E.J. Pipkin
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| Edward J. Pipkin | |
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State Senator Maryland District 36
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 8, 2003 |
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| Preceded by | Walter M. Baker |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | Dundalk, Maryland |
| Political party | Republican |
Edward "E.J." Pipkin is a Republican member of the Maryland State Senate, representing Maryland's 36th Senate district, and was first elected in 2002. Prior to his election to the state senate, he worked in the field of business finance, trading junk bonds in New York City. Pipkin currently lives in Stevensville, Maryland.
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[edit] Education
Pipkin grew up in Dundalk, Maryland, and went to Dundalk High School. He attended Salisbury University, but received his B.A. from Roanoke College. He received an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia.
[edit] Senate campaign
In the 2004 U.S. Senate election, Pipkin ran unsuccessfully against incumbent senator Barbara Mikulski. As a millionaire, his campaign was primarily self-financed, with 70% of his campaign money coming from his personal fortune. As a conservative Republican in a heavily Democratic state, he only received 34% of the vote to Mikulski's 65%. Pipkin was considered to be a possible candidate for the seat of retiring senator Paul Sarbanes in the 2006 Senate election, but he did not file.
[edit] Chesapeake Bay Bridge
As a resident of Stevensville, Pipkin himself has been affected by traffic congestion on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and has fought to reduce the problem. In 2005, he proposed a set of bills, which ultimately failed to pass, in that year's Maryland General Assembly session, known as the "Bay Bridge Users' Bill of Rights". The bills would have, among other things, made various modifications to the governing board of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA), banned trucks from the bridge when one of its dual spans is carrying two-way traffic, required the installation of an automatic lane-changing system, and waive tolls whenever backups extended beyond a certain point. Later that year, Pipkin was one of the 22 citizens appointed by Governor Robert Ehrlich to serve on the Bay Bridge Task Force, to explore the possibility of building a new crossing of the Chesapeake Bay.
In the 2006 Maryland General Assembly session, Pipkin once again tried to pass parts of the Bay Bridge Users' Bill of Rights, this time more successfully. Among the bills that passed that year included the one that made various modifications to the governing board of the MdTA (e.g. addition of two appointed members; imposition of three term limit of service; lengthening of terms to four years, rather than three years; etc). Along with Delegate Mary Roe Walkup (R-Dist. 36), Pipkin also proposed a bill to remove the Baltimore County-Kent County crossing from the list of crossing locations that could potentially be studied in the future; however, that bill did not pass. Also during 2006, Pipkin worked collaboratively with MdTA to promote successful legislation that doubled the amount of violations fines that could be issued for overweight tractor-trailers crossing the bridge.
