The Easton town council heard a sobering report from two leaders of the Neighborhood Service Center about a pending crisis in seniors and low-income households’ ability to afford heating costs this winter. Executive Director Marilyn Neal and MEAP/EUSP Director Cardeaner Robinson presented the realities and consequences of a drop in state assistance funding to the council.

The primary source of help for those struggling with high energy costs for many years, the state-funded Maryland Energy Assistance Program, has seen dramatic cuts in their budget, leading to a 70% decrease in kerosene benefits, a 75% decrease in heating fuel, and propane, and a 50% decrease in electric subsidies.

This has left many struggling to afford heating costs, with the Neighborhood Service Center already exhausted 85% of its funding to fill the gap.

The NSC has requested $50,000 in support from the town to help alleviate the crisis.

This highlight video is approximately 13 minutes in length. 

The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services today announced the launch of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices, a statewide commission to review and report on juvenile services, facilities, and programs in Maryland. In parallel, the department also announced reforms to its detention policies and launched new supportive programming for justice-involved youth.

“The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services is focused on promoting accountability, rehabilitation, and preventing justice-involved young people from reoffending,” said Maryland Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Vincent Schiraldi. “Using a data-informed approach and in partnership with our legislative leaders, law enforcement, community leaders, and other system stakeholders, we are committed to working with the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform to build safer and stronger communities.”

Authorized by the passage of House Bill 814 and signed into law by Governor Moore in May 2024, the commission reflects the Moore-Miller Administration’s commitment to making Maryland safer by holding accountable and providing comprehensive rehabilitative support for youth who are justice-involved. The commission will be housed within the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy and will hold its first meeting in October.

In addition to reviewing and reporting on juvenile services and facilities, the 26-member commission is charged with reviewing programs to divert children from the juvenile justice system. The commission will also review and report on a number of high-priority juvenile justice policies, including support and programming for girls in the juvenile justice system; the use of child-in-need-of-supervision petitions; the number of petitions authorized or denied by jurisdiction; and wait times for placement of children in facilities.

In parallel with the launch of the commission’s work, the department also announced the following reforms to its detention policies and launch of supportive programming for justice-involved youth:

• All youth who are referred to the department after being accused of a violent felony and who are not detained will be placed on electronic monitoring prior to their initial court appearance.

• All youth who are already on electronic monitoring and are charged with a violent felony will be detained.

• “CARE”—or Community Assistance for the Release Eligible—is a new program that will work with system-involved youth who are neither detained nor placed on community detention to support them and their families and provide service referrals.

• The Detention Diversion Advocacy Program will support youth who are placed by the courts in the community while their cases are pending with intensive supervision support from credible messengers .

The new supportive programming initiatives build upon the department’s ongoing reforms, including:

Establishment of the Thrive Academy, which is focused on justice-involved youth who are at the highest risk of gun violence. Thrive provides heightened supervision by specialized case managers and life coaches, many of whom have been formerly incarcerated themselves, in addition to a robust range of services, supports, and opportunities to create pathways for success. Maryland is the first juvenile system in the country to launch such a gun violence prevention initiative. Thrive was recognized in August with the prestigious Inspiration Innovation Award from the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators.

$17 million investment in a continuum of community programs for youth. Authorized by the General Assembly for Fiscal Year 2025, the department is investing in a robust array of services, supports and opportunities for youth across the state to assist with rehabilitation and ensure public safety. The new investment marks an increase over the previous administration’s approach, which depleted community programming and under-spent its budget by an average of $13 million dollars per year.

Crowds down as Hogan and Alsobrooks press the flesh, other pols gather and gossip

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan is greeted by supporters Wednesday at the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield. AFSCME union members worked their way into the throng with signs criticizing Hogan for wage theft from state employees while he was governor. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) flocked with their entourages to the southernmost town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore Wednesday for a cherished ritual of state politics, the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield.

The nominees for U.S. Senate said they wouldn’t have missed it.

“I come here every year,” Alsobrooks said. “It’s just the time for Marylanders to come together from everywhere. It’s a bonding experience where we gather for crabs and conversation.”

Hogan, the two-term governor and candidate, has attended the event since he worked on his father’s congressional campaigns. The trip is as much political muscle memory as it is about campaigning.

“It’s just a great place to be,” said Hogan. “It’s sort of like the Super Bowl of politicking. There’s just wonderful people on the Shore and from all over the state. And it’s just a tradition. That’s what I like about it.

“But I’m not sure if people are winning votes here actually. It’s just a great time to bring people together and to bring some attention and some money to the Shore,” he said.

What did the two candidates encounter on a mild but drizzly autumn day?

Hogan was trolled by members of AFSCME, a state employees union that frequently butted heads with the former governor. Union members carried red placards reading “Larry Hogan stole my wages”— a reference to recently settled cases with the U.S. Department of Labor to settle millions of dollars in overtime wage theft claims.

Another group — sent by the Maryland Democratic Party — dressed as judges and carried signs quoting Hogan praising former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court picks. The signs also attempted to tie Hogan to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling curtailing abortion rights.

