ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Years after volunteering for the gubernatorial and Senate campaigns of Douglas Wilder and Barbara Mikulski, J. Sandy Bartlett had a conversation that would prove to be life-changing.
Bartlett had been approached by then-state Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr. about running for a delegate seat in his district — which encompasses Fort Meade and Severn — but decided it wasn’t the right time to run for office. That changed when she spoke with state Sen. Pamela Beidle, who was a delegate at the time. Bartlett shared with Beidle that she wasn’t going to run.
“She looked at me and she said, ‘Really? You would have made a really good
delegate,’ ” Bartlett recounted in her office. “She gives me this list.”
Beidle’s list of reasons Bartlett should run included pointing out that she was a young, smart African American lawyer.
Bartlett added, “Later, her words kept kind of reverberating in my mind. And I thought, ‘Huh, how dare I not run?’ ” for a seat in Anne Arundel County.
Now, with one session under her belt, the Democratic state delegate from District 32 spoke of the excitement and challenges that illustrate what it’s like when a freshman legislator takes on the Maryland General Assembly.
Bartlett, a 53-year-old Maryland City resident, said volunteering for Wilder and Mikulski in college inspired her.
“I liked reading about people that I could see their path and they seemed like regular, everyday folk who made a decision to do something to make life better for other people,” Bartlett said. “It just kind of defined what my life had been, and where I could see my life going.”
At the time, she saw that as helping candidates — not being a candidate herself. But now that she’s in office, those lessons have shaped her priorities as a delegate.
Bartlett said that she has always had the desire to help “vulnerable people,” and that means focusing on legislation that would positively impact Marylanders with mental illness, incarcerated individuals, children and minorities.
One of those pieces of legislation, House Bill 1248, focused on helping sexual assault victims. The bill that she sponsored would have prohibited physicians from disclosing — when seeking compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board — narratives describing alleged offenses against sexual assault victims as well as photos of the victims, according to the Department of Legislative Services.
Bartlett said via email that she saw the bill as important “because it addressed yet another issue of privacy for the victims” of sexual assault.
The bill ended up dying in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, but Bartlett said she is going to keep working on similar bills moving forward.
Lisae Jordan, executive director and counsel for the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, worked with Bartlett on the bill and said in a phone interview that “she will be a star.”
“This is my 26th legislative session and her first, and I use the comment sparingly,” Jordan added. “She is not only passionate, but also took the time to learn the system and understands what her role is as a legislator, what our roles are as advocates.”
Another bill Bartlett sponsored, House Bill 947, would have established a work release program for qualified female inmates serving life sentences. Female inmates who have served at least 15 years of a life sentence would have been released from their correctional facility to work a job under state supervision, while still being incarcerated at the facility during nonwork hours. After receiving an unfavorable report by the House Judiciary Committee, Bartlett said she withdrew the bill. She added, however, that she is going to “tweak” it because she’s still receiving letters from inmates hoping for such services.
In all, Bartlett was the primary sponsor of four bills during her first session, and the co-sponsor of many others. None of the bills for which she was a primary sponsor passed, but the Senate version of Bartlett’s House Bill 774, which will require a firearms study to be conducted by the governor’s office, was signed by Gov. Larry Hogan, according to the General Assembly website.
Among the focuses of the study include investigating the number and types of criminal charges associated with firearms specifically used in crimes, and gathering information on whether “the individuals found in possession of crime firearms were previously prohibited from possessing a firearm,” according to the bill’s fiscal and policy note.
Bartlett said that she learned many lessons after going through the state legislative process for the first time.
“It’s helpful if you put things in early, and get them back early enough that you can tweak” them, she said.
She added that she should have fought harder against some amendments and pushed her committee chair harder on moving her bills forward.
“I’m going to do more of that,” Bartlett added. “Because, look at all these bills they have. And if you don’t bug them, they get lost.”
Bartlett also said she was proud at how she became a questioner during bill hearings, which she learned from the late speaker of the House, Michael Busch, who was part of the Anne Arundel County House delegation with her. Busch died last month after a battle with pneumonia. Bartlett recounted that Busch would always ask “a ton” of thoughtful questions.
“I admired him so much. … I personally saw him as like a 10-foot giant,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett said she developed close bonds with many other lawmakers in the Anne Arundel County delegation. One of them, Del. Heather Bagnall (D-District 33), said in an interview that she views Bartlett as an “extraordinary” person and leader.
“And she’s not just a great leader, but she is a profoundly empathetic and kind and thoughtful legislator,” Bagnall added.
Del. Mark Chang, a Democrat who hails from Bartlett’s district and chairs the Anne Arundel County delegation, said in a phone interview that he knew Bartlett for about five years prior to her entrance into office because of “her involvement in the community.” Chang applauded her “genuine leadership” and collaborative approach as a delegate.
Chang added, “I think that she will continue to master the skill of shepherding policy through, whether it be her own” or policies of other people.
Already looking forward to her next session in 2020, Bartlett said she plans to revisit her bills that didn’t pass this year, including the bill aiming to improve privacy for sexual assault victims and another bill that would make reforms at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women.
Bagnall said Bartlett is someone to watch moving forward.
“I think we’re gonna see her champion a lot of women’s issues,” Bagnall said. “And particularly, you know, we’re going into a very different era. For the first time in a long time, Anne Arundel County is not the priority of the speaker.” But the new speaker may usher in some new opportunities, she said.
Del. Adrienne Jones, a Democrat from Baltimore County, was recently elected the first-ever African American woman speaker of the House after Busch’s death.
“We have a couple of glass ceilings that our new speaker has broken,” Bagnall said. “And I think you’re gonna see delegates like Sandy Bartlett, like myself, like Alice Cain — freshmen who were finding our footing this year — really championing some of those social justice issues and women’s issues and equity issues” that may not have been highlighted in the past.