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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
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