 The Maryland Democratic Party sent three people dressed as judges to troll Republican U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan at the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

Tawes has rarely, if ever, been host to such political counter-programming.

“It was kind of ridiculous,” said Hogan. “It’s the typical toxic politics that everybody’s sick and tired of, and quite frankly, it’s embarrassing for them to do it.”

But Alsobrooks, asked about a new attack ad that a political action committee aligned with Hogan began airing about her on Wednesday, also dismissed political attacks.

“The MAGA Republicans have put $18 million in to try to help their friend,” she said of the ad, which references a recent report that Alsobrooks took property tax credits she wasn’t entitled to.

‘It’s the place to be’

Hundreds of members of the state’s political tribe were gathered at the Somers Cove Marina for the annual event, along with civic leaders from the Lower Shore. Hundreds of everyday citizens were also there, enjoying a midweek respite, with all the seafood, beer and soda they could consume for their $75 ticket – 67% more than in 2017.

But the crowd size seemed way down from previous years, begging the question of whether the Tawes crab feast is still the must-do event for Maryland’s political class — not to mention for seafood lovers — that it once was.

“If you love Maryland politics, it’s the place to be,” said Paul Ellington, a Republican strategist.

“It’s a cool location,” he said. “The Lower Shore is beautiful. This is our political hotbed. It’s political nirvana. It’s political mecca, one day out of the year.”

And Ellington has made the pilgrimage many times over the last three decades.

But he acknowledged a change.

“I think it had its heyday, if you will, probably 10 years ago,” Ellington said.

Privately, other longtime attendees were more pointed. One questioned if the event Wednesday marked a turning point for the political relevance of the event. The crowds are down, the “vibe is off,” said one attendee.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) greets supporters at the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake Wednesday. Photo by Josh Kurtz.

The lighter-than-usual crowds at the food stalls mirrored what was going on in the private tents.

Annapolis lobbyist Bruce Bereano has a tent that rivals a circus big top. The power lobbyist begins sending updates on the event in February.

Inside, new-era pols break crabs with veterans and former elected officials of days gone by. The tent is typically packed with people shoulder to shoulder as they navigate tables. This year the traffic in the tent wasn’t nearly so congested.

It is too soon to write a political obituary for the crab feast. Some regulars believe the event has been hamstrung by external forces — weather and the pandemic and the economy — but will regain its footing.

“Don’t all things like this, ebb and flow and wax and wane?” asked Gene Ransom, CEO of MedChi, The Medical Society of Maryland, and a former Queen Anne’s County commissioner. “I mean, it looks like it’s a pretty good crowd. I’ve seen a lot of people running for office here.”

Now 47 years old, the crab feast, named for a former governor and state comptroller who hailed from Crisfield, has for decades been a popular destination for political leaders — especially in election years — and regular folks. But events have changed Tawes in countless ways recently.

Until 2021, the crab feast was a mid-summer event, and beastly hot. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Crisfield Chamber of Commerce, the sponsor, moved it to early autumn.

While this decision made the experience more comfortable for festivalgoers, it may have also cut the crowd size, because it’s often easier to take time off during the summer than it is in the fall.

“I think when they moved it after COVID, you lost some people,” Ellington said. “If anything, you lost a lot of the casual attendees — the people that could take time out of their summer and it was worth the trip to them.”

The state’s political calendar also changed a few election cycles ago. When the state had a September primary, several candidates from both parties would come to Crisfield in July to press the flesh. But now primaries take place in early summer in gubernatorial election years, so there would be fewer statewide candidates on hand by the time the crab feast rolled around.

Post-pandemic habits and inflation may also be playing a role for the deflated crowd size. The cost of a crab feast ticket in 2017 was $45, compared to $75 now. And while many politicians still come to Tawes, they don’t circulate around the marina grounds as much as they once did.

Annapolis power lobbyist Bruce Bereano’s tent at the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

As a result, the pols are not moving around the marina grounds as much as they did in years past — and this year more than two dozen interest groups, from area colleges and businesses to political organizations and local governments had tents of their own, far smaller than Bereano’s.

Politics have also changed.

“Now, back in the day before we were so polarized, everybody would come here to campaign,” said Ransom. “The world has changed. I don’t know what that means for Tawes in the long run, because this part of the state is very red. The rest of the state is blue. It makes you wonder how sustainable all of this is in the long run.”

‘Politics is all about relationships, right?’

And yet, they come, political leaders from all over the state, some driving as much as five hours each way, to mostly spend time in Bereano’s tent, to reconnect and gossip with colleagues and operatives.

“It’s a great opportunity to see a lot of friends,” said Baltimore County Councilmember Julian Jones (D), who was wearing an Alsobrooks T-shirt. “I know where they’ll be. It’s good to take a day off.”

Del. Jon S. Cardin (D-Baltimore County) said he likes to come to Crisfield “to connect with people who are politically inclined.”

Beer glasses, mallets and crab knives wait to be claimed by attendees of the 2024 J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

“It’s great to see what the pulse is around the state,” he said. “Good food, good friends. Coming here is always a happy occasion.”

