On Tuesday, March 14 the Maryland Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee once again considers Convention of States. This would not have happened without the sponsorship of courageous legislators like Senator Justin Ready.
Senator Ready represents District 5, including Frederick and Carroll Counties, and has sponsored our resolution in the Senate for two years now.
As a thank-you, and so folks can get to know him better, we reached out to Senator Ready with some interview questions, which he was happy to answer.
1. What first made you want to be a State Senator?
I first ran for State Delegate in 2010 with the intent of making Maryland more affordable for families, retirees, job creators, and our farmers and to stand up for common sense, conservative values. Governor Larry Hogan appointed me to the Senate in February of 2015 to replace Sen. Joe Getty who had joined his administration. I’ve continued to fight for real conservative reform and change in Maryland since that time...to help make things better for all our citizens.
2. What’s your favorite moment serving in the state legislature?
I was able to pass landmark legislation protecting pregnant women and unborn babies before the age of viability when a crime of violence is committed against them by someone who knew the woman was pregnant. Before Laura & Reid’s Law, a person who knowingly murdered a pregnant woman and caused the death of a child before 24 weeks of gestation was treated as no differently than another other murder. Now there can be an additional felony charge. This seems like common sense or even not good enough, but it was a Herculean effort to get it through a very resistant General Assembly. Second, I always enjoy defeating a bad bill – as I believe that’s as much if not more important than passing good legislation.
3. What do you believe is the biggest problem in politics today?
Lack of perspective of the country's history and how there needs to be balance in the way we look at problems. It seems that so many can’t see how every policy choice has tradeoffs, and you must weigh those. There’s also a lack of understanding of how using the government to accomplish any goal can be turned around when different people are in power. Every action sets a precedent.
4. Who is your favorite Founding Father, and why?
It’s hard to narrow down to just one. Ben Franklin’s common-sense wisdom and diplomatic skill, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams’ brilliance, George Washington’s greatness and dedication to duty…I would probably say General and President Washington.
5. If you could ask or tell him one thing, what would it be?
How did you deal with the disagreement and second-guessing that came with setbacks during the Revolutionary War and during the Constitutional Convention?
6. What made you want to support Convention of States?
When I first learned about COS I was interested but hesitant because of my concerns about runaway conventions and just trying to understand how realistic it is. What moved me into full support and now, being the lead sponsor of the bill, is that I believe it can really be a tool to bring people together to place real restraints and guardrails on our exploding and overly intrusive federal government, re-centering most of our decision-making at the state and local level where it belongs. I believe it has the potential to de-weaponize national politics so we can get back to focusing on limited, key priorities as outlined in the Constitution and use states as the laboratories they were intended to be.
7. What do you believe is the biggest obstacle to COS in Maryland, and how might it be overcome?
Sadly, we have a General Assembly dominated by one party and its members generally come from very liberal districts. They are suspicious of reform legislation that is perceived as coming from conservative sources and they don’t really necessarily see a problem with the federal government being extremely powerful as our state benefits economically in their view. However, we will keep working on them.
The COS Maryland team is grateful to Senator Ready for all his efforts in the Maryland legislature, and encourage writing him hand-written notes to thank him personally.
CONTACT SENATOR READY
It is because of dedicated legislators on all sides of the aisle that the COS movement will achieve its goal! The majority of American voters from both political parties agree that there is a problem in Washington D.C., and Article V is the answer!
