The Washington Post profiled former Sen. Ida Ruben yesterday:
Every year since 1975, on the first day of the Maryland General Assembly's new session, Ida G. Ruben would walk up the steps to the Capitol and take her place among the state legislators.
She started in the House of Delegates and in 1987 moved to the Senate, where she rose to president pro tem. Over the years she became one of the most powerful members of the legislature, the chairman of the Montgomery County delegation and one of the longest-serving members of the General Assembly.
But yesterday, as the legislators gathered once again in Annapolis, Ruben was not among them. She was defeated in last year's Democratic primary by Jamie Raskin, an American University law professor who argued that District 20, which covers parts of Silver Spring and Takoma Park, needed a more progressive representative.
Ruben's plans for the first day of the legislative session were still up in the air last week -- though she said she would not go to Annapolis. Her plans for the future also are uncertain. But at 78, the Silver Spring resident said she is in no mood to retire."I'm hoping for some door to open," she said. "I prefer working."