Other Baltimore-area leaders said they were there to network.

Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, was there squiring Andrew Cushnir, the new president and CEO of The Associated Baltimore Jewish Federation, to connect with elected officials who aren’t from the Baltimore area. Representatives of Shomrim of Baltimore, a Jewish volunteer neighborhood watch agency, were on hand to talk public safety  issues with state leaders.

“I look forward to it all year,” said Tzvi Skaist, an EMT and director of operations for the group.

Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly (R) said sharing a beer in Crisfield can pay political dividends in the future.

“Let’s face it, politics is all about relationships, right?” he said. “It’s an opportunity to build those essential relationships that you need. So when you see someone the next time, it’s friendly.”

Sen. Mike McKay (R-Allegany) may have had the longest trip, five hours one way — “a long way to come for crabs when crabs are delivered to Allegany County,” he said.

“The reason that I do come — and I don’t want to call it the mecca of political events — is that the interim is so important for relationships. That’s my biggest thing. So I can at least say hello to a chairman of a committee,” he said.

“I was just talking to the Comptroller [Brooke Lierman],” McKay said. “Really, if I get 5 seconds with 15 people, I will say that it’s worth the 9 1/2-hour round trip that I will take for spending three hours here.”

Del. Kym Taylor (D-Prince George’s) gestured to the clutches of Hogan and Alsobrooks volunteers waiting for their candidates to arrive and declared the scene “so cool.”

“It’s a chance to see both political factions,” she said. “This is democracy in action.”

Lower Shore officials believe the visits from their counterparts across the state are invaluable.

State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) greets Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) in Crisfield Wednesday, as Del. Charles Otto (R-Somerset) looks on. Photo by Josh Kurtz.

“The fact that they would make the effort to come all the way to Crisfield speaks for itself,” said state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore), whose district includes Crisfield. “This is a can’t-miss event. The fact that a can’t-miss event is in Crisfield is a real honor.”

Crisfield Mayor Darlene Taylor told Maryland Matters last year that she was sorry more of the crab feast visitors didn’t spend extra time seeing the rest of the town. But Carozza, who had a tent of her own at the crab feast across from Bereano’s, said she could still talk to colleagues about the town’s needs and make funding and policy requests during legislative sessions.

“It’s an opportunity when they come by, I can talk about all the efforts to improve our communities,” she said. “This event keeps our priorities front and center with them.”

When Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D), standing in for Gov. Wes Moore (D – who was in Annapolis meeting with the king of Jordan – greeted Carozza and the delegates from District 38, a heckler yelled, “Does she even know where the Eastern Shore is?”

But Carozza wouldn’t acknowledge the critic.

“I thanked [Miller] for taking the time and effort to make the trip,” she said.

---

by Josh Kurtz and Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
September 25, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

Fiscal panel warns that Maryland’s revenues are becoming increasingly volatile.

Maryland’s revenue outlook for the coming year will remain statistically flat, according to a new forecast released Thursday by the Board of Revenue Estimates.

The forecast, which included a modest upward revision for the current budget year, is the first look at fiscal 2026 revenues.

State Budget Secretary Helene Grady, one of three members on the board, said the “modest positive adjustment” to revenue forecasts “obviously is helpful as we navigate fiscal ’25 and we work to build a responsible budget for fiscal ’26, but it doesn’t materially alter in any way the challenges that we face with the general fund budget for fiscal ’26.”

Those challenges include a nearly $1 billion structural budget gap in fiscal 2026 that was forecast by budget analysts in January.

Thursday’s forecast predicts an $88 million increase in revenues for the current budget year. Sales taxes are now expected to be down $116 million than originally expected in fiscal 2025, and estate and inheritance taxes are projected to be $62 million lower. But those will be offset by nearly $174 million in additional corporate income taxes and a $95.5 million increase in projected interest earnings on investments.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D), who chairs the board, said the new estimates show “the economic outlook has not changed compared to the expectations outlined in March. Revenue growth in the state is still expected to be slow but positive.”

Those modest increases continue into 2026, according to the first estimates released by the panel for the coming fiscal year. The panel forecasts revenues of $25.3 billion for the coming fiscal year — an increase of 0.9% over the current budget year.

Robert Rehrmann, director of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates, said the updated estimates also do not include expectations of a recession.

“So, I remain cautiously optimistic about Maryland’s economic performance and the resilience of our economy overall,” Lierman said.

The board will issue revised projections in December for the current and coming year. Soon after, the legislative Joint Spending Affordability Committee will make recommendations on budget growth to Gov. Wes Moore (D). Those recommendations, while not binding, are traditionally followed.

“Moderate growth is growth, and Maryland’s economy is moving in the right direction,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) said in a statement.

Ferguson added that the new projections “reaffirm the Senate’s focus on the need to continue growing our economy to the benefit of all Marylanders while remaining competitive regionally and nationally.”

Looming in the background are concerns about federal spending, the coming election and expected post-election battles over both the federal debt ceiling and the federal budget.

With less than a week left in the current federal fiscal year, Congress on Wednesday passed a continuing resolution that funds government operations through Dec. 20, and President Joe Biden signed it Thursday, heading off the threat of a government shutdown. But that just defers the problem, said Maryland Treasurer Dereck Davis (D), the third member of the board.

Maryland Treasurer Dereck Davis (D). Photo by Bryan P. Sears

 Maryland Treasurer Dereck Davis (D). Photo by Bryan P. Sears

“To be perfectly honest, I’m not really that surprised that we averted a shutdown. See, as long as it affects other people, there’s always that threat of a shutdown,” Davis said of the continuing resolution. “But because a shutdown would adversely affect the members of Congress, they couldn’t have that. So, they found a way to get this done in time for the November election. I promise you it won’t be that smooth come … December.”

There are also growing concerns about where the state is getting its revenues.

Rehrmann warned that the state’s revenue portfolio is becoming less diversified and more reliant on volatile sources.

“We’re getting more of our revenue specifically from our income taxes, and we know our income taxes are more volatile,” said Rehrmann. “So, all things being equal, this can introduce some volatility and make our lives a little bit more difficult in terms of forecasting our general fund.”

Moore and his team will also face other pressures.

The state continues to struggle with addressing employee vacancy rates.

Moore promised as he entered office in 2023 to cut 10,000 vacancies — his own estimate — in half in his first year. Not only did Moore fall short of that goal, but the pace of hiring struggled to keep up with the number of employees who retired or left state government for other jobs.

Moore added 700 positions to the current budget, then suggested in July that the state would have to defer filling those new positions and others while it grapples with fiscal realities — remarks that came as the state said it was cutting $150 million from departments and programs this year. That money was needed for growing expenses from Medicaid enrollment and child care subsidies.

Lawmakers warned those increases could account for nearly $1 billion in budget shortfalls over two years. That is on top of a roughly $1 billion structural budget gap already projected for fiscal 2026.

AFSCME Maryland Council 3 President Patrick Moran. File photo by Bryan P. Sears. 

Even so, the leader of one of the state’s largest public employee unions, is calling for Moore to ramp up hiring.

“Our state remains in a staffing crisis where over 10% of frontline positions in our state agencies are vacant,” said a statement from Patrick Moran, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 3. “This doesn’t even account for the thousands of additional positions that need to be budgeted for in order for the State to be able to meet its responsibilities to provide Marylanders with the quality state services they deserve.”

Moran called for more hiring and increased taxes to close the budget gap. But Moore and Ferguson said in August that any tax increases would have to meet a “high bar,” and that the state’s focus should remain on growing the economy rather than tax increases.

That stance could put Moore and Ferguson at odds with progressive members of the House of Delegates and the Senate who favor tax increases on corporations and high-income earners.

“There needs to be a re-prioritization of staffing so that Marylanders receive the proper services they need and deserve,” Moran said in his statement. “Resources need to be committed to this effort, and tax credits to the ultra-wealthy and large corporations as well as wasteful outsourcing need to be curtailed.”

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
September 26, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks insisted Monday that she was unaware she received improper property tax credits on two homes and pledged to pay whatever back taxes she owes as soon as possible.

Her statements came one day after the revelation, first reported by CNN, that Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, improperly took a homestead tax credit on a Prince George’s County home where she no longer lived. The CNN story also said Alsobrooks received a senior citizen’s tax break on a home she once owned in Washington, D.C., that had belonged to her grandparents.

Alsobrooks’ campaign quickly responded by saying she wasn’t aware of the problems until notified by CNN and vowed that her attorneys were working with authorities in the two jurisdictions to make sure she’d pay whatever back taxes she owed as fast as possible. That was echoed by the candidate.

“The reality is, I would never take a tax credit I wasn’t entitled to,” Alsobrooks told reporters Monday night.

This is hardly the first time that a high-profile political candidate with more than one property has been dinged by reports that they sought to claim tax breaks they were not entitled to. The question is whether it has a long-lasting or detrimental impact for Alsobrooks in her race for Senate against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

Her advisers say the fact that Alsobrooks was not aware of any problems, and moved to correct them as quickly as she found out about them, should minimize any political damage. But in a close election that has largely remained static for months, any small and unanticipated development could influence the outcome.

Most recent polls have shown Alsobrooks with a small lead, which is unsurprising for this heavily Democratic state. But they also show that she isn’t nearly as well known with voters as Hogan, a two-term former governor who appears to remain popular with the electorate. So this is hardly comes at an ideal time for the Democrat.

“At the very least, it’s a setback for her campaign,” said Paul Ellington, a Maryland Republican strategist. “You’re trying to put forward a positive image and now she’s on the defensive a little bit. It takes her away from the task at hand, which is introducing herself to voters.”

Hogan’s camp wasted little time deriding Alsobrooks for the erroneous tax claims.

“It’s deeply disturbing that Angela Alsobrooks thinks the rules don’t apply to her,” Blake Kernen, a Hogan spokesperson, said in a statement Monday. “She campaigns on raising taxes while failing to pay her own and taking advantage of tax credits reserved for the poor and elderly. She claims to be unaware of tax laws it was her job to enforce.

