propriate, that we should at this time in
this Convention solemnize them in the Con-
stitution? Do you want to allow this test
tube solution to ride roughshod over the
established political boundaries of this
State? Are not all political subdivisions im-
portant?
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in opposition? Delegate
Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I notice
that Delegate Bard has a question, Mr.
Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bard.
DELEGATE BARD: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to ask Delegate Lord—
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord's time
has expired. I will permit you to ask a ques-
tion when he is permitted to speak again.
Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, ladies and gentlemen of the Commit-
tee, I must say at the outset that I think
that Delegate Bard's proposal contains
many of the features which the Committee
on the Legislative Branch is trying to ob-
tain by its proposal.
As a matter of fact, in all candor, I have
an amendment prepared which is identical
to his in the event that we lose, and so he
saved me that trouble.
I think the important thing to recognize
about this proposal is that it destroys the
basis upon which we approach the bicam-
eral General Assembly, and that is this:
we want the Senator to have three times
the geographical spread, so to speak, at
least three times the population spread of
the single delegate. What we have here is,
presumably, three delegates representing
the identical area which the Senator repre-
sents. Consequently, there really will not
be in those areas where there are three
delegates to the one Senator (the 3 to 1
ratio accomplished in many instances with
the 40 and 120 that we voted upon) a real
difference in perspective between the mem-
bers of House and the member of the Sen-
ate. This seems to me to destroy one of the
arguments and one of the very sound justi-
fications for the bicameral General Assem-
bly, where we had posited that the perspec-
tives would be different. I believe that it
does injury and violence to the kind of bi-
cameral legislature that we were trying to
establish. It may well be that there are
people in this assembly who voted for bi-
cameralism on the theory that there would |
be a different point of view from the sen-
ator compared with that of the delegate. I
think that by and large the effect of this.
approach would be to destroy any different
points of view.
I have to commend the proposal, how-
ever, for retaining the single member ap-
proach for the Senate. It certainly goes a
long way toward eliminating the evil that
we were trying to eliminate in those deli-
cate situations, both delegate and delicate,
where seven or eight people are running
from a House of Delegates area, and the
question of low visibility is at issue. I must
commend the amendment because it goes a
long way toward establishing constituent
identification of who represents a given
area.
We believed, of course, in the Committee
on the Legislative Branch, and I recollect
that the vote was 15 to 5, that it would be
a far better thing if each voter in the State
of Maryland had a single senator and a
single delegate so there would be no ques-
tion that he would have a better oppor-
tunity of knowing who his representatives
were. Now, the proposal of Delegates Lord
and Case has preserved the single senator
concept, but has instead interjected the
possibility or the probability, as the case
might be, of up to three delegates, while
eliminating the evil that we discussed
earlier. In speaking against it, I would say
that while it has many of the merits and
certainly eliminates many of the evils
which the Committee sought to eliminate, it
really does do a basic injustice to our whole
concept or scheme of a bicameral assembly.
I feel that a single member district for
both House and Senate would be a very
dangerous thing. I do not think it is really
experimentation to go to what the Commit-
tee proposed. There are other States of the
Union, including New York, under the
Constitution, which have single member
districts both in the House and Senate.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher,
you have one-half minute.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I will give
you, if I may, just from recollection, the
breakdown throughout the Union: 39 bodies
in 26 states are based exclusively on single
member districts; 5 bodies in 5 states are
based exclusively on multi-member dis-
tricts, and 55 bodies in 35 states are based
on a combination of single and multi-mem-
ber districts; so the suggestion that we go
to a combination of single member districts
in the Senate and multi-member districts in
the House, is not unusual, but I do not |
