The Year's Political Power Plays Might Involve This Capital Cast By Fredrick Kunkle and Lisa Rein Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, January 12, 2009; B01 As the Virginia and Maryland general assemblies prepare to begin their 2009 legislative sessions Wednesday, here are some key lawmakers and other players to watch in Richmond and Annapolis. MARYLAND T. Eloise Foster, State budget secretary Gov. Martin O'Malley's no-nonsense budget secretary took office in 2007 as the state faced a massive fiscal shortfall. Two years and a series of tax increases later, she is preparing to navigate a worse fiscal predicament, a budget hole that could reach $1.9 billion in the next fiscal year on top of $400 million in the current one. So how does the state budget veteran, who held the same job for the final 2 1/2 years of Gov. Parris Glendening's term, prepare for the challenge of getting the legislature to approve a no-frills spending plan that keeps state services intact? "Decision-making will be very difficult," said the 62-year-old Silver Spring resident. Foster said one of her biggest concerns is that the budget debate will unfold during a national economic decline. "Home values are falling. We've got foreclosures. Consumer confidence is down," Foster said. But she said she remains "an eternal optimist" that the state will get through the crisis. Kimberly Propeack, Immigrant advocate As the lobbyist for CASA of Maryland, the nonprofit, Montgomery County-based advocacy group for immigrants, Propeack has found herself on many verbal firing lines in recent years. She has battled over day-laborer centers, college tuition help for children of illegal immigrants and a growing movement against illegal immigration. This year, she will face one of her biggest tests as she fights to preserve the state's policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to receive driver's licenses. Top aides to O'Malley are preparing legislation that would require all Maryland drivers to have a "legal presence," effectively reversing the long-standing policy. Administration officials have said Maryland, the only East Coast state without a legal-presence requirement, cannot be a magnet for illegal newcomers seeking licenses. But Propeack and a handful of advocates for immigrants in the General Assembly say they will mount a vigorous campaign to keep things as they are. "We will be fighting furiously against it," the 42-year-old lawyer said. "We certainly think that fiscally this is the worst time in the world to move forward with this." Del. Brian J. Feldman  (D-Montgomery) Feldman, chairman of Montgomery's House delegation to the General Assembly, has an unenviable task this session. He must defend Maryland's wealthiest county from budget cuts that might be aimed at it because of its prosperity. Already the local cuts are looming: O'Malley administration officials are recommending steep cuts from an initiative that sends extra money to Montgomery and Prince George's counties, where the cost of providing public education is more expensive. There is word that a chunk of the cost of teacher pensions will be shifted to counties. And Feldman and other Montgomery officials are seething over an accounting error that shorted the county $20 million in state aid this year. "It's a question of proportionality," said the professorial lawmaker from Potomac, a 47-year-old lawyer in private practice serving his second term in the House of Delegates. © 2009 The Washington Post Company