was among the first to enlist from our place in defence of his country, and nobly has he sustained himself to the end. And while we regret that he has been denied the enjoyment of that Peace which his efforts aided to bring to our country, we feel a proud consciousness that his life has been sacrificed in a noble and just cause, and that his memory will ever be cherished in association with the great and good who have also fallen.”

This Memorial Day 2010, may we cherish the memory of those who have served, and especially of those who have perished, to defend the freedoms that we all treasure so deeply as citizens of the United States of America.

Sine Die Tribute to Delegate Dick Matthews

Sine Die.  It is a Latin phrase that appears in the Maryland media frequently during early April of every year.

Under the Maryland Constitution, the General Assembly meets annually for ninety days – beginning on the second Wednesday of January and running until it adjourns Sine Die at midnight on the last day of the session.

The literal translation of the phrase Sine Die means “without day.”  In legislative lingo, it means final adjournment.  It signifies the closing of the legislative session without resumption.  For the legislature to meet after Sine Die, it must convene a new regular session or special session and start anew all legislative processes (committee appointments, bill filing, etc.).

I’ve been involved with Maryland’s legislative process for the last fifteen years. Beginning in 1995, I served in the House of Delegates for eight years and on Governor Robert L. Ehrlich’s policy staff for four years.  During the last three years, I have served as counsel to the Republican Caucus in the Maryland Senate.

Over those years, I enjoyed a personal Sine Die tradition of my own.  Each year, I would call former Delegate Richard C. Matthews to chat about session issues and the closing of another chapter of Maryland’s legislative history.  Known as “Dick” to his friends and colleagues, he served in the General Assembly from 1967 to 1995 and saw many Sine Dies during his long and productive tenure of twenty-eight years.

Dick was a reluctant politician.  When my father was involved in local politics, he organized a slate of candidates to run for the Republican State Central Committee for Carroll County during the 1962 primary election.  Trying to balance the slate with representation from throughout Carroll County, he encouraged Dick as a Hampstead businessman to run for party office.

As the owner/operator of the Matthews Service Station (a Sinclair dealership), Dick was reluctant because of a concern that serving in political office might interfere with his business operations.  However, he finally agreed and thus began his distinguished public service career for the residents of Carroll and Baltimore Counties.

Dick was also an unassuming leader in the House of Delegates.  His confident but laid-back style suited his constituents well.  He shunned the high-profile backroom dealings at the State House, preferring instead the conservative position that the best bill was a “dead” bill.

Dick championed many small business issues during his legislative career.  As his service station business evolved over the years to include the Hampstead Auto Parts store and then transitioned out of gas and parts sales into a full-service tire business, he understood the challenges facing small business owners throughout the state.

For most of his legislative career, Dick served on the House Judiciary Committee.  There, he was an early leader in the movement to reform Maryland’s drunk driving laws. Also, he was an outspoken and ardent opponent of plea bargaining in the criminal justice system.

He was a key legislator for issues on the agenda of the National Federation of Independent Business, the largest advocacy organization representing small and independent businesses in the United States.  As a member, he sponsored tort reform legislation to protect small businesses against frivolous lawsuits and excessive punitive damages.

On other business issues, Dick opposed legislation by labor unions, such as prevailing wage laws, that would raise the costs to taxpayers for state construction projects.  He also promoted free market concepts such as the “right-to-work” legislation that he introduced in the 1980s.

More that anything else, he voted for his constituents to guard their hard-earned dollars as taxpayers against excessive and wasteful government spending.  He was an old-school politician who preached small government and was tight with the state budget purse-strings.  During his many campaigns, his trademark hand-out was a flat sponge that expanded when placed in water emblazoned with his campaign motto as the “Common Sense Conservative.”

After his retirement in 1995, Dick always said that his greatest legislative accomplishments were the actions to kill the many bad bills that came before the legislature every day.  He returned to the career that he loved as a small businessman in Hampstead and worked pretty much up until the day he died – on December 13, 2007 at the age of 81.

When Dick was in the House, I frequently stopped by Matthews Tire Store to chat about state politics.  He always had a different perspective from what you read in the Baltimore Sun.  Speaking with him, one could get the real scoop on what was happening in Annapolis – and many local residents took advantage of the opportunity to stop by and get his opinions about current events.

Dick was my legislative mentor.  During each session, I called him many times to seek advice as a legislator or to commiserate about the slowly expanding liberal take-over of the Maryland legislature.  But my calls to him on Sine Die were particularly special.

Last Monday was Sine Die, and I missed my annual call with Dick Matthews.