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Hammen's star on the rise in House of Delegates
By Jill Rosen
Sun reporter
January 31, 2006
It wasn't the longest speech. Or the fieriest. Certainly not the
flashiest.
But Peter A. Hammen's remarks to the House of Delegates on the Wal-Mart
bill, unquestionably the most-watched legislation Maryland's General
Assembly has debated this session, boasted one key point: They came
first.
As a brand-new committee chairman, one of just six in the 141-member
House, speaking first is only the beginning of the political clout that
Hammen now can wield in Annapolis.
As head of the Health and Government Operations Committee, the
Baltimore delegate will help define the course of Maryland health care.
Hammen's 11-year measured and understated rise through the State House
ranks seems to defy conventional wisdom that nice guys finish last. In
fact, his low-key resolve is likely what led to his promotion to one of
the legislature's most powerful positions.
Hammen's no-frills introduction to the Wal-Mart debate proved to some
that he's handling the newfound authority with a blend of sincerity and
studiousness.
"He was very clear in getting forth just what the bill really did and
did not do," says Del. Elizabeth Bobo, a Howard County Democrat. "And
it wasn't just the substance of what he said, but the manner in which
he said it. So calm, so slow, not like some people spitting it out like
bullets.
"Listening to him made me feel proud to be a member of the body."
With Hammen's promotion, Baltimore City delegates own two of the six
chairmanships. Leading the health committee is particularly meaningful
in a state where the health care industry plays a major role in the
economy.
"It's a very powerful position," says Hammen's predecessor, John Adams
Hurson, who resigned from the committee chairmanship and the Assembly
to join a Washington trade association. "The doctors, the hospitals,
the insurers, they all have to come to him."
In Maryland, all bills must get a committee's blessing before moving to
the full chamber. By controlling the committees, chairmen can shape
bills, kill bills or even hold bills for leverage. At the end of the
day, chairmen leave their mark all over Maryland law.
Though many jockeyed for the health committee position, Hurson says he
told House Speaker Michael E. Busch, "It's got to be Pete."
"He gets all the complexities," Hurson says. "The [health care]
interest groups are very powerful and have enormous resources at their
disposal to sway legislators. You must be very knowledgeable, very
serious and you must be trusted - Pete is."
Busch agreed.
"First of all he's a very hard worker," the speaker says, adding that
Hammen is also diplomatically adept, able to tell people "no," but work
with them later. "He's got excellent temperament," Busch said.
"When I chaired a committee, I wanted to see 140 friends on the floor,"
he said. "Peter, I think, has got that same mentality."
Hammen grew up in a house where the phone was always ringing.
His father, Donald G. Hammen, served for 11 years on the Baltimore City
Council and finished American Joe Miedusiewski's term in the House of
Delegates.
He schooled Hammen on "constituent work," which for a young boy meant
listening politely to people's problems when they called the house,
then making sure he got their message down and into the right hands.
Interestingly enough, that's more or less the "constituent work"
Hammen's still doing three decades later.
Since winning a seat in the House at age 29, Hammen's political
strategy seems to have been more a way of life: to be as available to
and as interested in the people of his district as humanly possible.
On his turf, which spans affluent waterfront neighborhoods and grittier
inland haunts, Hammen is a regular at community meetings and advocacy
organizations. He also mediates tense meetings between developers and
residents through the Fells Point Task Force.
He and his wife, Michelle, live in his childhood home in Brewers Hill,
and he wears his blue-collar Baltimore roots with pride. He says he
remembers with respect how rough his grandfather's hands felt after 54
years of making brooms at a Canton factory - and that's irreplaceable
insight in a district like the 46th.
"In Southeast Baltimore, you can't put on airs. You're going after the
rats or cleaning the backed-up sewer. Peter understands that," says
Perry Sfikas, a former senator from that part of town.
"Yet because he is incredibly bright, he can operate in an environment
like Annapolis."
Cut from the Paul S. Sarbanes mold of substance over style, the
39-year-old Hammen wins over constituents - and colleagues - with
plain-spoken guilelessness. He's earnest in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge
world, so much so that when he offers up a well-worn political spiel
like "I try to be helpful to the citizens of the state," folks tend to
believe it.
"Americans expect elected officials to behave like buffoons," Sfikas
says. "It's nice to see someone who carries himself with some dignity
and respects the office."
Adds Del. A. Wade Kach, a Republican from Baltimore County who serves
on Hammen's committee: "There are people down here who like to hear
themselves talk and like to make the quotable quotes so they can be on
the news, but he's not that."
Last week, Hammen wore the same forest green jacket to chambers four
days in a row. With his cardigan sweater vest (which showed twice) and
wire-rim glasses, Hammen comes off bookish. When he rocks back in his
chair to listen to debate, folding his hands in his lap, it's all but
professorial.
He rejects the label "policy wonk," yet admits he likes nothing better
than being up to his ears in the minutiae of legislation.
Just a few issues on his committee's slate this session include
oversight of physicians, stem cell research, medical coverage for
domestic partners and making insurance more affordable for small
businesses.
Hammen's biggest initiative and proudest accomplishment was creating a
health insurance plan in 2003 for Bethlehem Steel Corp. retirees who
faced losing their benefits.
He got involved after hearing about a friend's father. Hammen said the
retired steelworker with health problems was really scared.
Brian K. McHale, a delegate from Hammen's district, says his colleague
stepped in when everyone else shrugged their shoulders.
It was "something other elected officials would think is beyond them,"
McHale says. "It's not, it just takes imagination."
Adds another member of Baltimore's delegation, state Sen. George W.
Della Jr.: "He was looking at these retirees in our district and trying
to figure out a way to help them.
"I can't tell you the amount of time he spent working on that, but he
was absolutely right."
This session, Hammen wasted no time focusing on one of his priorities:
getting more addicts into drug treatment programs.
At the group's first briefing session, he explained why that issue
means so much to him.
One night about a year ago, Hammen got a knock on his door at home, he
said. It was a woman who lived nearby, the mother of boys he grew up
playing ball with.
"She was in tears," he said. "In fact she was trembling."
Her son was a crack addict. She didn't know where else to turn.
Hammen helped get the woman's son into treatment and says the man is
now working and providing for his 3-year-old daughter.
"This is not just a Baltimore City issue," he concluded. "I hope we can
come together and start working on this, start addressing it properly."
With goals like these on Hammen's plate, next to the demands of
legislative leadership, Della's not sure his friend will be able to
continue his time-consuming regime of "constituent work."
"When you're chair of a committee, everyone just wants a piece of your
time," Della says. "His sleeves are gonna be tattered cause everyone is
gonna be pulling on them."
But Hammen's not ducking the challenge.
"More access to affordable, quality health care," he says, "that's the
end game."
jill.rosen@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun