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Maryland Democrats, demoralized by their partys losses in November, have found a rallying cry: protect education spending.

Senior members of the House and the Senate joined the states largest teachers union at its headquarters in Annapolis on Tuesday to protest a budget proposal by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) that would curb planned funding of k-12 education in the coming fiscal year.

It is important for us never to cut back on our commitment to education, House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said at the packed event, at which the Maryland State Education Association unveiled a Web site where parents can see the potential impact of Hogans proposals on classrooms in their county.

Prince Georges County, for example, would get $6,909.92 less per classroom next year than expected, according to the Web site, which features a play on Hogans Change Maryland campaign slogan. The altered version: Dont Shortchange Maryland.

The news conference followed weeks of debate among Democrats over how to stand up to a Republican governor who prevailed at the polls by promising tax cuts and calling for spending restraint. It came a day before Hogan is scheduled to deliver his first State of the State address, which aides say will call for bipartisan cooperation in Annapolis and lay out the governors legislative agenda.

Hogan has stressed that his budget proposal still calls for record spending on K-12 education, even though counties would receive $144 million less next year than under current spending formulas.

We actually increased spending on education, Hogan said during a radio interview last week, in which he seemed on the defensive. We just didnt increase at the rate that people would like us to and that we would like to, frankly.

The governors aides pressed the same point Tuesday in e-mails and interviews, and noted that Hogan proposed spending $290 million next year on public school construction, roughly on par with levels of recent years under a Democratic governor.

We disagree that there are cuts, Hogans budget secretary, David Brinkley, told reporters in the basement of the State House. Brinkley said it is crucial to get spending under control following a period of escalating borrowing by the state, and said Hogan made some tough decisions in order to close an inherited $800 million shortfall.

While Hogan voters are likely to appreciate those considerations, Democratic lawmakers could get some traction with the public by standing up for education spending, some analysts said.

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As budget battle heats up in Annapolis, Democrats rally around schools funding

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday continued their assault on President Obamas signature accomplishments and his ambitious budget proposal. But they faced stiff resistance from Democrats.

The developments illustrated how a GOP majority in both chambers is no guarantee that Republicans will get what they want.

The Republican-led Senate tried and failed to move ahead on a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security but strip it of money for Obamas executive actions on immigration. The Republicancontrolled House again voted to repeal Obamas sweeping health-care reform law, a symbolic move that stands no chance of taking effect. And in both chambers, Republicans sought to shoot down Obamas $4 trillion budget in advance of releasing their own plans.

Senate Democrats blocked a $40 billion DHS funding bill that passed the House and would cover the department through September. They oppose the bill because of the GOPs effort to stop Obamas executive actions on immigration, including his decision to stem the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants.

The move leaves unresolved whether DHS will receive a new funding bill before current spending runs out Feb. 27. The agency is bracing itself.

A shutdown of the DHS in these times is frankly too bitter to contemplate, but we have to contemplate it, said DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.

The vote to proceed to debate on the bill fell almost entirely along party lines, with all 46 Democrats uniting to leave Republicans short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.

Sen. Dean Heller (Nev.), whose state is home to many Hispanic residents, was the sole Republican to join with Democrats. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted no, but only as a procedural tactic that allowed him to bring the bill up again.

Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters that a clean DHS spending bill meaning one without provisions regarding Obamas immigration actions would be the only measure Senate Democrats could support.

Ahead of the vote, Democrats claimed Republicans were risking shutting down a key government agency amid heightened concerns about terror threats. Republicans countered that Democrats were acting unreasonably by preventing even an initial step forward on the measure.

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GOP majority faces problems as Democrats block bill to fund DHS in immigration fight

No Democratic strategy got more attention in 2014 than the party's ritualized slamming of the conservative Koch brothers. From Harry Reid's floor speeches to TV ads broadcast across the country, Democrats bloodied the billionaire brothers and they candidates they fundedyet most of the Koch candidates won anyway.

But one of Democrats' top campaigners has a bold message for his colleagues: Despite the losses of 2014, double down on the Kochs in 2016.

It's one of several strategiesincluding the vaunted "war on women" playbookthat many Democrats hope to resurrect in the next election, even as Republicans scoff and other Democrats push for the party to change course.

Paul Tencher, who managed Democratic Sen. Gary Peters's victorious 2014 campaign in Michigan, says his team's efforts demonstrate that the strategy is too potent to give up, especially with the Kochs' political network planning to spend a gargantuan $889 million in 2016. Tencher says their methods are the only way to keep the ever-growing influx of Koch-network money from swinging elections.

