Politics

Suspicious packages were sent to elections officials across the country on Tuesday, including Maryland, officials said. The U.S. Postal Service intercepted a suspicious package intended for the Maryland State Board of Elections office, according to Jared DeMarinis, the state’s elections administrator. DeMarinis thanked federal officials on social media for their “prompt notification & assistance.”

A group of House Republicans is rallying for policy change via executive order after a poll found that the majority of Marylanders support law enforcement coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to turn in people unlawfully in the U.S. who have been convicted of a violent crime. “Marylanders clearly want change in Maryland’s ICE policies,” Del. Matt Morgan, a St. Mary’s County Republican, said in a statement Tuesday.

Two bills that would have helped establish a land bank authority in Baltimore, allowing the city to foreclose on certain vacant lots and properties, did not garner enough support at a City Council committee hearing Tuesday, and members will recommend against its passage at the next council meeting. The move signals yet another blow to efforts to reverse the city’s vacant housing crisis. More than 13,000 dwellings are empty in the city, with most of them located in areas with “high concentrations of both vacancy and poverty,” according to the Abell Foundation.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan paints himself as one of a few Republicans who never backed down to ex-President Donald Trump, but the Democratic attorney general who served during Hogan’s two terms disagrees. Hogan’s latest political campaign ad for a U.S. Senate seat has drawn fresh ire from former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.

Questions were raised anew Monday about the ability of lottery funds to cover costs for the planned renovation of Pimlico Racetrack, which will be competing for funding with several other Maryland Stadium Authority projects. Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) asked Maryland Stadium Authority officials for details on its revenue projections and whether funding from the lottery can support hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds that will be needed for Pimlico, on top of projects at the two stadiums in Baltimore and the Blue Line Corridor project in Prince George’s County.

Seven members of Maryland’s congressional delegation received perfect scores from Common Cause, the national political reform organization, for their votes during the 118th Congress. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st), took the “wrong” position, in Common Cause’s view, on all 13 House measures that the organization scored during this Congress.

As the 2024 presidential and local elections approach, Baltimore needs more election judges to staff voting precincts around the city Nov. 5. Voters will select Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee. Incumbent Brandon Scott won this year’s Democratic mayoral primary, while several City Council candidates secured narrow wins, setting them up for success in the general election.

More than 50 current or former state lawmakers supporting Democrat Angela Alsobrooks’ U.S. Senate bid issued a statement Friday recounting their battle with then-Gov. Larry Hogan over abortion access, saying the Republican “cannot be trusted to defend women’s freedoms.” The statement was the latest attempt by Alsobrooks’ backers to try to undermine Hogan over abortion rights.