He works closely on local issues -- from schools and roads to development and crime control -- with the 21st District Delegates -- Barbara Frush, Joseline Pena-Melnyk, and Ben Barnes -- community leaders, Laurel and College Park officials, County Councilmen Tom Dernoga, Eric Olson, and Jamie Benoit, US Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, and US Congressmen Steny Hoyer and John Sarbanes. 

For fourteen years in the Maryland legislature, he has fought to improve local public schools, boost the University of Maryland, and protect our environment. From 1987-97, he represented the 21st District in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he Vice Chaired the Ways and Means Committee. In 2006, Jim was elected to the Maryland Senate where he serves as co-chair of the Joint Technology Committee, on the Senate Education, Health, and Environment Committee, and in the Senate Democratic Leadership.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton asked him to join his administration as U.S. Ambassador to Romania, where he worked to win friends for America and make the world a safer place.

Returning in 2001, Governor Glendening appointed Jim to the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland, which governs the University. He continued to champion the College Park campus -- and he led the fight against Governor Bob Ehrlich's budget cuts to the University and against double digit tuition hikes. He helped draft and pass legislation to restore the cuts and freeze tuition for the last four years. His term ended in 2006. 

As chair of the Route One Task Force, he has worked to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians. On the board of the Anacostia Watershed Society, he continued his efforts to clean up and protect our local rivers and streams. On the Laurel Hospital Foundation Board, he raised funds to improve local medical services.Jim Rosapepe is an environmentalist and education champion who has worked for the people of Maryland for over twenty years.