“Governor Hogan has always stood up for taxpayers and in the Senate he will continue to fight for fairness and fiscal responsibility,” Kernen’s statement said.

Asked Monday night for her reaction to the Hogan campaign’s criticism, Alsobrooks essentially shrugged it off.

“It’s an election season,” she said.

Ellington said the revelations give Hogan an opportunity to “define her,” while Alsobrooks tries to become better known. Other Hogan allies predicted that the subject could generate attack ads by the Hogan campaign or from one of the political action committees supporting him. Axios reported Monday night that a Hogan-aligned super PAC had just reserved $18.3 million in TV ads through Election Day.

But other political professionals questioned whether the Alsobrooks tax reports are politically durable.

“My gut tells me this doesn’t rise to the level of a scandal that shakes up the race,” said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

In certain ways, Eberly said, Alsobrooks’ dilemma isn’t all that unusual, as voters have frequently struggled with the complexities of the tax code.

“You’re talking about a few thousand dollars spread over many years,” he said. “Especially when it comes to Maryland scandals, this wouldn’t even make a footnote in a textbook.”

Some Democratic strategists have gone so far as to suggest that this development illustrates Alsobrooks’ frequent assertion that she’s a member of “the sandwich generation,” taking care of both children and elderly relatives — thus making her relatable to a wide swath of the electorate.

Connor Lounsbury, an Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson, cast the confusion over her tax credits as a result of clerical errors. By not transferring her homestead tax credit from the Prince George’s County property where she once lived to her current home, he said, Alsobrooks actually cost herself money. And the D.C. misfiling, he said, was a reminder to Marylanders of “how difficult and complex it is when a family member needs to leave their home.”

The media reports about Alsobrooks’ taxes did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm at her annual family barbecue, held Monday evening at a catering hall in Greenbelt, which drew a crowd of more than 700 people — and about a dozen reporters.

In addition to the familiar array of Maryland Democrats who usually speak at these events, the Alsobrooks gathering featured speeches from three dynamic national Black leaders: U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

“Angela, we need you in the Senate!” Booker told the crowd.

A few miles away, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was scheduled to join a phone bank with pro-Alsobrooks volunteers in Silver Spring on Monday night.

The latest ads provide a snapshot.

It’s clear, for better or worse, that the overall storyline of the Alsobrooks-Hogan election has barely changed since the May primaries, which is why a development like the Alsobrooks tax situation could be magnified with so little movement in the race.

Alsobrooks and her allies continue to emphasize Hogan’s party affiliation and the implications of a possible flip in control of the U.S. Senate, where Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority — especially on reproductive health.

On Monday, the political arm of EMILY’s List, the financial powerhouse that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights, dropped another $2.1 million into the race with a new 30-second TV ad hitting Hogan on abortion. That brings the group’s total investment in the general election to $4.3 million.

The ad features clips of Hogan from prior TV interviews declaring his personal opposition to abortion. It also contains a reminder of his decision, in 2022, to veto a measure that would have accelerated funding to provide training for medical personnel other than physicians to perform abortions in the state.

“We can’t trust Larry Hogan on abortion,” a narrator says at the end of the ad.

Hogan, meanwhile, continues to advance the narrative that he’ll be a fiercely independent member of the Senate, willing to work with — and criticize — members of both parties. That point is reinforced in his campaign’s latest TV ad.

“There are 100 senators,” a narrator says at the top of the ad, over arresting images of shadowy cutout figures in front of the U.S. Capitol, meant to represent senators. “How many can you name? Ten? Five? Who stands out? The ones who make a difference. The critical swing votes who put country over party, people over politics. Like Larry Hogan.”

Hogan, the ad concludes, “will be in the middle of the action.”

The ad also asserts that Hogan “supports Roe,” the abortion rights law that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in 2022.

by Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
September 23, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), whose personal life and political career were incalculably upended by his son’s suicide, is introducing his first major mental health and suicide prevention legislation since Tommy Raskin died on Dec. 31, 2020, at the age of 25.

The Stabilization To Prevent (STOP) Suicide Act would create a grant program at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to expand the use of evidence-based models for stabilizing individuals with serious thoughts of suicide.

The bipartisan bill will be co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

“We have to intervene to help people who are suffering and provide a long-term stabilization plan,” Raskin said in an interview Wednesday.

Raskin has spoken frequently and eloquently about the loss of his son, a Harvard Law student who had long battled depression, during the loneliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tommy Raskin’s death came less than a week before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a defining moment in his father’s political career. The congressman wrote a highly regarded book in 2022 called “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy,” which examined the dual crises that came to dominate his life.

Raskin was the lead manager of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial and served on the special House committee that examined the causes of the insurrection. He has made the preservation of U.S. democracy a cornerstone of his congressional work and political barnstorming.

But while Raskin has spoken about mental illness and suicide prevention since his son’s illness, and was active in the congressional push to expand the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, the new bill is his first major piece of mental health legislation since his family’s tragedy. The bill, which was several years in the making, is expected to be introduced Thursday or Friday.

“It’s a melancholy event for me,” Raskin said. “The rates of suicide have just been drastically increasing.”

