Politics

Cambridge residents showed up yesterday, to vote for a new mayor, but the election ended in a runoff. Candidates now prepare to settle the score on December 3rd. Current Mayor, Steve Rideout said, it was likely, the election was going to play out like this, “It’s not unusual for there to be a runoff, it happened when I was elected here a couple of years ago, and when Mayor Bradshaw was elected, there was a runoff there as well.”

People with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday. Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.

Prince George’s County could face a cascade of changes in its leadership if County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) wins her bid for Maryland’s open Senate seat, upheaval that would come as the county already is holding special elections to fill the open seat of a former council member convicted in a felony theft scheme.

The Maryland Democratic Party will spend “tens of thousands of dollars” targeting at least 18 school board candidates that it says are looking to bring a “hateful” and “right-wing agenda” to schools. It is a first for the party, which has never before involved itself in the nonpartisan races for local board of education seats. But party leaders said the move is needed to fight the “extremist” agendas espoused by candidates in 11 counties, eight of which it’s putting resources into – Anne Arundel, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary’s and Talbot.

Vaping among high school students in the U.S. fell sharply from 2023 to 2024, a trend that was mirrored in Maryland but at a slower pace, according to health advocates and state officials. Data released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that about 1.63 million middle and high school students regularly used e-cigarettes this year, or 5.9% of students surveyed for the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Democrats have poured record amounts of cash into defending Maryland’s once reliably blue Senate seat, investing to fend off an unprecedented GOP offensive behind former governor Larry Hogan’s bid to flip the seat. Maryland’s unusually competitive race between Hogan and Democrat Angela D. Alsobrooks for the seat her party has held for decades has cost at least six times more than the state’s last contest for an open Senate seat — drawing at least $84.6 million combined in contributions, according to the most recent campaign finance reports filed this week.

Kelly Madigan is not running for anything, but she would like your vote anyway. Madigan is Baltimore County’s first inspector general, a role she has held since 2020. The Nov. 5 ballot includes a question about whether the inspector general’s office should be enshrined in the Baltimore County Charter. It’s needed, she and others say, because while public officials love to talk about transparency and accountability, they don’t always walk the walk.