🚀 A QUICK MILESTONE & EXPANSION UPDATE
We hit a major milestone! Since May 8, 2026, The Maryland Wire has officially grown past the 100-mark to 101 paid subscribing readers—and over 1,800 total subscribers!
Something truly exciting is happening here, and we owe it all to our readers, statehouse observers, and public policy professionals who turn to us every week.
Because of the success and momentum of The Maryland Wire, we are expanding our coverage model into two new states:
The SC Wire (The South Carolina Wire)
The NYPOL Wire (The New York Political Wire)
Both publications will carry forward the exact same mission as The Maryland Wire: delivering sharp, high-value, behind-the-scenes reporting designed specifically for government relations professionals, lobbyists, land-use attorneys, and leaders across regulated industries.
The Maryland Wire Morning Digest
Key News & Procurement Breaks
Prince George’s County Council Passes Landmark Tobacco Sales Restrictions: The Council voted to enact stringent new zoning and distance restrictions on retail tobacco and vapor sales near schools and residential zones. The measure aims to curb youth access but has drawn sharp pushback from local convenience store operators and fuel retailers.
Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) / SHA Engineering Pipeline: The State Highway Administration is finalizing multi-year engineering and design contracts valued at $120M for statewide corridor improvements. Submissions for secondary consulting phase reviews are moving into the November Board of Public Works (BPW) cycle.
Local Infrastructure & Community Grants: The BPW agenda includes $12.7M in targeted infrastructure grants for municipal water and stormwater resiliency projects across Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
Gaming & iGaming Legislative Preparations: Ahead of the 2027 General Assembly session, lobbying registrations around iGaming expansion and sports wagering tax structures are accelerating in Annapolis, with key gaming operators finalizing their contract teams.
Data Privacy and Protection Act Compliance: State agencies are issuing updated compliance protocols for contractors handling constituent PII, establishing stricter cybersecurity audits starting Q1 2027.
Three days out: Election Day is Tuesday, November 3
Straight from Barry’s desk for his readers: Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. statewide — on Election Day you vote at your assigned polling place, and same-day in-person registration is available. Two races he’s telling his village to watch: Baltimore’s Question I, the Baby Fund charter amendment he’s been hammering all week, and the Ocean City mayor’s race — Town Council President Matt James against 20-year incumbent Mayor Rick Meehan, with three town council seats on the same ballot.
Source: TANTV; Delmarva Now
Via The Maryland Wire: What To Do About Kagan
Barry’s Friday paid piece reads Bill Ferguson’s new Senate leadership slate through what happened to Sen. Cheryl Kagan: she loses the Education, Energy and the Environment vice-chairmanship and gets parked under an invented title — “Senate liaison for national legislative affairs” — a demotion dressed as a portfolio. The read is built entirely from public documents: her mgaleg committee listing and the Senate’s own release. And the piece flags where the real power moved: Sen. Brian Feldman’s new trifecta — majority leader, chief of policy, and chair of a reconstituted Rules and Operations Committee — puts a tie-breaker vote on every standing committee and the late-bill gate in one pair of hands.
Source: The Maryland Wire
Via The Maryland Wire: Chuck Cook for District 33B
Barry’s Friday free spotlight lands on the Anne Arundel House race: Democratic challenger Chuck Cook against Republican incumbent Del. Stuart Schmidt Jr. in District 33B — Crofton, Davidsonville, Crownsville and Severna Park. Cook’s resume is tailor-made for the insider reader: legislative and political director for the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO (2016–2022), vice president of policy and outreach at the Business Network for Offshore Wind (2023–2025), and senior advisor at the Department of Housing and Community Development since 2023 — labor organizing, clean energy, and executive-branch alignment all in one candidate.
Source: The Maryland Wire
Via The Maryland Wire: the battle lines over the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project
Barry’s second Friday paid piece draws the fight over the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project: a 500-kilovolt, 67-mile high-voltage transmission line that would carve a 200-foot-wide right-of-way through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick counties. His three-part power read — who makes the money (Constellation Energy and Pennsylvania generators, including power from the restarted Crane Clean Energy Center at Three Mile Island), who gets the tax revenue (Loudoun County and Northern Virginia data-center campuses), and what Maryland gets (hundreds of eminent domain claims threatening preserved family farmland, property values, and rural ecosystems). The Office of People’s Counsel and grassroots coalitions say Marylanders are being forced to subsidize Virginia’s tech boom.
Source: The Maryland Wire
Early and mail-in voting on track to top 1 million before Election Day
William J. Ford reports that Maryland’s combined early in-person and mail-in vote is on track to exceed one million ballots cast ahead of Election Day — early voting ran October 22 through October 29, and turnout is running well ahead of the 2022 midterm pace across the state. Nationally, early voting has already broken the 2022 midterm record, per an AP analysis Maryland Matters picked up. Whatever the down-ballot results Tuesday, the turnout story is the headline going into session planning.
