Charisma fueled Wes Moore’s primary win. Now he sharpens his focus on policy.

Talk to most top Democratic officials in Maryland about Wes Moore, and many are almost giddy about what the future could hold if the state elects a Democratic governor for the first time in eight years. Big investments in transit and clean energy. Fully funding and implementing a multibillion-dollar plan to reform public education. Ensuring residents have health care, housing and good-paying jobs, women have access to abortions, and communities are cleansed of violent crime. Moore, 43, is heavily favored to win in the deep-blue state, which would return Annapolis to the one-party dominance Democrats enjoyed for most of the past 50 years.

Eastern Shore congressional candidates to meet for televised debate

Three candidates vying to represent the Eastern Shore in Congress will meet for a televised debate in late October. Cecil Public Media announced the event featuring Rep. Andy Harris (R), former Del. Heather Mizeur (D) and Libertarian Daniel Thibeault late on Friday evening. The candidates were each confirmed for the forum after Harris earlier backed out of the proposed event, citing a concern that Thibeault wasn’t included. Maryland Matters wrote about the cancellation earlier this week, which Mizeur cast as part of a trend by Harris to avoid other high-profile events as well, including a televised debate proposed by the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Salisbury Committee.

As Cox seeks to block early counting, officials say they expect massive mail-in vote

Lawyers for Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox, in asking a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge to block a request to allow early counting of mail-in ballots, contend that state elections officials have failed to prove there is an emergency requiring court intervention. In the meantime, local election officials are warning that they expect to be deluged with mail-in votes for the November election and may need several days, if not weeks, to count them if they have to wait until after Election Day to begin. State elections officials had gone to court earlier this month to ask for permission to begin early counting what is expected to be a flood of mail-in ballots.

Proposed Baltimore police districts would lump more violent crime into the most violent districts, analysis shows

The Baltimore Police Department’s proposed new district boundaries, which officials say are necessary to modernize and streamline police operations, would shift areas of the city that have had more of the most violent crimes into larger, more violent Eastern and Western districts, a Baltimore Banner analysis has found. Those shifts have not gone unnoticed, sparking pushback from community associations and some city council members. But larger, more violent districts could actually be beneficial for Baltimore if police equitably realign resources, experts say.

What’s changed — and stayed the same — with the Maryland electorate since Goucher Poll survey in June

Eli Allen can’t remember whom he voted for in the Democratic gubernatorial primary — “everyone was frankly very similar” — but the Pikesville resident does know it wasn’t Wes Moore, who eked out a win in the crowded field. Nevertheless, Allen said he plans to vote for Moore in November, saying that Republican nominee Dan Cox’s extremism and association with former president Donald Trump is too off-putting. Many of the Cox signs I see are next to signs for Trump and Pence that have Pence’s name crossed out because of his reaction to the January 6th insurrection hearings,” the 41-year-old software engineer said.

Montgomery Council launches probe of official who kept well-stocked bar in his office

The Montgomery County Council will conduct an inquiry of a top official, Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson, after he admitted keeping dozens of bottles of alcohol in his office. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Office of the Inspector General became aware last month that Anderson kept alcohol in the office when it received an anonymous tip via email. According to WJLA-TV (ABC-7), which first reported on the matter, the email alleged that Anderson would drink in his office, occasionally with colleagues, and that he “has over 32 bottles of hard liquor in his office where he routinely creates mixed drinks and distributes them on a significant scale.”

Poll: Moore holds commanding lead over Cox in Maryland governor’s race

Gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and his fellow Maryland Democrats are well-positioned to sweep statewide offices in this fall’s election, according to new polling from Goucher College in partnership with The Baltimore Banner and WYPR. Moore holds a 53% to 31% advantage over Republican Dan Cox in the race for governor among 748 likely voters who were questioned about the race. Third-party candidates combined for 7% support, and just 9% of those polled were undecided. Nearly 70% of respondents said they were set in their choice.

Under fire from ‘disgusted’ council, Baltimore public works officials concede missteps in E. coli water response

Public works and city officials admitted missteps Thursday in their response to the recent E. coli scare in West Baltimore, acknowledging room for improvement in their emergency approach and communication to residents. The discussion came during a marathon hearing before the City Council’s Rules and Legislative Oversight Committee, in which members interrogated leadership in the city’s Department of Public Works over their Labor Day weekend response to bacteria discovered in the water system that feeds West Baltimore. Elected officials and residents have criticized the city’s communication of a wide-ranging boil-water advisory as both delayed and confusing.

Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox files motion to oppose early counting of mail-in ballots

Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox said Thursday he was seeking to intervene in Maryland election officials’ legal effort to count mail-in ballots early in the upcoming November election — a move that election workers and observers have pushed for, but one that Cox claims would break state law. Cox, a lawyer and freshman delegate who has sued state government in the past, said he filed a motion opposing the Maryland State Board of Elections’ petition ahead of a scheduled hearing on the matter next week in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Marilyn Mosby gets new 2023 trial date in federal perjury, mortgage fraud case

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s federal perjury and mortgage fraud trial is now set to begin March 27, more than a year after she was originally indicted and months after she will have left office. U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby ordered the new trial date Thursday, a day after postponing Mosby’s trial for a second time. The two-term Democratic prosecutor was scheduled to start trial Monday.