Archive for Maryland Matters

Troubling poll news continues for Gov. Wes Moore (D) in a new survey that shows approval numbers for the first-term executive continue to slip and the gap between those who approve and disapprove of his performance continues to shrink.

The Maryland Now poll is the most recent of several over the last nine months that have shown a continued softening of support for the charismatic first-term governor.

Five in 10 surveyed in the latest poll said they approved of the job done by Moore. But the gap between those who approve and disapprove of the governor’s performance narrowed to 8 percentage points — a drop of 13 percentage points in six months.

The poll — conducted by Blended Public Affairs and powerhouse Annapolis lobbying firm Perry Jacobson — surveyed 1,256 Maryland residents by text message between July 24 and July 30. The poll has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

A renewed effort to expand alcohol sales beyond liquor stores has the backing of a powerful new ally — Gov. Wes Moore (D) told Maryland Matters that he “wants something on my desk at the end of the session.”

The General Assembly has tried before to allow alcohol sales in grocery stores — and perhaps other retailers. Moore said that while he will not make the bill an official part of his 2025 legislative package, his office will push for passage of a bill in the coming session.

“I think it’s time to address this issue because it’s something that I have heard literally in every single corner of the state from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. From Oakland, Ocean City, Montgomery County and everywhere in between,” Moore said. “This is an issue that people are asking about.”

Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks (D) officially resigned her post as Prince George’s County Executive on Monday morning, setting the stage for a special election that has already attracted three candidates and may draw more.

In a letter “to all residents of Prince George’s County” released Monday, Alsobrooks, who will be sworn in to her seat in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, said she was resigning from the county job effective 10 a.m. Monday.

“Thank you for your trust and partnership as we worked to build a stronger, united Prince George’s,” Alsobrooks’ letter said. “Serving the residents of this County has been the honor of my lifetime, and I am deeply proud of all we have accomplished together.”

If council members are deadlocked for two weeks, the person who is the sitting council president at the time becomes executive for two years — though that person’s identity won’t be known until the council’s organizational meeting on Dec. 3.

Confused? You should be.

But this may not come as a surprise: The candidates quietly — and in some cases, not so quietly — mobilizing to try to succeed Olszewski and Alsobrooks aren’t terribly well known to average voters.

That’s according to a poll conducted for Blended Public Affairs, an Annapolis-based firm headed by Alexandra Hughes, the former chief of staff to two Maryland House speakers. This is the maiden public poll of a new alliance between the firm and Donna Victoria, a Maryland-based Democratic pollster, who has just become a strategic partner at Blended Public Affairs.

“We started Blended based on a theory that impact and influence happen in a different way today than 20 years ago,” Hughes said. “Media, social media, grass-roots, coalition building and research drive the way people make decisions now more than ever. We are thrilled to add polling and qualitative research to our suite of services to give clients the best possible real-time information to impact their long-term strategic goals.”

Hughes’ firm already expanded earlier this year when she hired Dori Henry, a former top aide to Olszewski and other leading Maryland Democrats, as senior vice president.

City voters gave overwhelming approval Tuesday to a Baltimore City Charter amendment that advocates hope will help dramatically change and revitalize the Inner Harbor area.

Question F, which clears the way for the redevelopment, passed by a vote of 95,605 to 63,043. The 3-2 margin of victory was praised by the developer behind the planned project, as well as supporters who worked to ensure passage of the amendment.

“We are grateful to the people of our hometown and have always had faith they would believe in the power of progress,” said a joint statement from P. David Bramble and Peter Pinkard, co-founders of MCB, the company behind the project.

“Our vision for the future of Harborplace was developed through an inclusive and intensive public engagement process. That vision is one that looks forward – to an Inner Harbor for future generations of Baltimoreans, to an Inner Harbor with public parkland, mixed income housing and local business opportunities,” their statement said.

Dori Henry, a seasoned policy and communications strategist who is leaving her post next month as chief of staff to Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D), is joining forces with Alexandra Hughes, the former chief of staff to state House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and the late Speaker Michael E. Busch (D).

Henry is set to become senior vice president of Blended Public Affairs, the firm Hughes started after she left the legislature. Henry’s addition is another a sign of the firm’s steady growth since Hughes launched it in 2022.

Current clients include US Wind, MCB Real Estate, Anheuser Busch and the William Julius Wilson Institute, a national anti-poverty think tank.

“We are so thrilled to welcome Dori to Blended,” Hughes said. “Dori is a powerhouse and her local, state and federal communications, political and executive management experience are second to none. She brings tremendous value to our team and elevates Blended to another level in the DMV.”