Source: Maryland Matters
A Carroll County retiree spends $20K of his own money fighting Question 3
Roger Kaul — retired engineer, Carroll County resident, and self-described “Reagan Republican” in his mid-80s — has spent more than $20,000 of his own money on radio ads opposing Question 3, the constitutional amendment that would make clear that compactness and boundary-respect requirements apply only to General Assembly districts, not congressional ones. Kaul’s 10-second WTOP and 30- and 60-second WTTR and WBAL spots warn that passing Question 3 would enable congressional gerrymandering — the change that could clear the way for Democrats to redraw the map targeting the lone Republican, Rep. Andy Harris. William J. Ford has a companion explainer on what Question 3 actually does.
Source: Baltimore Banner; Maryland Matters
Frederick County Republicans want a Baltimore campaign consultant investigated
Bryan P. Sears reports that Frederick County Republicans are calling for an investigation into a Baltimore-based campaign consultant over the consultant’s conduct in Frederick local races — a partisan flashpoint in a county that’s already one of Tuesday’s bellwethers (see the Fitzwater-Holtzinger county executive fight). The item ran on Maryland Matters’ homepage this morning; the consultant’s name wasn’t in the headline summary, so check the full piece before naming anyone.
Source: Maryland Matters
People’s Counsel wants Empower fined at least $36.7 million
The Office of People’s Counsel has asked the Public Service Commission to assess at least $36,677,500 in civil penalties against Empower, the unlicensed rideshare company operating in Maryland since 2021 — plus another $1,002,500 for each day it keeps running without a license. The PSC ruled in January that Empower is a transportation network company like Uber and Lyft; last month it ordered the company to cease and desist, made that order permanent, and referred the matter to the Attorney General. An evidentiary hearing on penalties was held Friday. The motion comes from People’s Counsel David S. Lapp.
Source: Markets Herald
Moore names Morgan State’s Timothy Summers to the Council for Open Data
Gov. Wes Moore has appointed Timothy C. Summers, Ph.D. — Morgan State University’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer since March 2025 — as an academic member of Maryland’s Council for Open Data, the body that guides the state’s open-data approach for transparency and government accountability. The appointment spotlights Morgan’s cybersecurity and public-impact profile, including its Google Public Sector collaboration on an AI-driven ‘smart’ campus.
Lobbying registration year closes today — the final filings land by midnight
October 31 is the last day of the 2026-27 lobbying registration year. Anything filed between Monday’s re-check (top record: R032200, Karen Herren for Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, submitted 10/23) and midnight gets picked up in the November 2 watch — and any firm that missed the renewal window has to explain itself before the January session.
Source: Maryland State Ethics Commission
WOMAN OF DISTINCTION: SARAH ACKERSTEIN KLEIN
Championing Consumer Protection and Public Advocacy Across Maryland and Beyond
From regulatory hearing rooms in Washington to policy boards across Maryland, Sarah Ackerstein Klein has spent her legal career serving as a dedicated advocate for public safety, consumer rights, and civil equity.
As a member of the Maryland Commission for Women and Vice-Chair of the Maryland Consumer Council, Klein brings decades of high-impact regulatory and legal experience to her public service in the Free State.
A Career Built on Public Advocacy
Klein’s legal career began with a focus on public interest law, starting as an Assistant Attorney General with the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General, where she drafted foundational consumer protection legislation that remains law today. Over the years, her work has spanned critical consumer protection efforts with organizations including U.S. PIRG and the National Whistleblower Center.
Later, as Senior Staff Attorney for the Food Safety Program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Klein established herself as one of the nation’s foremost experts on food safety regulation and consumer policy. In that role, she represented CSPI before the USDA and FDA, authored influential policy reports, and wrote the comprehensive consumer guide From Supermarket to Leftovers. Her expertise made her a regular voice on national news outlets, including CNN, NPR, The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, and ABC’s Good Morning America.
Recognizing her leadership in the field, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture twice appointed Klein to the National Meat and Poultry Advisory Committee. She also served with distinction at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Serving Maryland’s Communities
In addition to her national regulatory work, Klein serves as President of the Foundation for the Maryland Commission for Women (FMCW) and actively leads state-level policy advisory boards. Through her appointment to the Maryland Consumer Council and her leadership on the Maryland Commission for Women, she continues to shape policies that protect families, advance economic opportunities, and elevate the status of women across Maryland.
Klein resides in Chevy Chase.
I voted for question 3, and I would support a national law against gerrymandering. Whats good for Texas Republicans is good for the rest of us. Stop gerrymandering everywhere, or expect democrats to use the same tactic.