The bill comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide rates in the United States increased by about 36% between 2000 and 2022. Almost 50,000 people died by suicide in 2022, the most recent data available. That same year, an estimated 13.2 million adults seriously thought about suicide, and 1.6 million adults attempted suicide.

by Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
September 11, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

The event Wednesday night, at a fancy hotel in College Park, was billed as a look at the legacy of the Watergate scandal on today’s politics, 50 years after former President Richard Nixon’s resignation. It was sponsored by the conservative group Principles First, which has emerged as a top refuge for Republicans who oppose former President Donald Trump.

But anyone who was expecting conversations about Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Woodward and Bernstein, the Saturday Night Massacre, the smoking gun, twisting “slowly, slowly in the wind” or other reminders of that unique moment in American politics would have been sorely disappointed. There was a brief video with footage of a news report about Watergate, a burst of nostalgia featuring the flat Midwestern baritone of the estimable newsman Harry Reasoner, but that was about it.

What the event largely turned out to be was an infomercial for former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and his bid to become a U.S. senator.

Hogan, a consistent and longtime Trump critic, was listed as the keynote speaker, and he did talk a little about Watergate. But he limited the conversation to the role of his father, the late U.S. Rep. Lawrence Hogan Sr., who was the first Republican on the House Judiciary Committee to call for Republican President Richard Nixon’s impeachment and was the only GOP congressman on that panel to vote for all three impeachment articles.

“That decision cost him dearly,” Hogan recalled. “He lost friends and supporters and the Republican nomination for governor [in 1974]. But he earned something more valuable.”

Hogan said his father’s courage and political independence “helped to shape the man I am today.” Then he launched into his standard stump speech about how American politics are broken, how toxic political divides are stymying any possibility for progress on Capitol Hill, and how, while he has no burning desire to be a senator, he decided to run at the 11th hour to be an independent operator and help end the dysfunction in Congress.

Hogan, who touted his bipartisan record and high poll numbers when he left office, also attempted to define his place in the anti-Trump universe — a critical component of his campaign in a very blue state.

“Unlike many Republicans, I have never wavered and have never backed down … and I never will,” he said, to enthusiastic applause.

Hogan taking to the road to raise money for his Senate bid

That part of the message echoed a minute-long TV ad that Hogan began airing this week, in which a narrator calls the former governor “the face” of the “anti-Trump GOP,” and describes how Hogan moved swiftly to send Maryland State Police officers and National Guard personnel to secure the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, while Trump watched the chaos on television from the White House.

That ad airs as Hogan’s Democratic opponent, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, and her allies amp up their attempts  to tie Hogan to Trump and conservatives in Congress — and their policy priorities. On Thursday, the political arm of EMILY’s List, a national fundraising powerhouse that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights, announced that it would spend $2.2 million to air a 30-second TV ad attacking Hogan’s record on abortion.

Earlier this week, Hogan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee began airing a 30-second TV ad touting his record as governor and independence that, among other things, attempts to remind voters that Hogan “supports restoring women’s right to choose everywhere.”

Critics have called this an election-year conversion.

“His entire career he’s been anti-abortion,” a narrator says in the EMILY’s List Women Vote ad. “So don’t let him fool you now.”

“Angela Alsobrooks is a groundbreaking candidate with the talent and experience necessary to defeat Mitch McConnell’s top recruit, Republican Larry Hogan,” said EMILY’s List President Jessica Mackler. “While Hogan is trying to hide from his anti-abortion track record, we are going to make sure voters know his real record.”

‘I love Larry Hogan’

Hogan did not stick around for the second part of the Principles First dinner program Wednesday evening, but even in his absence, it said a lot about the anti-Trump movement within the national GOP — and Hogan’s standing in it. It also said something about the state of the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D) and Maryland’s outsized role this year in determining which party controls the Senate in the next Congress.

Watergate did not enter the conversation.

Following Hogan as speakers were Kyle Sweetser, a steelworker and two-time Trump voter from Alabama who addressed the Democratic National Convention last month; Sarah Longwell, a political strategist, publisher of the conservative news and opinion website The Bulwark, and founder of Republican Voters Against Trump; and Joe Walsh, a former congressman from Illinois who briefly challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2020 after supporting him in 2016. Notably, all are vocal supporters of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House election.

Poll: Alsobrooks has slim advantage over Hogan in Senate race

Walsh all but harangued the audience of about 100 Republicans to stop thinking about the future of the GOP until Trump exits the political scene.

“None of that matters unless we beat him!” he shouted, pacing across the stage with a hand-held microphone. “Sometimes I get pissed off about the whole ‘what next?’ [conversation]. Not now. We’ve all got one job the next 60 days: Stop him!”

That full-throated advocacy for Harris has been a bridge too far for Hogan. He has said he won’t vote for Trump or Harris this year, just as he didn’t vote for Trump or the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 and 2020. In 2016, he wrote in his father for president, when the elder Hogan was still alive; in 2020, he wrote in the name of former President Ronald Reagan, then 16 years dead.