"We have to be smarter and more disciplined about shutting off the spigot of outside money," Tencher said in an interview. " This isn't just about bruising up the Koch brothers and raising money. It's about shutting off that spigot and making their brand incapable of carrying the Republican message.

"There's nothing worse than a campaign manager who talks about how campaigns should be run," Tencher laughed. "It's a choose-your-own-adventure business, and some others had strategies that worked as well. But I think other campaigns could and should have bought into this messaging better."

Yet not every Democrat wants to double down on the Kochs. It's expensive, for one thing, to raise the profiles of businessmen most people have never heard of in order to attack them. "I think the Kochs are a great fundraising foil, but I continue to believe they're not the best line of attack for Democrats," said Travis Lowe, a Democratic ad-maker.

"Any number of entities used the Kochs as a foil last time, and it didn't work," Lowe continued. "That doesn't mean it can't in a better environment. But ... there are better arguments."

And Republicans have long jeered Democrats' attacks on the Kochs;they say the Democratic Party's record in 2014 speaks for itself. "When you're cleaning out the fridge, if it stinks, you get rid of it," said GOP strategist Brad Todd. "The Democrats have been totally unwilling to clean out their campaign fridge after 2014."

Democratic Senate strategists caution that nearly two years before the 2016 election, they have made no decisions about whether the Kochs will figure as strongly in their messaging as they did last year. But Tencher says his Michigan experience shows that a Koch-focused attack has promise.

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Should Democrats Double Down on Attacking the Koch Brothers?

In the wake of big Republican victories in 2010, new conservative majorities in state legislatures across the country passed laws that rolled back a decade-long trend of expanding access to the ballot box. Democrats fought back, in the few states they still controlled, by expanding early voting, mail-in voting and new registration rules.

Now, Oregon Democrats are trying something even more aggressive: A proposal likely to pass the legislature this year would further ease the hassle of voter registration by automatically adding eligible citizens to the voting rolls.

Secretary of State Kate Brown (D) introduced the measure Monday in testimony before the state House Rules Committee in Salem. Brown said the bill would add an estimated 300,000 voters to the registration rolls by scraping data from the Department of Driver and Motor Vehicle Services.

Brown said DMV data from as far back as 2013 would reveal hundreds of thousands of citizens eligible to cast a ballot. The measure introduced this year isnt as aggressive as a version that passed the House but failed in the Senate by a single vote two years ago.

Democrats, who picked up two state Senate seats in the 2014 elections, are optimistic they have the votes to pass the measure this time. Party leaders have put the bill on a fast track, and Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) would likely sign it if it lands on his desk.

Republicans say Oregons voting system already has some of the lowest barriers to voting and registration in the country. Oregon is one of three states, along with Washington and Colorado, that conduct elections entirely by mail, meaning every registered voter receives a ballot several weeks before Election Day. After moving to the all-mail system, Oregons voter turnout has been among the highest in the nation.

Left unsaid at the Rules Committee hearing were the political ramifications of adding so many new voters in a state where only 2.2 million people are registered. Democratic-leaning outside groups spend millions across the country to register voters, primarily low-income and minority voters who are less likely to sign up through other means. Removing the need to register those voters would ease the strain on liberal groups budgets, allowing them to focus more on getting those new voters to return their ballots.

Brown said her bill wouldnt solely aid Democratic registration drives. The DMV information would add new voters both in urban and rural areas, which would presumably include at least some Republican voters.

The Democratic pushback against Republican-introduced voting rights and access legislation has been confined to just a handful of states in recent years by virtue of the relatively few states in which Democrats control all levers of government. Colorados Democratic legislature passed its all-mail election measure in 2013, which the party thought would improve its turnout operations. Republicans took advantage of the new system too, and Republican Cory Gardner ousted Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in the 2014 election.

The Minnesota legislature in 2013 eased access to absentee ballots by allowing anyone to request a mail-in ballot without an excuse. Democrats in Maine and Nevada pushed their own absentee ballot laws in 2013, though those measures were blocked by Republican governors.

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GovBeat: Democrats open new front in voting wars in Oregon

Clock ticks for Senate Democrats to confirm Obama nominees Barack Obama, Congress
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By: Alan Grubb

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Clock ticks for Senate Democrats to confirm Obama nominees Barack Obama, Congress - Video