Political Notes: Sen. West won’t seek reelection and race to replace him has already started, plus U.S. Senate developments and Hogan’s latest line

Three terms in the Maryland General Assembly are enough for Baltimore County Republican Sen. Chris West. “I was thinking about whether or not I want to stay around Annapolis until I passed my 80th birthday, should I live that long,” West said in an interview this week. “I concluded that I really don’t want to do that. There’s a time to hold them and a time to fold them. I’d rather not be that guy about whom people whisper ‘Oh, he used to be really good, but he needs to retire.’”