Games in Annapolis over gaming in Carroll

     Carroll County's request for changes in the gaming law to allow local fire companies and other community charitable groups to raise funds failed again.
     Why?  One thing among many that I learned while in local government is that games are played withing games in Annapolis and Washington, and if you don't have a pass to the back rooms, you may never know for sure what's going on.
     Transparency is the last thing that power brokers want. They want public relations, they want spin, they want money from their base contributors, and they want the votes of the people, and maybe they want what's best for their constituency. Maybe, sometimes.
     What could have happened to keep the local bill from being passed one more time?
     I speculate here, but perhaps there is a carryover from when Sen. Larry Haines used his influence to keep his word to conservative Christians. Even though he is no longer in office, that  constituency is still here, and local reps know it. They're caught between the rock of the church and the hard place of volunteer fire companies who are the drivers for new funds.
     Perhaps the local delegation is being spanked -- again -- for (1) being too conservative for a state government now led by Democrats; (2) for being divided, in public or not, over the gaming bill for the larger statewide bill. Carroll's electeds in Annapolis get spanked a lot by Democrats, and they tend to squabble among themselves, too, so they don't have a lot of friends in the state house.
     They say the local bill will get a better shot at passage in the next regular session, but firefighters and others have been hearing that for a long time.
     Time will tell, and time is more credible that most of the PR you're hear until actions speak for themselves.