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ministration of justice throughout the
country and causes the public to lose con-
fidence in it. It seems to me that if we
pass this amendment we will greatly en-
hance the confidence of the public in the
administration of justice and in our whole
judicial system.
I hope the amendment will pass.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Mason.
DELEGATE MASON: Mr. Chairman, I
rise, reluctantly, to oppose this amendment.
I appreciate the purposes for which Dele-
gate Byrnes sponsored this amendment, but
I do not think it will accomplish the pur-
poses. The fact .that you make the office
non-partisan certainly would not take poli-
tics out of running for state's attorney.
Now, it is a fact that in this State we
only have about four or five full time
state's attorneys, and as I understand, in
some counties you have to even draft
state's attorneys, and you have to go to
another county in some counties to become
a state's attorney. So I think, with the ex-
ception of four or five counties, including
Baltimore City, there are not too many
candidates for the office of state's attorney.
Also, I do not think it should be in the
constitution, because we have mandated in
the constitution what should take place in
the primary elections, and I think primary
elections are party elections and nothing
should be designated in the constitution
about primary elections.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. President,
would Delegate Byrnes yield to a question?
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Byrnes,
will you yield for a question ?
DELEGATE BYRNES: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: This is the second
time you take the floor, and the last on
this question.
DELEGATE CLAGETT : Delegate
Byrnes, in lieu of your amendment, would
you accept in line 34. after the article "the"
which heads the sentence, "method of elec-
tion" ?
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Clagett,
your last comment was not heard.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Insert the word
"this" in line 34.
THE PRESIDENT: The Chair is lost.
Are you referring to page 13 or to the
amendment, now?
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DELEGATE CLAGETT: Page 13, sec-
tion 4.34, the caption is "state's attorney".
THE PRESIDENT: And in line 34—
DELEGATE CLAGET.T: After the arti-
cle "The" which begins the sentence on that
line, insert after the article "the" the words
"method of election,".
THE PRESIDENT: This is not an
amendment of the existing amendment at
all, as I understand it.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: I am asking
whether he would accept that amendment
in lieu of his amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
Delegate Byrnes.
DELEGATE BYRNES: I think the
phrase in line 36, "all other matters", would
probably include what you are seeking .to
suggest.
THE PRESIDENT: I take it you are say-
ing No?
DELEGATE BYRNES: I would have to
say No.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Delegate Rybczynski.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: I think we
all heard the discussion during the judi-
ciary section as to the problems with cross
filing. As I remember, there were many
speakers, probably including Delegate
Byrnes, who told us then of the evils
attached to cross filing, that the judge
candidates are forced to deal with various
political leaders, not just on one side, but,
as a matter of fact, on both sides. They
have to make all sorts of promises to do
favors, and I do not think I have to repeat
all of the problems that were presented
by the very same people dealing with the
very same problem, but on another topic.
I would strongly sugest to the delegates
here that cross filing would not take any-
thing out of politics, but rather using the
same argument, if they want to do it com-
pletely, they will have to do it by way
of commissioners.
I strongly suggest that we defeat this
amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Grum-
bacher.
DELEGATE GRUMBACHER: Out of
sympathy for Judge Powers' pocket, I
move the previous question.
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