NRI News:

NRI Kumar Barve, House majority leader, charged with driving under the influence of alcohol

Gaithersburg, Maryland,December 1, 2007
Sant Singh

NRI, Kumar P. Barve, 49, House Majority Leader and most respected member of the House was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after being arrested in Gaithersburg late Thursday.

Interestingly, he has supported stricter drunken-driving laws and one of the sponsors of a 2001 bill that changed the state's legal blood-alcohol level for drivers from 0.10 to 0.08.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch said:

• Certainly, Delegate Barve is a respected member of the House, and I don't see any reason why we would change his position.
• He's as human as everyone else, and sometimes we all make mistakes.

The police spokesman Sgt. Rudy Wagner told Media people:

On Thursday, around 11:40 p.m., a Gaithersburg police officer stoped Kumar when he left a parking lot in oldtown Gaithersburg through a driveway marked "entrance only."

The Police Officer stopped the car, approached Barve, and smelled alcohol. When the officer asked him if he had been drinking, Barve said that he had had two drinks. Kumar failed a field sobriety test and was found to have a 0.10 blood-alcohol level through a preliminary breath test which is not admissible in court

The police officer handcuffed him and taken to a police station where Kumar refused a blood-alcohol test. Police charged him on four counts:

1. Driving under the influence
2. Driving while impaired
3. Failure to obey a traffic device
4. Failure to drive right of the center line.

He was released about 1 a.m. on Friday

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• Maryland, Nov. 08, 2006: Kumar P. Barve Elected To State Representative District 17 Maryland, November 2006 General Election

  Md. State House District 17
  Candidate Votes %
  Jim Gilchrist (D) 20,835 26
  Luiz Simmons * (D) 19,630 24
  Kumar Barve * (D) 19,469 24
  Mary Haley (R) 7,702 9
  Other 13,549 17
  

NRI, Kumar Barve, 43, won re-election from District 17, Maryland.

Maryland, Sep.24, 2006:

NRI, Kumar Barve, 44, won re-election from District 17, Maryland. He has become the longest-serving elected Indian American official.

" DISTRICT 17: Democratic incumbents Kumar P. Barve and Luiz Simmons are top-flight legislators who know how to press for progressive programs. Mr. Barve is especially valuable as the deft House majority leader who has been chairman of the county delegation." -- The Washington Post

Kumar P. Barve is the first person of Indian origin to be elected as a state legislator in United States history.

NRI, Kumar P. Barve, 43 was elected in 1990, and re-elected three times—in 1994,1998, and 2002. Kumar P. Barve, is the Majority Leader in Maryland's state legislature and is the longest-serving elected official of Indian origin. He represents a district with a population of 110,000 in Montgomery County, Maryland. He is known for his sharp wit, self-effacing sense of humor, and deep commitment to his community.

Kumar Barve is a American politician. He is a Delegate representing the Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly.

Kumar P. Barve was born in Schenectady, New York, September 8, 1958. Barve's grandfather, Shankar L. Gokhale, was the President of Holkar College in Indore, India. Gokhale immigrated to the United States in 1911. Barve's mother, Neera, was born in Schenectady, New York. His father, Prabhakar Barve, came to the U.S. in 1957 after studying architecture at the Hammersmith School of Building in London, England. Kumar P. Barve is the first person of Indian origin to be elected as a state legislator in United States history

Kumar Barve graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. degree in Accounting. In the Maryland legislature, Barve is the Majority Leader and he chairs the Science & Technology Sub-Committee of the House Committee on Economic Matters. His legislative accomplishments are many and historic:

• He introduced and helped enact the Patient Access Act—the first bill in the nation to regulate HMOs. It has since been copied by 34 states. The Act permits patients to see doctors outside of their HMO network, prohibited "gag" rules on health-care providers that jeopardized patient care, and prohibited financial incentives that curtailed and compromised care.
• Long before the federal government got involved, Barve was one of the architects of the Maryland law that banned insurance companies from using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage.
• Barve authored Maryland's version of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). The Act both affirms the intellectual-property rights of software developers and provides unprecedented consumer protections to purchasers of computer equipment.
• Barve created the Technology Development Corporation of Maryland, which has become the central focal point for fostering high-technology development in Maryland.

Barve is the Chairman of the Montgomery County delegation, the largest jurisdiction in the State of Maryland. He has received the Legislator of the Year Award from the Montgomery County Medical Society an unprecedented three times. The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun have endorsed Barve in past races. He won his last election by a whopping 62%. He anticipates having the enthusiastic support of the medical and high-tech communities in his race for Congress, and has already been endorsed by former Ohio Governor, Richard F. Celeste.

Barve is the first person of Indian origin to be elected as a state legislator in United States history.

• Most respected member of the House
• Maryland’s top twenty “Power Couples”

• Kumar married to Ms. Maureen Quinn.
• Maureen, an attorney, was appointed by former Governor Parris Glendening to serve as a member of the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission.
• They were named in 2003 as one of Maryland’s top twenty “Power Couples”. Kumar, Maureen and their extremely alert and protective Yorkshire Terrier watchdog ‘Guinness’ live in Gaithersburg.
• Don’t even think about breaking into their home!
  

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• Kumar attended Paint Branch High School, Silver Spring; Georgetown University, B.S. (accounting),
• 1980. Financial analyst. Treasurer and board member, Maryland National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), 4 years. Elected delegate, Greenbelt Cooperative, 3 years.
• Founding board member, Montgomery County Democratic Action Committee,
• 2 years. Treasurer, Montgomery County Young Democrats. Democratic Provisional Precinct Chair, Precinct 9-01, and member, District 17 Caucus. Delegate, Democratic Party National Convention, 2000.
• Member, Gaithersburg and Upper Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce; Washingtonian Towns Civic Association, 3 years; Maryland Citizen Action Coalition; Indian Cultural Coordinating Committee; Sierra Club. Legislator of the Year, Montgomery County Medical Society, 1995, 1996, and 2000.