The House of Delegates is expected to vote sometime today on slots. Apparently, the holdup is being caused by Republicans who were for a referendum before they were against it:
House Speaker Michael E. Busch said last night that the chamber's leaders and O'Malley were working to get the necessary votes. He said that he didn't know how many more votes they needed, but that several Republicans who had said they would vote for the bill have apparently decided against it.It seems clear that the special session will not be put out of its misery today as a conference committee would be needed to reconcile the budget and slots bills. The House has now shifted away from its strategy of passing an identical slots bill to the Senate as it cannot muster the votes for that approach.
"They seem to be wavering on giving the people a vote on slots through a referendum," the Anne Arundel County Democrat said.
However, today may well be the key day of the special session. I imagine that they can delay and keep hunting for votes. At some point, House leaders are going to have to see if they have the 85 votes needed to pass slots. One can only twist this pretzel of a bill so many times to see if enough people are willing to bite.
