Politics

Former state Sen. Robert Cassilly (R) said one of the first notes he received Monday before his swearing-in ceremony as Harford County executive was a congratulatory text message from Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). “Well, I’m not a senator. I’m not even the county executive. I’m not a soldier. I’m not a diplomat. I’m just Bob,” the lifelong Republican recalled when talking to his wife Monday morning. “I’m going to enjoy this for like three hours” before the inaugural ceremony at Harford Community College.

The next phase of Frederick County’s relatively young experiment with charter government began on Monday, with the swearing-in of new County Executive Jessica Fitzwater (D) and the seven members of the county council. Fitzwater, 39, becomes the second county executive in Frederick history, taking over from Democrat Jan Gardner, who was termed out after eight years on the job. Frederick is the only county in the state to have elected women as county executives back-to-back — though Baltimore City had three women serve consecutive terms as mayor from 2007 to 2019.

Five socially conservative school board candidates in Maryland who were leading just after election night ended up losing when the counting of mail-in and provisional ballots was concluded this week. Those changes meant that 20 of the 41 socially conservative candidates identified by Capital News Service came out ahead in their races, down from 25 right after last month’s election, according to unofficial results posted on the Maryland Board of Elections website.

A petition to keep embattled Columbia Association President and Chief Executive Officer Lakey Boyd in office has received more than 570 signatures as of Friday morning, the latest development in a monthslong drama at the nonprofit that serves as the de facto government of Maryland’s second-largest city. Columbia Association board member Dick Boulton, who represents the village of Dorsey’s Search, said Friday that he had been “misquoted” in reports stating the association is conducting an ethics investigation into Boyd’s actions. “[Boyd] is not being investigated by the board for an ethics violation,” Boulton told the Howard County Times on Friday, declining to comment further on personnel matters.

It’s fairly well known that Inauguration Day for Gov.-elect Wes Moore (D) and his running mate, Aruna Miller (D), is Jan. 18, and there will be an inaugural ball and other festivities. But what about Attorney General-elect Anthony Brown (D) and Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman (D)? Brown is scheduled to be sworn in on the morning of Jan. 3 in the House of Delegates chamber in the State House — where Brown served as a delegate from 1999 to 2007 and as lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2015. There will also be a celebration for Brown, but details have not been finalized. Lierman will be sworn in on Jan. 16, at a time and place to be announced.

When Ohio transportation officials got the bids back in spring for the next phase of an expansion of Interstate 75 north of Cincinnati, they had a rude awakening. Inflation had driven up the mega-project’s cost by about $100 million above the $171 million state engineers had estimated. Officials decided to redesign the project, break it up into smaller phases and rebid it, putting off construction until the fall of 2023. Ohio transportation officials are getting nearly $2 billion over five years from the $1.2 trillion federal bipartisan infrastructure law. But so far, the money they’ve received “has largely been gobbled up by inflation,” said Matt Bruning, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Transportation. “It didn’t take all of it, but we’re pretty close to a net sum zero because of it.”

Entrepreneurs seeking to innovate in the mid-Atlantic’s aerospace and defense sector now have some extra consolidated support thanks to the State of Maryland and federal government. The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation granted the Maryland Department of Commerce $641, 573, with part of the funds being used to restart the Defense Commercialization (DefTech) Center. The resurrected program will now be administered by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), the state-connected investment vehicle for tech companies across the state.