Longwell, a Maryland resident and Hogan fan who tried to recruit him as far back as 2017 to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, until polling and focus groups convinced her that it would be a fool’s errand, said Wednesday that Hogan’s stance on the presidential election is defensible, especially since he’s a candidate for statewide office.

“He isn’t for Kamala,” she said. “He’s running for Senate as a Republican. He probably can’t say that. I’d like him to say it.”

Within the galaxy of anti-Trump Republicans, there are different approaches to the presidential election. While many will vote for Harris, others, like Hogan, will essentially throw their votes away.

Trump’s former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, a sharp critic of his former boss whose political action committee has already spent more than $1 million attempting to get Hogan elected, has said he’ll write in the name of former Vice President Dick Cheney in November. Meanwhile, Cheney’s daughter, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), said Wednesday she’s voting for Harris. That news went public just as the Priorities First dinner was beginning.

Independent poll shows dead heat in Maryland Senate race

Two recent public polls have shown the Senate race to be close. One poll, released by the Maryland AARP, showed Hogan and Alsobrooks tied at 46% each. The other, from Gonzales Research, showed Alsobrooks ahead, 46% to 41%.

Both polls, as expected, showed Trump far behind Harris in Maryland, though her lead was somewhat more modest in the Gonzales survey. But one thing that’s notable is that, even in a state where Trump allies have seized control of the party apparatus, Hogan was running slightly ahead of Trump among Republican voters in the Gonzales poll, while both took 83% of the GOP vote in their respective races in the AARP poll.

The essential ingredient to any Hogan victory, political analysts and strategists agree, is for the former governor to come close to or exceed 30% of the Democratic vote against Alsobrooks — and both recent polls suggest he’s falling short.

At the Principles First dinner, a question to Longwell from a member of the University of Maryland College Republicans illustrated Hogan’s challenge. The student said that as he hands out leaflets for Hogan on campus, several Democratic and independent voters tell him they admire Hogan generally, but are reluctant to vote for him because he could flip the Senate majority to Republicans or enable GOP policies that they oppose. Longwell said she understands the dilemma.

“I love Larry Hogan, I want to vote for Larry Hogan,” she said. “But man, I’ve been burned a lot by people who wind up voting for the Trump agenda.”

Longwell said she’s able to support Hogan, even with the risk of him sometimes voting for policies that she might dislike or enabling a Senate GOP majority, because the Senate needs more Republicans who are willing to reach across the aisle and seek consensus.

If the party is to stop being in thrall to Trump, “One of the key ways we can get out of this is in leadership,” she said.

‘A stark and unsettling reminder’ of what’s at stake

That may be a comfort to some voters who view Hogan favorably, but it may not be enough to sway some of the Democrats who supported him for governor in 2014 and 2018.

Hogan on Wednesday night sought to contrast his approach to politics and policymaking with Alsobrooks’.

“My opponent in the race for United States Senate only wants to spew partisan rhetoric about the red vs. the blue,” he said. “And I want to get back to the red, white and blue.”

But some of Alsobrooks’ allies are suggesting that Hogan’s recent messaging isn’t as bipartisan as it might seem.

After the joint Hogan-NRSC ad began airing this week, state Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery), an early Alsobrooks supporter, said it was disingenuous for Hogan to portray himself as untrammeled when he’s in cahoots with a campaign committee whose sole purpose is to elect Republicans.

“It’s rich that Larry Hogan is running ads paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee while trying to posture as some type of ‘independent,’” Waldstreicher said. “This latest bankrolled ad is just a stark and unsettling reminder that for Republicans, this Maryland Senate race is solely about taking back the Senate majority.”

And on Thursday, state Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) protested the Hogan campaign’s decision to use footage of her standing and applauding during one of the former governor’s State of the State speeches in his latest ad.

“I often tell constituents that Republican Larry Hogan isn’t nearly as moderate or bipartisan as his PR people would lead you to believe,” Kagan said in an email to supporters. “Sadly, his consultants have spent years, stretching the truth in order to reinforce that inaccurate perception. It is outrageous and misleading that I was included in Hogan’s most recent campaign ad. Just because I applauded at one part of his annual State of the State address does not imply that I approve of the Republican agenda.”

At the end of her missive, Kagan writes: “I am asking that Larry Hogan remove my image from his latest ad and never use it again without my express permission.”

But unlike liberal rock stars who are sending Trump cease-and-desist letters demanding that he no longer use their music during his rallies, Kagan may be on far less solid legal ground calling for her image to be removed from Hogan’s ad.

by Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
September 5, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

While there were a number of interesting issues brought before the Easton Town Council last night, including the struggle to find funds to complete the Port Street infrastructure needs, the Spy took special note of Council President Frank Gunsallus’s proposal to remove the requirement for merchants to charge 10 cents for paper bags. The proposed legislation would amend the current town plastic bag ban, which has caused concerns among some council members and citizen groups.

While the proposal will be discussed at a public hearing later in the month, dissent was evident as the council and those in attendance debated it. Here are some highlights.

Council Comment Highlights

Public Comment Highlights 

Transportation projects around the state will be put on hold as officials grapple with ongoing budget constraints and a growing list of expensive projects.

