Conway new chair of Appropriations

ANNAPOLIS — As a high school student in Wicomico County more than 40 years ago, Norman H. Conway was asked to write down a life goal he thought would be impossible to achieve. His answer: win election to the Maryland legislature.

In 1986, Mr. Conway reached what seemed to him as a teenager to be an impossible goal when he was elected to the House of Delegates, 26 years after graduating from Wicomico Senior High School.

Now he is moving into the top ranks of the legislative leadership as the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The post gives him considerable influence in setting state fiscal policies, deciding what to cut from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s budget and how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for construction projects across the state.

Mr. Conway was chosen as chairman by House Speaker Michael E. Busch to replace Delegate Howard P. Rawlings, a Baltimore Democrat and a towering figure in state government who died of cancer in November.

The new job, the Wicomico County Democrat said, is an awesome challenge.

“There is no way that I will even attempt to say that I will fill his [Mr. Rawlings] shoes. I know that I have my own prints to make,” Mr. Conway said.

Mr. Busch, Anne Arundel County Democrat, was under pressure to appoint someone from Baltimore to replace Mr. Rawlings, but the speaker said Mr. Conway, who was vice chairman of the committee, had earned the right to lead the panel with his years of hard work in the legislature.

“Norm is revered by everyone,” Mr. Busch said. “I haven’t heard anybody in my 18 years here say a negative word against Norm.”

The appointment also was a gesture to rural Democrats, who had been shut out of top House leadership positions as they faced increasing pressure from Republicans who are gaining constituents in their districts.

“It’s important for them [rural Democrats] to be vested in the leadership of the House,” Mr. Busch said.

Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus, Somerset Republican, said the choice was “a very significant message, that was very needed, to the rural areas that they now have representation in the leadership of the House.”

Mr. Conway, 61, was born in Salisbury and has lived there all his life. He graduated from public schools, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from what was then Salisbury State College and has spent 38 years in the county’s public school system.

In Annapolis, Mr. Conway has built a reputation as a genial, soft-spoken legislator who works very hard.

“He’s not razzle-dazzle. He’s not going to be colorful, but I think he’s going to do his homework extremely well,” Mr. Stoltzfus said. “It’s my impression he shuts down the House Office Building routinely. He’s the last man out, and it’s because he is working hard.”

After Mr. Conway graduated from high school, he said he wanted to be a teacher because many of his teachers had been “role models who were very much interested in their students.”

He spent 24 years at Pinehurst Elementary School as a teacher, vice principal and principal before moving to the school board, where he still works as administrator of federal programs.

His interest in politics was piqued by people he met and admired as a boy, including Salisbury Mayor Rollie Hastings, whom he met while delivering the Salisbury Daily Times. He also became friendly with another politician, Joseph Long, and got into a bit of trouble with the Daily Times when, along with his newspapers, he delivered flyers promoting Mr. Long’s race for city council.

Mr. Conway was elected in 1974 to the city council, a post he held for 12 years before moving on to the legislature.

Asked to describe where he stands politically, Mr. Conway said his politics are a mixture of liberalism on some issues and conservatism in fiscal matters.