By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
“We can do better, Maryland. And I feel that I can bring what Maryland needs, especially from a technology standpoint in operations management, to get that on the right track.” - Republican comptroller nominee Sonya Dunn, who faces an uphill battle in her bid to unseat first-term Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a Democrat.
Election Day is Tuesday, but some lawmakers are already planning for their future in office, and schools ace the test on the latest report card from the Maryland Department of Education. That’s what’s on tap for your Friday.
Sonya Dunn, the Republican nominee for comptroller, thinks she has the resume and the skills to be the next comptroller, but is having trouble getting her message out against incumbent Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a Democrat. Lierman, meanwhile, wants a second term to expand on the groundwork she set in her first four years to modernize the office, as Christine Condon reports.
Senate President Bill Ferguson is not waiting for Election Day to announce a long-discussed overhaul of Senate leadership, to reflect the diversity of the majority Democratic caucus. Bryan P. Sears has that story. And half of the state’s public schools earned a four- or five-star rating on an annual assessment, an improvement from last year — just in time for the state to roll out a new rating system for next year, as William J. Ford reports.
Those stories, plus a new attack on a proposed ICE facility in Elkridge, are below to help you close out this week. Enjoy!
Comptroller Brooke Lierman has plans to expand on the gains of her first term if reelected. She needs to get past Republican challenger Sonya Dunn first, but Dunn is struggling to get her message out. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters)
By Christine Condon
Republican comptroller nominee Sonya Dunn acknowledges she's got her work cut out for her in her bid to unseat Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D), the first woman to hold the office when she was elected in 2022.
Dunn, a first-time candidate with little name recognition, has just a fraction of the campaign funds raised by Lierman, a two-term member of the House of Delegates and the daughter of a prominent Maryland Democrat. And besides that, Dunn has to cope with what she calls "the scarlet R" — being a Republican candidate in a deep-blue state. But Dunn, who describes herself as a moderate, fiscal conservative, hopes Maryland voters can see past the party label and see that her background in IT services will make her a compelling alternative to Lierman, given the technological challenges faced by the comptroller’s office.
For her part, Lierman — who beat former Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, a Republican, by about 23 percentage points in 2022 — is looking ahead to expanding on the changes she's made to the office in her first four years, including updates to the decades-old computer systems that Maryland uses to collect taxes and handle its payroll. With a second term, she’s hoping to think bigger, she said.
Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City) will take over as chair of the the Senate Finance Committee, becoming the first Black lawmaker to lead the committee. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
By Bryan P. Sears
Sen. Antonio Hayes, a two-term Democrat from Baltimore City, will become the first Black lawmaker to chair the Senate Finance Committee, one of a series of changes that will make Senate leadership younger and less Montgomery County-centric.
The changes announced by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) Thursday, days ahead of Election Day, recognize the growing diversity of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate. Black lawmakers would step into half of the eight committee leadership roles — chairs and vice chairs for the four standing committees — under Ferguson's plan. Women will fill two slots, including Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel), who will become chair of the Education, Energy and the Environment Commitee in January.
Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery), who had been chair of EEE, moves into a new role that’s something of a legislative Swiss Army knife. He will take over as Senate Majority Leader from Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery), who was unseated in the primary. He will also serve in the newly created role of chief of policy, focused on "solving problems using legislative solutions and oversight." To make that happen, he will be an ex officio member of all four committees, with a vote in any committee on any matter in the event of a tie. He also takes over a "reconstituted" Senate Rules and Operations Committee,
All those senators need to be reelected Tuesday, and Ferguson needs to be picked as Senate president again, but those are expected.
IN OTHER NEWS
Five-star schools rise: Half of the slightly more than 1,300 public schools in Maryland earned four or five stars out of five on the state's annual report card of individual school performance, an increase from last year's total, according to data released Thursday.
Election fights heat up in courts: Sweeping White House efforts to fight noncitizen voting and assert authority over elections faced intense scrutiny in courtrooms across the country, as Democrats and voting rights groups alleged federal election interference.
If you can’t beat ‘em, tax ‘em: After Howard County officials lost the first round of a court fight to block a proposed immigration facility in Elkridge, state lawmakers unveiled legislation to let the county instead set special, higher property taxes on any such property.
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Data centers come into play in Frederick: Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater finds herself in an unlikely dogfight with an underfunded GOP challenger in her reelection bid. Voter anger over data centers may, at least in part, be responsible.
Anne Arundel sued over gender policy: Two months after Anne Arundel County schools amended a gender policy over a federal threat, the Justice Department sued anyway, saying schools helped "secret transitioning" of children without telling parents.
GOP Latinos fret over impact of immigration policy: President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are troubling some of Maryland’s Latino Republican voters, who worry Latinos who helped Trump to victory in 2024 will vote Democratic or stay home.
Thanks for reading Maryland Matters Memo. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.