Coach Busch: Profile of the powerful House speaker as hometown family man

From MarylandReporter.com

A weary House Speaker Michael Busch talks to reporters after session.

Shortly before the House of Delegates began the final debate leading up to its historic vote to approve same-sex marriage in Maryland, Speaker Mike Busch made one of his routine stops into the press room downstairs from his corner office in the State House. Most of the reporters had already left to claim a seat in the crowded House chamber above.

Usually the speaker is an almost daily visitor to the press quarters, bantering with the scribes, razzing some of the old-timers, and even, on occasion, giving a rendition of the poem “Casey at the Bat.” When asked a question on the record, he switches into his “speaker” voice, a precisely worded monotone that seldom goes off message—unlike the daily post-session media gaggles on the steps of the Senate rostrum by Senate President Mike Miller that often produce news. Of the two Mikes, Busch actually seems to like the company of reporters.

In the days leading up to the vote, Busch had been fairly scarce in the press quarters, preoccupied with rounding up votes to support a measure to which he had been a late convert. But that late afternoon, Busch looked relaxed, confident, and clearly in charge of the situation. He expected a close but positive vote after a debate that would allow him to make the 8 p.m. dinner reservation at Café Normandie for his wife Cindy’s birthday.

Three hours later, after the razor thin 72-67 vote, a teary-eyed Busch was in the State House lobby, being hugged and kissed by the delegates he leads, surrounded by celebrating gays, talking to reporters about what some call the civil rights vote of his generation. (He would then head over to Main Street to meet Cindy and his two daughters for the birthday celebration.) As he described it in an interview later, “the place was rockin’.”

Powerful pol and hometown family man
The story illustrates two key aspects of Busch. As the longest serving speaker in Maryland history, he shares immense power with the governor. He is also a hometown family man who lives in a modest house on McKendree Avenue in the Homewood section of Annapolis and knows thousands of residents of the capital city from a quarter-century of knocking on their doors in election campaigns.

The power of the speaker of the House as leader of an overwhelming Democratic majority is real. He controls every appointment to every committee, including those for the Republican minority, he manages the flow of legislation and appoints people to major boards and commission. But the trappings of power are fairly modest. The Honorable Michael Erin Busch has a large corner office with a view of the governor’s mansion, a small personal staff, a parking spot on State Circle, a state trooper who acts as both guard and driver of a Crown Vic when he wants it.

Annapolis resident Mike Busch is a graduate of St. Mary’s High School on Duke of Gloucester Street, a former history teacher and football coach there. He lives in a gray-shingled single family house with three small bedrooms his wife and two daughters complain about. He works a full-time job as assistant to the director of recreation and parks (where he’s been for 32 years), and coaches his daughters’ basketball and lacrosse teams. At home, he is not “Mr. Speaker” as he is addressed dozens of times each day. “Sometimes they think I’m just the ATM in the corner,” he says.


Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/2012/04/16/coach-busch-profile-of-the-powerful-house-speaker-as-a-hometown-family-man/#ixzz1sQvsbgUd
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