Gus Bauman, a leader of Beveridge & Diamond’s Natural Resources and Project Development Practice Group, had more than a passing interest in the recent election in Maryland, as he explains, below.

Tuesday, November 4 was a bloodbath for the Democratic Party all over the country. Even in solid blue Maryland, the voters shocked the nation’s political establishment by electing a Republican as the next Governor over the “sure-fire winner” Democratic candidate. The voters in Maryland also did something else very revealing, even unusual, but far less shocking.

At the bottom of the ballot, following all the contending candidate names for office after office, was a simple question for each voter—should the State Constitution be amended to prevent the Governor and Legislature from raiding (that’s my word—accurate but impolitic) the State’s Transportation Trust Fund for other purposes unless there is a declaration of emergency and a supermajority vote of the Senate and the House?

You betcha, said Maryland’s voters—by an 80% landslide (in politics, anything over 55% is deemed a landslide). The State’s citizens firmly thrust the Transportation Trust Fund into a lock-box. Sure, it can be pried open, but such an effort will now require a transparency and political hurdles never before existing.

The lock-box idea came out of a Maryland Blue Ribbon Commission that I chaired.  Created in 2010, the Commission was tasked with coming up with solutions to transportation funding problems. As I commented when our group issued its Report in 2011 with some two dozen specific recommendations: “I never saw a Democratic or Republican road or pothole.” The voters clearly agreed with that sentiment on Election Day 2014.

As chief advocate for the Maryland ballot initiative, I was gratified that voters expressed such strong support for this common-sense reform.  Sometimes, even when political trends seem to be blowing in the opposite direction, you can have a really good day.