Politics

The J. Millard Tawes Clam Bake and Crab Feast, a beloved ritual of summer temporarily transferred to autumn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, returned to Crisfield on Wednesday, attracting dozens of flesh-pressing candidates, scores of political insiders schmoozing with one another, and thousands of everyday citizens who came to enjoy the unlimited seafood and beer. For a struggling and neglected town at the bottom of Eastern Shore, far from Maryland’s population centers, it was a welcome moment in the spotlight, and an opportunity for candidates to pitch their policy prescriptions to local voters.

Droves of visitors swelled the population of Crisfield, the southernmost town in Maryland, on Wednesday for the J. Millard Tawes Clam Bake and Crab Feast. The feast – typically held at the end of July each year and delayed since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic – is one of two major annual events hosted by the coastal town’s Chamber of Commerce. Ahead of and during Wednesday’s event, Maryland Matters spoke to each of the candidates vying to be Maryland’s next governor about their ideas for boosting the Eastern Shore economy ― though some offered more details than others and, in some cases, the proposals are essentially repackaging their broader campaign themes.

Many people assume that local newspapers are dying because they haven’t been able to create a sustainable business model for the digital age, now that Facebook and Google command the advertising space. But that’s only part of the story. For The Atlantic’s November cover story, “The Men Who Are Killing America’s Newspapers,” staff writer McKay Coppins reports on the secretive hedge fund Alden Global Capital and its co-founders, Randall Smith and Heath Freeman, who have spent years gutting newsrooms and damaging democracy. “The Men Who Are Killing America’s Newspapers” is published today at The Atlantic, and is the cover story of The Atlantic’s November issue.

It has been three weeks since Annapolis’ first election conducted mostly by mail showed voter turnout increase by about 20%. Now, election officials have begun gearing up for the Nov. 2 general election. The general election follows just 42 days after the Sept. 21 primary where 1,776 Democrats voted in three contested primaries in Wards 3, 4 and 8; a combined voter turnout was about 30%. That’s a 22% increase over what it was in those wards in 2017 when about 1,450 ballots were cast.

Melanie Miller, a fixture in Maryland politics and the business world for many years, has established a business development consulting firm to serve clients in the Mid-Atlantic region. Miller Partnership Consultants was set up last week to help companies identify growth areas, whether it’s conducting business development assessments, offering advice with external affairs, establishing community engagement, or offering guidance on networking and social media.

Low-income Marylanders could see the greatest impact if the legislature updates the state health exchange’s online platform to allow insurance carriers to add surcharges to tobacco users’ premiums, state insurance officials said Tuesday. “There is no question that people who are at the lower levels of income, people who have other challenges that they’re dealing with, people who have oftentimes been least able to stop smoking, are the people who will have the greatest impact with respect to a surcharge because that [money] means more to them,” Maryland Insurance Administration Commissioner Kathleen A. Birrane told the House Health and Government Operations Committee at an afternoon hearing.

Backups at Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge are a summer traffic fixture, but maybe things would move along much better if there were eight or more travel lanes? Anne Arundel County and its neighbor on the other side of the water, Queen Anne’s County, want a new, bigger and better bridge between them. The Anne Arundel County Council passed a resolution 6-1 Monday night that matches a resolution recently passed by the Queen Anne’s County Council.

Maryland state parks desperately need a boost in funding to hire more permanent staff and update old infrastructure if they want to meet growing demands for park access, state park leaders told lawmakers on Tuesday. Due to years of low funding and understaffing, park rangers in state parks are overburdened and need support, state park leaders said.