Politics

Dan Cox, the Republican nominee who lost Maryland’s gubernatorial race last year, has teamed up with conservative Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano as his new chief of staff. Mastriano also came up short as his state’s Republican nominee for governor in November after both he and Cox ran strikingly similar campaigns that supported each other. Both endorsed by former President Donald Trump, the pair of freshman lawmakers from neighboring states had mirroring campaign platforms that attacked COVID-19 pandemic response measures — such as mask and vaccine mandates — targeted transgender issues in schools and advocated for anti-abortion laws.

Advocates for overdose prevention sites say their yearslong effort to provide places in Maryland where people can more safely consume illegal drugs finally may be gaining traction. Also known as supervised injection sites, the facilities offer clean needles and other supplies to people who use drugs. Trained staff can intervene in opioid overdoses and connect people to treatment and other services. Similar sites in other countries have a track record of reducing fatal overdoses, which hit record numbers in the United States and in Maryland during the coronavirus pandemic.

The bust of Roger Taney, the justice who wrote the notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision that ruled African Americans were not citizens, has been removed from the United States Capitol, capping off an effort led by U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer. The statue will be replaced by a new work honoring the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, a champion of civil rights.

The open enrollment period closed last month, but Marylanders still will have a chance this tax season to sign up for health insurance for 2023. Comptroller Brooke Lierman, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and other state officials and health care advocates plan to come together Friday morning to encourage uninsured residents to check a box on their state tax return to start the process of signing up for affordable health insurance. Maryland has run its tax-based Easy Enrollment program since 2019, when it became the first state in the country to launch such a program.

Maryland Republicans are again pushing to eliminate an automatic increase in the state’s gas tax tied to inflation. As it was last year, the repeal is one of the top priorities for Senate Republicans in the 2023 session. “Over the past year our working families across the state have been struggling with this economy due to rapid inflation, especially at the grocery store and at the gas station,” said Sen. Jason Gallion, R-Cecil and Harford and sponsor of the bill.

A group of Maryland lawmakers is once again calling for changes to Noah’s Law, saying it has too many loopholes. Noah’s Law requires everyone convicted of drunken driving to use an ignition interlock device, but critics said a loophole in the statute is letting many off the hook. Lawmakers said changes to current drunken driving laws are overdue.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, along with 27 of his U.S. Senate colleagues, introduced legislation Tuesday to ban high-capacity magazines, which can be used on the type of semi-automatic firearm that is typically used in most mass shootings. “High-capacity magazines were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — high-capacity killing — and have been used in some of the deadliest mass shootings in America,” Menendez said in a statement.

Prince George’s County social justice activist Ashanti Martinez is poised to fill the District 22 House vacancy created when Alonzo T. Washington ascended to a Senate seat in Annapolis, bolstering the diverse group of voices representing county residents. Martinez, 26, was the only person to apply to the open seat by the Tuesday deadline, after early interest from competitors with more years of political experience, such as artist Rushern “Rush” Baker IV, son of former Prince George’s County executive Rushern L. Baker III, and the University of Maryland’s associate director of government relations, Molly Mckee-Seabrook.