Jimmy Tarlau

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

James J. Tarlau (born May 23, 1948) is an American politician and former union organizer from Maryland. A Democrat, he represented District 47A in the Maryland House of Delegates from January 14, 2015, to January 2019. He was born in New York City, attended Princeton University (earning an A.B. in history in 1970) and was involved in student activism, including a suspension for protesting during a visit by Nixon’s Interior Secretary Wally Hickel. He later earned master’s degrees in computer science from Villanova and in labor relations from Rutgers.

Tarlau worked as a union organizer, drove trucks and taxis, and moved to Maryland in 2000. He served eight years on the Mount Rainier City Council and worked as an assistant to the vice president of the Communications Workers of America. After winning the Democratic primary for District 47A, he served one term in the House and was endorsed by The Washington Post and Maryland leaders like Donna Edwards, Anthony Brown, Joanne Benson, and Doyle Niemann. He ran on a progressive platform and was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee. His first bill, PG 417-15, would require counties to reveal how they calculate each municipality’s tax differential. He was among 17 newly elected delegates who disputed the claim that new legislators were more anti-business.

Tarlau is married to Jodi Beder and has two children, Ananta and Becky. He resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland. He was succeeded in 2019 by Julian Ivey.