James Brochin


James Brochin is an American politician from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary election for County Executive of Baltimore County, Maryland, losing to winner John A. Olszewski Jr. by a mere 17 votes of the 87,222 ballots cast in a four-way race.
He served three terms in the Maryland State Senate, representing Maryland's District 42 in Baltimore County, being replaced in 2019 by Chris West.
During the 2010 campaign, he raised $344,316, had $131,245 on hand, and spent $225,413 on his campaign.
On his website, he writes: "Over the last 9 years, I have always voted my conscience placing my constituents’ best interests above anything else. As I promised 9 years ago, my votes have reflected fiscal conservatism combined with a great concern for protecting open space and saving the Chesapeake Bay. I continue to remain an independent thinker, placing policy before party."

Background

Born in Baltimore, Brochin earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1986, and earned an M.A at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1990.
In 1989 he was a legislative analyst for the Maryland Senate President as well as a political analyst for WCBM Radio. From 1990 to 1991 he was a lobbyist in Baltimore County. From 1990 to 1998 he was a political science instructor at the Catonsville Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County. From 1994 to 2011 he taught at Towson University. From 2000 to the present he has been an insurance broker. From 1994 to 2001 he was a senior political writer for Baltimore Magazine.
In 2003, he was dubbed Legislator of the Year by the Maryland State Attorneys Association. In 2004, he was dubbed the Legislator of the Year by the American Institute of Architects. Since 2005, he has been a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Committee membership

Brochin has served three terms as a state senator representing the 42nd legislative district.

Election of 2002

In 2002, he very narrowly won the seat for state senator with 22,709 votes, Martha Scanlan Klima, the Republican incumbent, had 21,781 votes.

Election of 2006

In 2006, he won against Douglas B. Riley, a Republican, who garnered 19,084 votes or 43.7%. Brochin garnered 24,588 votes or 56.3% and write-ins included 30 voters or 0.1% of the electorate.

Positions in 2007 legislative session

He was the lead sponsor of the following legislation.
In 2010, Brochin won with 24,346 votes or 58.39% of the vote.

Support of medical marijuana

In 2010 during the debate over medical marijuana in the Maryland General Assembly, Senator Brochin professed his support for medical marijuana. In a mailed form letter on 6.9.10, Mr Brochin wrote: "I supported the medical marijuana bill which could relieve the suffering of our most vulnerable citizens. allows someone who has pain through a chronic or terminal illness to be prescribed medical marijuana. Medical marijuana has been shown to stimulate appetite for those that must undergo chemotherapy."

LGBT issues

In 2011, The Washington Post reported that Brochin would support same sex-marriage in the state of Maryland: "Brochin said at a news conference that while he has been willing to support civil unions between gay couples previously, the word "marriage" was a "stumbling block". He later called testimony from same-sex marriage opponents "appalling and disgusting.... I just heard hate and venom coming out of that hearing."
The Advocate found similar statements from the senator. In the article he is quoted as saying: "What I witnessed from the opponents of the bill was appalling... Witness after witness demonized homosexuals, vilified the gay community, and described gays and lesbians as pedophiles. I believe that sexual orientation is not a choice, but rather people are born one way or another. The proponents of the bill were straightforward in wanting to be simply treated as everyone else, and wanted to stop being treated as second-class citizens. For me, the transition to supporting marriage has not been an easy one, but the uncertainty, fear, and second-class status that gays and lesbians have to put up with is far worse and clearly must come to an end."
In March 2013, the Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2013, came up for vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. The bill, which would have added gender identity and expression to existing state law prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations, failed to pass the committee in a 5-6 vote. Brochin cast one of the six opposing votes, effectively blocking the bill from receiving a vote by the full Senate.

Positions in 2011 General Assembly Session

Brochin's website lays out every bill the senator has supported. Some positions he held were controversial.

Positions in 2012 General Assembly Session

As an effort to mitigate the anger of the populace against Baltimore Gas and Electric owned by Constellation energy, Brochin held a meeting in Towson High School. The Baltimore Sun reported "The meeting, held at Towson High School, was attended by dozens of residents who spent the first week of September in the dark — and won't let BGE forget about it...But after the presentation some level of vitriol was common from the speakers... For his part, Brochin said one of the reasons to bring up Irene three months later is to evaluate priorities for restoration after such outages."
The Towson Patch also had an article on the subject, "State Sen. James Brochin moderated a Monday evening town hall with representatives of BGE at Towson High School, where officials listened to complaints and concerns of more than 30 residents and promised to do better... During the question-and-answer session, which lasted for more than an hour, residents grilled Carostens and McDaniel on what happened during the August storm and the lessons learned."
One person posted audio of the whole meeting in a number of different videos on YouTube.

Candidacy for Baltimore County Executive (2018)

Brochin ran in the 2018 Democratic primary election for Baltimore County Executive. In a candidates' forum on June 6, 2018, he had pledged to end what he termed "Pay-to-play politics", saying that developers have gained advantage by making large campaign donations.
He lost to winner John Olszewski Jr. by a mere 17 votes of the 87,222 ballots cast in a four-way race. Because of the narrow margin, a recount was conducted by election officials, who announced the result on July 14, 2018.: