Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said Tuesday that Gov. Larry Hogan (R) should name Del. Craig J. Zucker (D-Montgomery) to fill an empty state Senate seat as soon as possible because “there are 125,000 people that need representation.”

Miller made the comments on the Senate floor after senators voted on 15 bills, including ones that dealt with help for foster children, changes to commercial drivers’ license requirements and slight revisions to the state’s workforce development program.

Sen. Karen Montgomery (D-Montgomery) resigned from her position last month. Last week, the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee nominated Zucker, an establishment favorite, to fill the seat. The committee forwarded the name to Hogan, who has 15 days to name a replacement.

[Montgomery Democrats nominate Del. Zucker to fill empty Senate seat]

“All he has to do is name the name, which has been sent to him, then that district can be represented on the floor of the Senate,” Miller said. “We’d like a name sent down as quickly as possible.”

Last week Miller postponed a vote on a veto override of a bill that would allow felons who are on parole and probation to vote. He said that the chamber would likely need Montgomery’s successor in place in order to muster the 29 votes necessary to overturn the veto. The original Senate bill passed with 29 votes.

Miller said he does not think that Hogan is stalling because of the pending veto override.

“Petulance runs rampant in Maryland,” Miller said. “I don’t attribute it to anything other than they haven’t gotten around to it.”

Matt Clark, a spokesman for Hogan, said there hasn’t been a delay.

“The name came down on Friday and since then we’ve been under a state of emergency,” Clark said. “Over the last couple of days our attention has been elsewhere.”