Politics

In one of Democrat Angela Alsobrooks’ ads for her U.S. Senate campaign, she’s barely featured at all. Instead, for 27 seconds, the ad shows clips of her opponent, Larry Hogan, saying over and over that he’s a Republican. Hogan, meanwhile, seems to avoid the party label as much as possible in his ads, mail and on the campaign trail, instead focusing on his two terms as governor and professing that he’ll be an independent voice in Washington.

A proposal to create a land bank to help dispose of Baltimore’s thousands of vacant properties fell victim to political forces rather than opposition to the idea, the bill’s sponsor said this week. Councilwoman Odette Ramos, a Democrat and the bill’s primary backer, said the decisive vote taken last week against her proposal to create a quasi-governmental agency to acquire and sell vacant properties appeared to be personal in nature rather than substantive.

The approval rating of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) among registered voters has risen seven percentage points since March, and he wins high marks for his response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. But the poll finds many voters are skeptical of his response to a recent Bronze Star controversy.

Just a week after the campaign arm for U.S. House Republicans elevated Maryland’s 6th District to its priority list of targeted congressional races, House Democrats are doing the same. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Thursday that it is adding the Democratic nominee in the 6th, former U.S. Commerce Department official April McClain Delaney, to its “Red to Blue” program, which boosts competitive Democratic challengers and open-seat candidates.

On a dreary Wednesday morning, outside a hastily spruced-up Maryland State House, the state of Maryland and the Kingdom of Jordan began what was touted as a new relationship with a hug. As the motorcade of nearly two dozen motorcycles, police cruisers and sport utility vehicles with flashing lights approached the front of the State House under drizzly skies, Gov. Wes Moore (D) and his wife, Dawn Flythe Moore, calmly stood outside on a patch of red carpet.

Kamala Harris called for federal incentives to spur domestic manufacturing across a range of industries on Wednesday, ratcheting up her efforts in Pennsylvania to wrest blue-collar voters away from Donald Trump. In a speech in Pittsburgh, the vice president pledged to invest in biomanufacturing, aerospace and artificial intelligence, “so that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to geothermal to advanced nuclear, are not just invented but built here in America by American workers.”

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday that aims to help schools create active shooter drills that are less traumatic for students yet still effective. The order also seeks to restrict new technologies that make guns easier to fire and obtain. The president has promised he and his administration will work through the end of the term, focusing on the issues most important to him. Curbing gun violence has been at the top of the 81-year-old president’s list.

Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller made a special appearance at the Crisfield Crab and Clam Bake. The Lieutenant Governor met with local politicians and officials from local universities, like the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Salisbury University. She said events like this help bolster the state of Maryland, and personally connect with people who are most effected by issues, such as flooding.