Politics

In Gov.-elect Wes Moore’s blowout victory over Republican Dan Cox earlier this month, the winning candidate spent five times more than his opponent in the final two-and-a-half months of the race and still had millions left over after Election Day, new campaign finance reports show. Moore had consistently outraised Cox in the general election and other more experienced candidates in the crowded Democratic primary earlier this year — fueling a robust campaign effort that led to the largest win by any candidate for governor in Maryland since 1986. The Democrat and his running mate ultimately raised $6.4 million and spent $5.1 million since the campaigns started heating up in late August, bringing their total fundraising haul to about $17 million since Moore launched his campaign in mid-2021, his and Lt. Gov.-elect Aruna Miller’s reports show.

Gordana Schifanelli, the Republican who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor this year, has been thwarted in her bid to become chair of the state party. The GOP’s current leader claimed her nominating paperwork arrived an hour late. Republican leaders from around the state will gather in early December to elect a new chair, three vice-chairs and a secretary. Schifanelli, a Queen Anne’s County lawyer who ran on a ticket headed by Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick), planned to run for state chair on a slate dubbed the “Unity Team.” In a series of social media posts on Tuesday, she bluntly rejected outgoing Chair Dirk Haire’s claim that the slate filed its paperwork an hour late. She said the only requirement in the party’s bylaws is that nomination paperwork be filed within 30 days of the vote, a condition she insists was met.

A Montgomery County judge closed a hearing Tuesday concerning a bid protest over one of Maryland’s largest highway projects, after lawyers for the state and winning companies said opening the hearing to the media and public could disclose confidential information. The protest by a losing bidder concerns the first contract the state awarded last year in a project potentially worth billions of dollars to widen Interstate 270 and part of the Capital Beltway with toll lanes. Lawyers for both the Maryland Department of Transportation and the winning bidder, a team of companies led by Australian toll road operator Transurban, asked that the hearing be closed, and its transcript sealed to prevent the possibility of proprietary bid details being discussed publicly.

As a member of his high school’s debating team in 1968, Sen. Christopher West (R-Baltimore County) was assigned to argue in favor of a proposed state constitutional amendment that, among other things, would have done away with competitive elections as the means of choosing judges for Maryland’s circuit courts. While West’s side won the high school match, the constitutional amendment was rejected by the voters that year — and legislative debate over the issue has continued since, without resolution. “The issue of election of circuit court judges has been the subject of serious deliberation for 54 years by my counting,” West told a Maryland Judiciary workgroup last week, while wryly observing — quoting the late Yogi Berra — “I get the distinct feeling of déjà vu all over again.”

Every morning before school Wolfe Street Academy in Baltimore opens for breakfast. Today sausage sandwiches, bananas, juice and milk are on the menu for the students, all of whom are eligible for two free meals a day. Many come with their parents, and sit together for announcements, which Principal Mark Gaither and ESOL family liaison Sylvia Chicas deliver bilingually, since Latinos make up over 80% of the student body.

The Baltimore City Council gave final approval to a proposal to cut the number of years required for its members and other city officials to earn a pension Monday, faulting a charter amendment establishing term limits that was overwhelmingly approved by voters this month. The pension legislation, introduced by Council President Nick Mosby, calls for Baltimore to offer pensions to city officials after eight years of service. Currently, the requirement is 12.

After Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby failed to obtain a lawyer, a judge has delayed a hearing on an ethics dispute that found Mosby violated the city’s ethics ordinance by collecting money for a legal-defense fund. Mosby is disputing the ruling by Baltimore’s Board of Ethics, which called on him to cease fundraising for a legal-defense fund in his name and turn over a list of donors. The ruling, issued in May, found Mosby violated the city’s ethics ordinance by indirectly soliciting for the fund that took donations from at least two city contractors.