06-05-2022 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 20
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Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, June 5, 2022
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2022
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
MAGGIE MCINTOSH
F
ew Baltimoreans serving in elected office in Annapolis
have had a bigger impact than Maggie McIntosh. The
chair of the Maryland House of Delegates’ Appropriations Committee was the first woman to serve as House
majority leader and the first openly gay member of the
General Assembly. She has had tremendous influence, as
both a colleague and frequent mentor, on generations of
political activists within the Maryland Democratic Party
and is widely acknowledged to be smart, hardworking and
politically astute. And there’s little doubt that residents of
Baltimore will miss the power she wielded on behalf of her adopted hometown,
when the 74-year-old former junior-high schoolteacher retires at the end of her
term this year, after a 30-year career as a delegate.
“Her retirement leaves a huge gaping hole,” says Luke H. Clippinger, a fellow
city delegate and chair of the House Judiciary Committee. “Neighborhoods in
Baltimore are getting new schools in large part because of Maggie. She knows
how to make the system work.”
Landmark education reform may well represent the capstone to the political
career of the librarian’s daughter from Kansas, who first came to Baltimore after
graduating from Wichita State University in 1970 with a degree in arts education.
Her years as a public school art teacher, eventually chairing the department at
what was then Herring Run Junior High School, informed her outlook on that
subject — as did the possibility of Herring Run dropping arts instruction, as city
public schools grappled with funding shortfalls. Flash forward to 2018, when a
planned retirement as a city delegate was postponed so she might help lead the
charge for improved K-12 education, an ambitious plan eventually known as the
Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
The blueprint was approved
last year (with enhanced funding
in 2022). Throw in 2020’s Built to
Learn Act, which added $2.2 billion
to Maryland’s school construction
program, and her legacy in public
education is undeniable.
How she got from Point A as a
teacher to Point B as an accomplished politician is also instructive.
With summers off, Ms. McIntosh
chose to get involved in the political
campaign of Mary Pat Clarke when
shefirstservedontheBaltimoreCity
Council. From there, Ms. McIntosh
joined the New Democratic Club,
helped Anne Perkins get elected
to the House (where Ms. Perkins
became the first woman to chair a
majorcommittee),andwenttowork
for the Commission on Aging and
Retirement Education advocating
for seniors before enrolling in Johns
Hopkins University to earn her
master’sdegree.In1986,acareer-defining opportunity arose. Ms. McIntosh got a call. It was from U.S. Rep.
BarbaraMikulski’soffice.Wouldshe
please help the congresswoman get
elected to the U.S. Senate?
Ms. McIntosh said no. Actually, she was too busy earning her
degree. But shortly after Ms. Mikulski won her Senate seat, the phone
rang again. Would she please serve
as Senator Mikulski’s state director?
She said yes. And what came next
was an intensive education in politics, the state of Maryland and how
to connect with people of differing
interests, backgrounds and political
affiliation. In other words, helping
the senator deal with local issues
from Garrett to Worcester counties
wasgraduateschoolforasoon-to-be
politician.
“I nicknamed her ‘Tip O’Neill In
Earrings’ because of her ebullient
personality and her way of wanting
to reach across the aisle to form alliances,” Ms. Mikulski recalls. “She
always takes time to listen. That’s
why everyone today refers to her by
her first name. It’s always Maggie.
She’s become her own brand.”
Ms.McIntoshsoongotthechance
to make her own mark, beginning
with her appointment to a vacated
District 42 House seat in 1992 and
then winning reelection every
opportunity since then, even when
court-supervised redistricting took
awaynine-tenthsofherbasein2002
and plopped her in District 43. No
matter. In just 10 weeks, she simply
out-hustled the competition and
ended up as the leading vote-getter
in her new district.
“That was the most amazing
campaign I’ve ever been involved
in,” says Linda Eberhart, a longtime friend, Democratic activist
and retired teacher. “She has such
passion. She is so determined to
make things happen.”
As a part of House leadership, initially as an appropriations
subcommittee chair, then majority
leader and later chair of the House
Environmental Matters Committee
beforeanunsuccessfulbidtobecome
House Speaker in 2019, Maggie left
an imprint on a wide variety of legislation, from efforts to clean up the
Chesapeake Bay to advocating for
the Port of Baltimore and city transit projects. But she become most
famousforheradvocacyonbehalfof
the LGBTQ community. She did this
first by “coming out” in 2000 during
a debate on public accommodations
(sheneverhidhersexualorientation
but hadn’tdiscussedit publicly prior
to then) and later as a leader in the
successfuldrivetolegalizesame-sex
marriage in Maryland, which had to
survive a statewide referendum in
2012. Soon after, she married her
partner, Diane Stollenwerk, a health
care consultant. A decade later, they
remain happy and devoted to each
other.
Maggie’s leadership opened a
lot of opportunities for other gay
men and women who followed
in her footsteps, including Delegate Clippinger, and is regularly
approachedby studentpages. These
high-achieving high school seniors
are well aware of how she’s opened
doors for them, and they just want
to thank her. Such encounters mean
the world to Ms. McIntosh.
Educationfunding,LGBTQrights,
ending the death penalty; the Chesapeake Bay cleanup: “When I go to
sleep at night, these are the things I
think of,” Maggie says when asked
about her legacy. “People call me
a generalist. I tried not to get hung
up in the weeds but to get disparate
groups together to find consensus.
But you know what I’m most proud
of? To have built a team with great
depth and to know when I walk out
the door, they’ll take over and rock.”
“Her retirement leaves
a huge gaping hole.
Neighborhoods in
Baltimore are getting
new schools in large
part because of Maggie.
She knows how to
make the system work.”
— Luke H. Clippinger,
a fellow city delegate
and chair of the House
Judiciary Committee
AT A GLANCE
Age: 74
Hometown: Quinter, Kansas
Current residence: Baltimore
Education: B.A. from Wichita State
University; master’s from Johns
Hopkins University.
Career highlights: Baltimore City
Public Schools art teacher; adjunct
instructor Catonsville Community
College; community service planner
and grants analyst, Baltimore
Commission on Aging and Retirement
Education; campaign manager
and state director for U.S. Senator
Barbara A. Mikulski; associate for
federal relations,The Johns Hopkins
University; delegate, Maryland
House of Delegates (1992-2022):
chair, Personnel Subcommittee on
Appropriations; vice chair, Commerce
& Government Matters Committee;
House majority leader; chair,
Environmental Matters Committee;
chair,Appropriations Committee.
Civic and charitable activities:
Board member at various
times: New Democratic Club;
Greater Homewood Community
Corporation; Penn North Charles
Planning Council; Ready at Five;
Action in Maturity; Marian House;
Union Memorial Hospital; BaltimoreChesapeake Bay Outward Bound;
Harry R. Hughes Center for AgroEcology; and Arts Every Day among
other organizations. Also served on
the Commission on Innovation and
Excellence in Education and the
Work Group on the Assessment and
Funding of School Facilities.
Family: Married to Diane
Stollenwerk, two grandchildren.