Politics

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Saturday afternoon announced his intention to seek a second term. The city’s 52nd mayor spoke about how his administration has made progress on several issues in the city, such as violence. “As I stand before you today, we have a 20% reduction in homicides in the city of Baltimore, a 9% reduction in non-fatal shootings, and Baltimore, we are on track for the first time in nine years to be under 300 murders,” Scott said Saturday at the Cahill Recreation Center.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has crisscrossed the state in her discussion of issues that she has heard from Marylanders during her campaign so far for United States Senate. She started with health care access on the Eastern Shore, moved to housing affordability in Western Maryland and educational funding in Frederick before providing a point of summation: “Economic opportunity is threaded throughout the state.”

U.S. Rep. David Trone has seen a lot in nearly five years in office. Now running for U.S. Senate, he says he’s heard a lot too — from Marylanders across the state “dissatisfied, unhappy with the political system.” That was the top issue he says he has heard — from Baltimore County to Montgomery County to Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. Asked how he reconciles his congressional career with the dissatisfaction of the political system as he campaigns for higher office, his answer is simple.

Ken Ulman, a one-time rising political star in Maryland who more recently has been a key consultant and influencer in the state on economic development and construction projects, is returning to the political arena. Ulman was overwhelmingly elected the new state Democratic chair Saturday morning, easily dispatching a 22-year-old member of the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee, Edward Crizer III, and Vontasha Simms, a Charles County Democratic Central Committee member who ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat last year. He replaces Yvette Lewis, a venerated figure among many party leaders who stepped down earlier this fall.

The design phase of a widening project for part of Route 214 will be fully funded by the end of next year. Meanwhile, money is still being sought to complete design work for other Anne Arundel priorities, including road widening projects on Routes 2 and 3, the state says. “These are where we have traffic bottlenecks, where too many cars are trying to get into the same place at the same time and you’ll notice a lot of them are north-south,” Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said at a meeting with the Maryland Department of Transportation on Tuesday.

The red-brick warehouse that houses Baltimore’s elections information and equipment is over 50 years old and, by many accounts, is falling apart. Parts of the ceiling are sagging, or have holes. At least one of the metal doors used for unloading equipment has rusted shut. Others have to be pried open with a steel bar. The warehouse, despite boasting 40,000 square feet, is packed with thousands of voting machines, ballot carts, and provisional ballot applications. There is no space to train election judges.

The leader of CASA of Maryland, an immigrant rights organization, says the organization’s apology over comments on the war in Gaza comes after consultation with members of the Jewish community. In an interview with WTOP, Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, said that the apology issued by his group came after “receiving comments from a lot of great friends and partners in the Jewish community.”