Politics

Rep. Andy Harris (R) and his Democratic challenger, Heather Mizeur, engaged in a rollicking debate in Cecil County on Wednesday, trading blows in the first — and likely only — one-on-one encounter that voters in the 1st congressional district will get. Mizeur said Harris, a six-term incumbent, has been an ineffective legislator — “a lot of talk and no action” — and asserted that he has been a divisive force in U.S. politics. She accused him of shifting his views on abortion on the eve of the election to moderate his image.

Democrat Steuart Pittman has taken a lead of 8 percentage points over his Republican challenger, Jessica Haire, in the race for Anne Arundel county executive, according to a new Capital poll completed this week. With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the poll, conducted in conjunction with a statewide Baltimore Sun Media and University of Baltimore survey, shows Pittman, the incumbent Democrat, leading Haire, the one-term County Council member from Edgewater, 48% to 40%.

Two Maryland lawmakers on Wednesday called for an independent review of the state Department of Natural Resources’ handling of repeated complaints of bullying, harassment and intimidation at Gunpowder Falls State Park under longtime manager Michael J. Browning, who now faces rape charges. The Baltimore Banner on Tuesday published an investigation into Gunpowder, drawing on interviews with 15 current and former employees of the state park system and the DNR police, as well as a review of eight complaints that Gunpowder employees sent to high-ranking state park officials in 2015.

There was something a little poetic in the backdrop of Del. Neil C. Parrott’s rollicking campaign rally with Republicans’ hype man of the moment, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), in Frederick, Md., on Saturday afternoon. The rally was held at Roscoe Bartlett’s farm — home of the last Republican congressman to represent western Maryland before state Democrats drew him off a gerrymandered map in 2011.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, meets Democratic challenger Heather Mizeur in Cecil County on Wednesday afternoon in the only scheduled debate of their high-profile race in the 1st Congressional District of Harford County and the Eastern Shore. Harris, 65, who is seeking a seventh term, and Mizeur, 49, a former state delegate and 2014 gubernatorial candidate, will debate for about an hour at Cecil College’s Milburn Stone Theater. They will be joined by Libertarian Party candidate Daniel Thibeault, 30. No other debates have been scheduled in the contest pitting Harris, who is loyal to Republican former President Donald Trump, against Mizeur, who has been endorsed by national progressive groups.

With a lead in the polls and Election Day a mere two weeks away, Brooke Lierman may be staring down a seat in the state comptroller’s office. “I think my record of getting things done, you know, stands apart from many others and demonstrates to Marylanders that I will be ready to go on Day One,” she said in an interview. A civil and disability rights attorney and mother of two elementary-aged children, Lierman is finishing her second term as a Maryland state delegate, where she co-chairs a Special Joint Committee on Pensions and has served on the House Appropriations Committee. She practices procurement law, representing blind-owned businesses with federal contracts. Her battle for the office with Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, a Republican, may be the closest of the three statewide races for governor, attorney general and comptroller.

Signs sprouted up in the audience, heckling turned to boos, and then the Montgomery County Council voted unanimously to pass Thrive2050, the 30-year planning document that’s intended to guide future development. Before the vote, County Council President Gabe Albornoz (D) picked up his gavel and told the residents in the audience, some of whom commented loudly during the meeting, “I’ve never actually had to use this before, and I hope I don’t have to use it today.” Albornoz, a proponent of the plan, said delaying the decision — which had been in the works for 18 months — would be a mistake. He explained that he was born in Gaithersburg in 1976, and that the county’s master plan had not been updated in a generation.