Henry has worked for Olszewski since he took office in 2018, becoming chief of staff in September 2022 after stints as his communications director and deputy chief of staff. Olszewski is heavily favored to win a congressional seat in November and leave the county executive’s job.

“From the moment we took office, Dori has been an integral partner in every major initiative our administration has undertaken and has been an invaluable leader in our work to build a better Baltimore County,” Olszewski said. “Our communities are stronger today because of her unwavering commitment to innovative, accountable government and her passion for public service.”

Prior to her service with Baltimore County, Henry oversaw communications for the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, served as assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, and held roles at the U.S. Department of Justice, the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Besides Olszewski, her ex-bosses and professional mentors have included Tom Perez, for whom she worked at the DOJ and state and federal labor departments, and Josh Sharfstein, the former Maryland health secretary.

Henry, who began her career as a journalist but has spent most of the past two decades in government, said she’ll be able to apply what she’s learned in her new position.

“Obviously my background is largely in communications and more recently, strategy – political strategy and community engagement,” she said.

Henry added that Hughes will be one of her first women bosses.

“I think our skills are aligned, and this is a good opportunity to try something new with someone I really respect,” she said. “She’s already been a strong foundation. I’m excited to help her grow.”

On the eve of a new year — and a new General Assembly session — Maryland voters are generally optimistic about the future, though many have jitters about inflation and crime in Baltimore. They are also looking to their government leaders for bold solutions — though it isn’t clear whether there’s the political will or the desire by taxpayers to pay for the initiatives that may be needed to move the state’s economy forward.

Those are some of the conclusions of a recent issues survey for Maryland that was taken by a Democratic pollster and commissioned by a leading Annapolis lobbying firm and a politically wired public affairs strategist.

The poll showed that many voters are comfortable in their own lives and are enthusiastic about several proposed measures that could improve Maryland’s economy and create more opportunity and equity for residents who are struggling financially.

The poll was broken into two parts, testing the opinions of 813 likely 2024 general election voters of all political persuasions, and 502 registered Baltimore City Democrats who are likely to vote in the city’s primaries next December. The statewide survey had a 3.3-point margin of error, while the Baltimore Democratic portion of the survey had a 4.4-point error margin.

The 45-question poll was paid for by the Annapolis lobbying firm Perry White Ross and Jacobson, whose senior partner is Tim Perry, a former chief of staff to the late Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D), and Blended Public Affairs, whose principal is Alexandra Hughes, a former chief of staff to House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and the late Speaker Mike Busch (D).

Both firms have an array of clients who will be closely monitoring the developments in state government in the months ahead. Perry White Ross and Jacobson is one of the top-grossing lobbying firms in the state.

When Lisa Harris Jones started lobbying in Annapolis in the late 1990s, she was almost always one of the few Black women in a room and sometimes the only. She recalled just a few female faces, mostly white, at the capital working to influence state policy, but she was usually surrounded by white male lawmakers and lobbyists.

“I have no memory of a Black female in a partnership position,” she said.

As the first Black woman to own and manage a law practice focused on lobbying and government relations, Harris Jones is known as a “trailblazer” in Annapolis, inspiring other Black women to enter the field and helping open doors.

On May 1, 2019, as the House of Delegates gathered in Annapolis to select a new leader three weeks after the sudden death of Speaker Michael E. Busch (D), Alexandra M. Hughes, Busch’s longtime lieutenant, packed up her State House office, unsure if the next speaker would want to keep her around.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Hughes recalled in a recent interview. “It was so hard not to be in control of that process and to leave everybody to their own devices.”

She shouldn’t have worried.

By that point, Hughes had worked for Busch for 13 years — including 4 1/2 years as his chief of staff. She served, in the words of one admirer, as Busch’s “war-time consigliere,” as he navigated a strained relationship with Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.

So when Del. Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), who had been Busch’s loyal, low-key speaker pro tem for the entirety of his tenure, emerged as the Democratic caucus’ compromise choice to replace him that May Day, it wasn’t surprising that she chose to keep Hughes as her chief of staff. Jones said it never occurred to her that Hughes might leave.

“As pro-tem, I dealt with her a lot,” Jones said. “We really had a good rapport. Plus, we’re both Scorpios. Scorpios have this sense about people, so we really connected early on,” Jones said, referring to their shared astrological sign.

But now, Hughes is packing up her State House office for real. She plans to step down as Jones’ chief of staff at the end of the year and set up her own public affairs shop in Annapolis.