The Chair recognizes Delegate Powers,
Chairman of the Committee on Calendar
and Agenda.
DELEGATE POWERS: Mr. President,
I move the Convention resolve itself into
the Committee of the Whole in order to
resume consideration of Committee Recom-
mendation LB-I.
THE PRESIDENT: Under Debate
Schedule No. 1?
DELEGATE POWERS: Under Debate
Schedule No. 1.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there a second?
(Whereupon, the motion was seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: All those in favor,
signify by saying Aye; contrary, No. The
Ayes have it. It is so ordered. The Com-
mittee of the Whole will come to order.
(Whereupon, at 2:37 P.M.. the Conven-
tion resolved itself into the Committee of
the Whole.)
(The mace was removed .by the Ser-
geant-at-Arms.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Gallagher, Chairman of the
Committee on the Legislative Branch to
resume his presentation of Committee Rec-
ommendation LB-I. Delegate Gallagher?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, ladies and gentlemen of the Commit-
tee, recognizing with Benjamin Franklin
that a full belly maketh a dull brain, the
presentation this afternoon will probably
be more limited than that this morning.
1 concluded my remarks on single mem-
ber districts by saying that it is, of course,
tied in with the bicameral recommendation
in the earlier section and also with a rela-
tively small-sized House and Senate. Any
significant increase in the size of the House
and Senate would do injury to the concept
of the single member district, in view of
the fact that it would considerably lower
the number of people represented and
make the districts much more parochial.
1 turn now to consideration of section
3.05, the qualifications of legislators.
I should like to read it: "To be eligible
as a senator or delegate a person shall
be a qualified voter of the State of Mary-
land at the time of selection or appoint-
ment, shall have been a resident of the
State for at least two years immediately
preceding his election or appointment,
and shall have been a resident of his |
senate district for at least six months im-
mediately preceding his election or ap-
pointment. If, however, any redistricting
plan for senate districts has been adopted
within one year before a general election
for the General Assembly, he shall be
eligible in that general election to run
either in the senate district in which he
resides, or in any other senate district
containing 50 per cent or more of the
population of the senate district in which
he resided prior to redistricting. To be
eligible as a senator, a person shall have
attained the age of twenty-five years and
to be eligible as a delegate, he shall at-
tain the age of twenty-one years at the
time of his election or appointment."
To dispose, I would trust, of the less
controversial section of this recommenda-
tion, that is, the age qualification for both
House and Senate, I would say simply that
all four of the Maryland Constitutions
from 1776 on have contained identical
twenty-one years of age qualifications for
the House, and twenty-five years of age
qualifications for the Senate, without ex-
ception; the only really significant change
was, of course, the property qualifications
that existed in the 1776 Constitution.
Section 3.05 with respect to a two-year
residency in the State of Maryland is a
decrease of one year from the present
requirement of the Constitution of 1867
that one be a resident for at least three
years immediately preceding his election.
The significant aspect of the six months
residence requirement in the senate district
is twofold: There was considerable senti-
ment in the Committee for the Legislative
Branch to have no residency requirement at
all within either the senate district or the
house district, and it was a rather large
sentiment. In other words, if one were
simply a voter, a citizen, and for two years
a resident of Maryland, it had been pro-
posed that one should be allowed to run
for any senate seat or any house seat.
However, it was felt that, although the
charge of carpetbagging against one who
came in from a district in which he did
not reside would perhaps be effective most
of the time, nevertheless there should be
some residence qualification within the
senate district. The compromise that was
adopted, therefore, was this: that so long
as one lives within the senatorial district,
he can run for the Senate and no matter
where he lives within that senate district,
he can run for any of the three House
seats. One need not be, therefore, a resi-
dent of the particular house district from |
