Politics

Jessica and Dirk Haire want to set a few things straight. They’re not moving to North Carolina, as some have speculated. The porn industry did not fund her campaign for Anne Arundel County executive, as one opponent suggested. Jessica doesn’t drive a Range Rover, though she did appear in front of a white luxury SUV for a campaign ad in her failed bid to unseat County Executive Steuart Pittman. And Dirk, who ended his six years as Maryland Republican Party chair on Saturday, now feels free to speak his mind — about the Democrats’ strategy of propping up far-right GOP candidates and the state of his own party.

The Prince George’s County Council’s new progressive majority flexed its muscle in public on Monday, using its first formal voting session of the term to repeal a series of zoning provisions considered favorable to developers and commercial landowners. The actions, which critics said bypassed traditional procedures, occurred during a sometimes tense two-hour session. They were repeatedly condemned by a handful of council members who had approved the measures, several of which were adopted just prior to the November elections, when the veteran lawmakers and their allies tended to hold the gavel.

Nicole Beus Harris, a veteran conservative political and marketing consultant, was selected to chair the state Republican Party as Gordana Schifanelli — who lost a bid to become Maryland’s lieutenant governor last month — alleged the process was rigged against her. Harris, who is married to Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s only GOP congressman, will succeed Dirk Haire, who didn’t seek reelection.

Maryland health care advocates are lining up a list of priorities for the upcoming General Assembly session, which they hope will bring the state closer to their goal of ensuring that all residents have health insurance. The advocates have a news conference scheduled for Tuesday in Baltimore to spotlight their agenda. They are hoping that whatever passes in the upcoming session will help shrink the state’s uninsured population, which currently stands at about 6%. 

Environmental activists pushing for more development of offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean released a report exploring potential economic windfalls for electric consumers in Maryland. The new report estimates that if regulators approve 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind projects, three times as much that’s already permitted, electric consumers may see a smaller bill. That calculation is based on what’s known as the standard offer service rate, which is how much electric utility companies charge, but does not include extra fees or other considerations. New Jersey-based energy consulting firm Gable Associates, estimates that by 2031 if Maryland bets big on offshore wind the price for standard offer service could drop from 8 cents per kilowatt to 4 cents per kilowatt.

Maryland’s laws prohibiting many semi-automatic rifles, including some AR- and AK-style weapons, could be in jeopardy. Federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit are weighing arguments between a plaintiff representing a group of Maryland gun owners and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) over whether the state’s current gun laws are unconstitutional in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling. The case now hinges on whether these semi-automatic rifles are “in common use for self-defense today,” as claimed by the plaintiffs. The Fourth Circuit heard around 45 minutes of oral arguments for the case Dominic Bianchi v. Brian Frosh last week.

Baltimore City Councilman John Bullock spent four years sitting on the city’s Inclusionary Housing Board, an opportunity he thought would involve working with developers to create more housing units for low- and moderate-income residents. In those four years, however, Bullock barely recalls developers setting aside any affordable units. Instead, his tenure was spent granting waivers. Many, many waivers. “We’d get these requests for waivers and, looking at the numbers and where folks were, we didn’t have an option,” Bullock said. “Our hands were literally tied.” Baltimore’s inclusionary housing policy, adopted in 2007, was a failure. Few affordable units were built, and the city missed an opportunity to potentially claw back tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks from developers who declined to include housing for low-income residents in their projects as the law required.