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I am sorry ,to have to put this into the
Constitution. I should much rather leave it
to law, but since we have an indication in
the action of the General Assembly that
they do not want to do it by law, I see no
other way to do it. I shall, therefore, sup-
port the proposal.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any delegate desire
to speak in opposition ? Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Two brief
points, Mr. Chairman. One is that this parti-
cular provision would run afoul, it seems
to me, of what we have already adopted in
the first report in the legislative branch in
those years in which the presidency occurs
in the dicentennial year, that is to say in
1990, 2010, et cetera. The difficulty would
be this. The legislature in that particular
year is required to enact or accept the
Commission plan for the redistricting of the
State. It must act within seventy days and
then there must be time to have the matter
litigated in the event any registered voter
desires to challenge the plan adopted by
the General Assembly or the Commission
plan.
If we are going to hold a primary election
prior to the national conventions, which
usually meet in July or August, it seems
to me we are going to be cutting ourselves
much too short in time to have the legisla-
tive redistricting plans considered by the
courts. Undoubtedly they will always be
challenged at least in the early occasions
when redistricting is undertaken. It would
seem to me, therefore, that we present real
time difficulties for ourselves if we were
to require this primary before June or
July.
A second point in this. Maryland, it seems
to me, has had a very sad experience with
presidential primaries. If all the candidates
for the presidency were to run in the Mary-
land presidential primary, that would be
fine and good but we know what happened.
We have had people come in here who
really did not turn out to be bonafide can-
didates for the presidency. We have had to
dig up opposition to them, we have ripped
up the party of the State of Maryland so
far as the Democratic Party is concerned
trying to oppose people who do not turn out
to be genuine contenders for the presidency
anyhow. When the legislature repealed the
presidential preferential primary, it did so,
it seems to me with these things in mind.
As much as I would like to see the people
of Maryland have an opportunity to indicate
whom they would like to have nominated
by their parties, it factually and practically
is a very difficut matter.
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When you bind delegates to vote for a
candidate on the basis of who decided he
wanted to run in Maryland, you get the
delegate going to the Convention committed
to voting for someone who may not at that
point of the game be a candidate at the
National Convention. It seems to me you
nullify the power of the delegation, both
Republican and Democrat, at the national
convention.
So as a practical matter, these primary
preferences have not worked. Maryland has
been a prime example of how miserably
they have worked to the detriment of the
people. They have invited people in reality
to come into this State and we have been
very unhappy with their presence and we
were only too glad to see them gx>. I do
not think this amendment will achieve the
very ideal goal it seeks.
T.HE CHAIRMAN: Any other delegate
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
Delegate Willoner.
DELEGATE WILLONER: Mr. Chairman,
I would like to ask Delegate Gallagher if
he will yield for a question.
THE CHAIRMAN: He cannot at this
time. His time has expired. I will give him
the opportunity later. Any other delegate
desire to speak in favor? Any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition ? Dele-
gate Schneider.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: Yes, sir, I
would like to speak in opposition to this
because I do not think it does what its
proponents say it does. It merely requires
that a primary election be held prior to
the party convention. It does not require
that the delegates be elected in the primary
election. So really the legislature could
provide that the delegates to the state con-
vention are appointed by the central com-
mittee or appointed by any other body.
This would just require that there be a
primary election at which we could elect
our candidates for Congress or nominees
for Congress and at certain times the
United States Senate.
I think further it is a legislative matter,
and though if it did require that the dele-
gates to state convention be elected by the
people or that the people vote on the ques-
tion of who they wanted to be their nomi-
nee in the presidential election, it would
have merit. I think we should refrain from
putting things which are legislative in just
on the basis that they are good. I think
even though the legislature might not do it,
we should write a basic structural docu-
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