On my first day as a page for the Maryland House of Delegates, page coordinator Cornelia Watson told us not to blink because session, our only structured time, would end just that quickly. She wasn’t kidding in the least.
Every day, the 10 House pages would gather about 15 minutes before the start of session, and about a half an hour later, we could hear Speaker of the House Michael Busch begin the call for announcements, which signaled that the session was about to conclude. Session wouldn’t start again until 10 or 11 am the next day. The other pages and I were incredibly confused at first. Here we were, in the state capital, missing an entire week of senior year schoolwork for 45 minutes of official work per day? It didn’t make sense.
As pages, we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. Attending committee hearings and exploring Annapolis occupied most of my time. Luckily, the other pages and I found ourselves in the same place, without friends or family, and all looking for something more intriguing than sitting in on a dry budget and taxes committee hearing.
While most of the committee hearings during my week focused on non-controversial topics, my friends and I witnessed some lively debate in the Senate Committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs regarding election law.
The proposed legislation proved to be highly relevant in light of the recent special election in Massachusetts to fill the US Senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy. State Senators James Brochin and Jamie Raskin proposed a bill to call for a Maryland special election in the event that a vacancy arises due to death or other unforeseen circumstances.
During my second week, the House Judiciary Committee had dozens of same-sex marriage proponents and opponents lining the halls of the House office building. My fellow pages and I waited four hours in the committee meeting to hear these testimonials and we were far from disappointed with the heartfelt stories on both sides.
The second week in Annapolis always proves to be busier than the first, according to Watson, but my second week turned out to actually be thrilling. While the sessions were still short and few controversial bills ended up on the floor, several delegates, including Harford County Delegate Donna Stifler, debated a slots bill on the floor that would allow some fraternal, religious, and war veterans’ organizations to operate the machines for charity and for the organization itself.
Work on the floor became extremely exciting during my second week as delegates actually paged us for more than just a cup of black coffee. Not to mention on March 5, the other pages and I had our picture taken with US Senator Ben Cardin. Because we finally had work to do, I’d say we actually earned our $50 a day during the second week.
After committee hearings, or any time the pages needed time to reconvene and relax, we would head to the State House and meet in the Page Lounge. Watson explained to the other pages and me that the Page Lounge could be used at any time, day or night, during our free time. While we never did break out the Twister mat, we tried to have a Risk tournament in our ample hours of free time.
We gathered in the cold, closet sized room every day after session to decide what our days’ plans would include. Would we delve into the Colossal Burger at Chick and Ruth’s? Maybe try some salmon sushi at the locally recommended Tsunami?
My life in Annapolis tended to center around food. By the end of the week, we’d found the best hot chocolate in Annapolis and, my personal favorite, heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies.
When we were finished traipsing around the city every night, my three roommates and I retired to our page housing, otherwise known as the basement of a bed and breakfast. “The dungeon,” as we called it, allowed us to have sleepover-like conditions every night.
We’d wake up in the morning to a harmonious Taylor Swift song and repeat the process all over again. As monotonous as the week seemed at times, the pages and I experienced politics at its deepest roots with our local politicians. As a future politics major, I realized that week one of the page program showed me that as high-profile as Congress may seem, the Harford County community mostly feels the aftershock of the tough calls and sometimes unfavorable decisions that our local representatives must choose to make every day.
Katie Clarke can be reached for comment at [email protected]