A combination of budget pressures has created a $1.3 billion funding gap over a six year period, which Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said forced his department to defer projects across the state.

“We just don’t have enough dollars to do what we have to do within our means. So that’s what we’ve had to do,” he said.

The agency Tuesday released a draft of its latest Consolidated Transportation Program, a six-year budget that contains $19 billion in projects around the state. Wiedefeld said the draft required tough choices to address the budget gap, a “historical issue” that continues.

Wiedefeld said the state’s transportation funding shortfall is driven, in part, by an end to federal COVID-19 aid. Other factors include inflation, increased construction costs, less than expected revenue from the state’s gas tax, and reduced federal funding.

“The biggest one we do is we take a look at our financial forecast and all the ups and downs that may occur in the financial forecast,” Wiedefeld told reporters during a briefing Friday. “And so, in doing that, what we learned was that some of the projections that we had in terms of the growth of some of our sources were not growing at that rate, particularly our largest source of revenue, the motor fuel tax. There were some others that were either not growing or remaining flat again, not growing to the level that we’d hoped for.”

Wiedefeld said that resulted in roughly a $350 million decline in projected revenues over the six-year period of fiscal 2025-2030.

“At the same time, our operating costs continue to grow at a rate a little bit more significant that we have projected,” said Wiedefeld, adding $300 million in projected costs over the six-year period.

Counties scramble for answers, options as state signals deferral of transportation requests

Additionally, lawmakers earlier this year restored proposed cuts in state aid to local governments as part of Highway User Revenues as well as proposed cuts to transit systems run by 23 counties and Baltimore City. Restoration of those proposed cuts added another $400 million over six years, Wiedefeld said.

“So those three things basically are our realities that put pressure on the financial forecast,” he said.

Finally, Wiedefeld said the amount of federal aid is falling short of expectations.

“We were pushing all the modes to really buckle down and see where else we could get federal dollars for delivering projects,” he said. “We were shooting for roughly 80% federal, 20% local match, overall for the program. Basically, we were not able to achieve that, and we’re probably not going to be able to achieve that into the future.”

Instead, Wiedefeld said the state now expects a 75-25 split. “That 5%, although it sounds small, is significant, obviously, when you think of the amount of federal dollars that would bring down,” he said.

The resulting lack of revenue means counties will see priority projects not already underway slowed down or paused

“In effect, projects that are into the future — larger projects that we want to construct — we have to slow those down in terms of the process to get them to construction, until we have available dollars to pick that back up,” Wiedefeld said.

One large project that could suffer is the proposed widening of the American Legion Bridge.

“So, on the American Legion bridge, obviously, we have the record of decision for this, you know, larger improvement there,” said Wiedefeld. “But given the stress that we’re under, we’re going to have the state highway particularly focus on the pure state of good repair issues around the American Legion bridge.”

The state applied for a federal grant to help pay for the costs of repairing “structural issues with the bridge,” he said. “So that’s where we’ll be focusing,” Wiedefeld said.

News of the delays was delivered to county leaders by Wiedefeld and transportation officials during the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference last month.

The transportation secretary said he will also seek to slow down the purchase of zero-emissions buses in the coming years, as some major bus manufacturers are having issues with the performance of electric buses, as well as availability.

Moore warns of difficult fiscal decisions ahead

The state spends $750,000 on a new clean diesel bus, about $1 million on a hybrid bus, and $1.4 million on an electric bus.

“So, as you play that over the program period, if you defer that, it actually saves a lot of dollars,” Wiedefeld said. “It allows us not to dig deeper into operating cuts, that we would have to do, or system preservation cuts.”

Wiedefeld said he will not request cuts to his department’s operating budget as he did last year when he cut 8% across the board. He will also not request cuts to county aid or local transit networks.

“What we’ve done is we’ve gone through all those projects, and we’re going to defer those projects at a logical deferred point,” Wiedefeld said. “So basically, some of those projects were in different levels of study. We want to make sure that they stop at a point where we don’t lose any of the effort that we had done, but we don’t have the available funds right now to continue those projects. What you’ll see in the capital program is basically those projects that will be deferred.”

A year ago, Wiedefeld proposed cuts to county shares of highway user revenues and to local transportation networks.

Highway user revenues — decimated in cuts more than a decade ago — had yet to be restored to previous levels. Proposed cuts, nixed this spring by the General Assembly, would have eliminated planned increases in future years.

“Even so, the fiscal 2025 funding for HUR (highway user revenues) falls significantly short of Maryland’s appropriate and historic funding levels, even without adjusting for inflation,” the association of county governments said in a post on its website. “This gap becomes even more pronounced when accounting for rising road maintenance and materials costs.”

The association said it would continue to seek restoration of state highway aid.

“MACo and county leaders will continue urging Maryland policymakers to advance a sustainable plan to address critical infrastructure needs across the state,” the group said in its statement. “Proper restoration of the HUR formula should be a priority in advancing solutions that create sensible and reliable support for all locally maintained roadways.”

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
September 3, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.