Politics

The Wes Moore-for-president talk started before his inauguration a year ago. Barely a month into his term, a top House leader had to tell Democratic members of Congress at a Baltimore retreat that the “Wes Moore selfie line” needed to sit down so that President Biden could speak. All year, attention followed the lone Black governor of a U.S. state, a new-to-politics politician, whose charisma overshadowed obvious minor defeats. Rapper LL Cool J played at his birthday party; famed portrait photographer Annie Leibowitz captured him for Vogue.

As Brooke Lierman’s first year as comptroller comes to a close, the AFRO reflects on her accomplishments and goals as Maryland’s chief financial officer and general accountant. In 2023, the Comptroller’s Office of Maryland processed more than $2.7 million in tax returns and sent out $1.8 million in refunds valued at more than $2.25 billion.

The Western Maryland Democratic Summit is an annual political rite of spring — or, occasionally, the fall — that draws scores of candidates, officeholders, activists and party stalwarts to the Rocky Gap Casino & Resort outside Cumberland. One of the most popular aspects of the two-day event is a straw poll that comes near the end, in which summit attendees express their preferences for various offices soon to be on the ballot.

Frederick County’s state delegation is moving ahead with a bill proposing a new approach for increasing the salary of Frederick County’s sheriff — despite a senator’s doubts that it can pass. The county’s delegation voted 9-4 on Friday morning to redraft a bill by Sen. Karen Lewis Young, a Democrat from District 3, as a bill from the overall delegation. Lewis Young unsuccessfully requested to table the bill, saying she didn’t believe it would succeed.

Baltimore County announced Monday a new effort that officials say will extend the life span of the county’s sole publicly owned landfill by as much as 40 years after previous estimates said it would run out of capacity by 2027. The Baltimore County Department of Public Works applied in November with the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to expand the Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh, according to Nick Rodricks, the county’s solid waste management bureau chief.

Gov. Wes Moore said Friday his administration is backing its words with investment by budgeting $37 million in capital projects for Allegany and Garrett counties in the 2024/2025 budget. Moore spoke during the annual Mountain Maryland PACE breakfast held at the Westin Hotel in Annapolis. PACE is an acronym for Positive Attitudes Change Everything.

The large majority of the Baltimore City Council is seeking reelection, and members spent 2023 stacking cash ahead of the spring primaries. The primary is May 14. In deep-blue Baltimore, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 10-to-1, winning in the primary is tantamount to winning in November. Every incumbent member of the council is a Democrat.

Aiming to build off their progress in recent years on increasing access to health care and making the criminal justice system more equitable, Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus said Thursday it will back a lengthy list of legislation and “moral” goals in the annual legislative session that kicked off last week. The caucus, with 66 members between the 141-member House of Delegates and the 47-member Senate, is the largest one of its kind in the country, said its chair, Del. Jheanelle Wilkins, a Montgomery County Democrat.