THE MARYLAND WIRE | MORNING REPORT
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Editor & Publisher: Barry O’Connell
1. ELECTION DAY BREAKING: 1.1M+ EARLY & MAIL-IN BALLOTS IN THE BANK AS MARYLAND VOTERS HEAD TO POLLS
As polls open at 7:00 AM across the Old Line State, local election boards are tracking record-setting early participation for a midterm cycle.
The Turnout Floor: More than 1,000,000 preliminary vote-by-mail and early-voting ballots have already been processed across 47 early voting centers.
County Drivers: Democratic volume engines in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties accounted for over 42% of the early mail-in footprint.
The Swing Benchmark: Republican operations are monitoring high-intensity turnout pushes in Anne Arundel, Harford, and Carroll counties to counter early Democratic totals.
The Legislative Stakes: All 141 House of Delegates seats and 47 State Senate seats are on today’s ballot. With retirement openings—including House Speaker Emerita Adrienne A. Jones stepping down—the composition of key standing committees (HGO, Appropriations, Finance) will begin shifting by tonight’s late reporting calls.
2. PROCUREMENT & IT: PRE-SESSION BURN RATE ACCELERATES AHEAD OF BUDGET HEARINGS
State agency procurement divisions are racing to push task-order approvals and contract authorizations through the pipeline ahead of the General Assembly’s January 2027 budget review cycle.
Department of Information Technology (DoIT): Enterprise cloud migration task orders and cybersecurity oversight contracts are being accelerated under eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) framework agreements to avoid pre-session freeze windows.
MDOT Infrastructure Pipeline: Transit and highway maintenance procurements are seeing final pre-session allocation adjustments as county delegation priorities come into focus.
Board of Public Works Horizon: Following the late October agenda push, agency heads are finalizing submissions for the upcoming mid-November BPW meeting to clear major state expenditure items before committee pre-hearings commence.
3. BALLOT MEASURES: QUESTION 3 IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Voters across the state are rendering their final verdict on Question 3, the legislatively referred constitutional amendment regarding legislative and congressional redistricting guidelines. The measure has drawn heavy campaign investment from state advocacy coalitions and party legal teams watching long-term district map standards leading into the next census cycle.
4. REGULATORY BRIEFING: STATE BOARD OF NURSING MODERNIZATION CONTINUES
Following our feature on Rhonda Scott, Esq., Executive Director of the Maryland State Board of Nursing (MBON), health care system advocacy groups are tracking upcoming administrative actions at the 4140 Patterson Avenue office:
Compact Reciprocity: Modernized digital clearinghouse protocols are helping shorten credentialing windows for out-of-state compact nurses entering Maryland hospital networks.
Staffing Standards: Agency regulatory staff are compiling administrative data on Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) renewals ahead of proposed statutory tweaks expected in the 2027 legislative session.
DEVELOPING TODAY
7:00 AM: Polls open statewide across all 24 jurisdictions.
8:00 PM: Polls close; local canvassing boards begin releasing initial mail-in and early voting returns.
Substack Update: The Maryland Wire will issue a late-night election recap detailing key legislative seat turns and regional turnout variations.
TUNE IN TONIGHT: Catch Foxwell on D.C.’s 7News (WJLA Channel 7)
Be sure to tune in tonight to catch Foxwell appearing on D.C. area’s Channel 7 (WJLA)!
Whether you are at home or on the go, there are plenty of ways to tune in or stream live:
On Television: Turn your TV to WJLA Channel 7 in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Online / Desktop: Stream the live broadcast directly on your browser via the 7News website at wjla.com/watch or through NewsON.
On Mobile & Smart TVs: Download the ABC7 WJLA app (available on iOS and Android), or stream via the 7News app on Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV.
Live TV Services: Watch live on standard local streaming platforms, including Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Fubo.
Election Day is today: polls 7 to 8, Jared DeMarinis says voting will be “safe, secure”
It’s Election Day — polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and anyone in line by 8 p.m. can vote. Voters must cast ballots at their assigned polling place, but same-day registration is available in person with proof of address, and mail-in ballots must be postmarked by today or hand-delivered to a drop box or local board by 8 p.m. Maryland’s top elections official, State Board of Elections administrator Jared DeMarinis, told Capital News Service that casting ballots will be “safe, secure” — against a backdrop of federal election monitors and worries about federal agents near polling places. The races to watch: the statewide Question 3 redistricting amendment, Baltimore’s Question I (the Baby Fund), the Ocean City mayor’s race between Matt James and Rick Meehan, and the Howard County executive’s race — Democrat Vanessa Atterbeary versus a Green Party nominee, with Calvin Ball’s departure already announced (see below).
Source: Maryland Matters; MarylandFeed
Brian Miller, the Port of Baltimore’s deputy executive director, and his wife Kim killed in a Halloween-night crash
Brian Walter Miller, the Maryland Port Administration’s deputy executive director for operations and logistics, and his wife, Kimberly Anne Miller, were killed Saturday night in a two-car crash at Jarrettsville Pike and Hess Road in Monkton. Miller, 61, gave the port more than 26 years: he joined the MPA in 2000 as operations manager for Maryland International Terminals, ran port operations as general manager, served as director of operations, stepped in as acting executive director from June 2023 to February 2024, and had been deputy executive director since 2020. A Baltimore native and Army Reserve veteran, he was a fixture at port events — Kim, 60, a longtime Port of Baltimore community member, by his side for years. The 19-year-old driver of the other car was flown to a trauma center; Maryland State Police say speeding may have played a role and the investigation continues.
Source: Baltimore Banner
Anduril wins unanimous $210M tax break from the Baltimore County Council
The Baltimore County Council voted unanimously Monday night to give Anduril Industries a personal-property tax credit worth up to $210 million over 30 years for its planned submarine manufacturing facility at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point. The credit covers the taxes Anduril would otherwise owe on cranes, machinery and other equipment at the site — part of a nearly $500 million package of county and state subsidies expected for the $3.7 billion facility, where the California defense-tech firm (valued at $90 billion) plans to produce submarine parts for the U.S. Navy. County Executive Kathy Klausmeier attended Monday’s vote and joined council members in applause. The vote comes less than a year after the council approved a 50-year tax break for Tradepoint and TiL for the container terminal — the largest tax credit in the county’s history.
Source: Baltimore Banner
Calvin Ball is leaving the Howard County executive’s office to run Baltimore City Community College
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D) steps down November 16 to become president of Baltimore City Community College, succeeding Debra McCurdy, who retires at year’s end. The move follows a summer state audit that found mismanagement at the college, including $264,000 in financial aid paid to 145 “ghost students.” Ball has led Howard County’s executive branch since 2018; voters choose his successor today, with Democrat Vanessa Atterbeary facing a Green Party nominee on the Election Day ballot.
Source: Maryland Matters
Maryland’s new deepfake law gets its first test: five complaints, one confirmed violation
The state’s new election-disinformation law — Senate Bill 141, signed by Gov. Wes Moore on May 12 as Chapter 444, effective June 1 — has drawn five complaints from election officials, with one confirmed violation: a campaign ad that gave voters the wrong Election Day date (the Sun did not identify which campaign), according to a Baltimore Sun report. Two other cases reached the board: former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Hale posted an AI-generated image of Republican nominee Dan Cox embracing Moore — reported by Moore’s camp — and Moore’s lawyers reported an ad using his likeness to falsely suggest he opposes Question 3. Local election offices reported little: of nine local directors the Sun contacted, four responded and none reported an AI-generated disinformation incident this season; Baltimore County election director Ruie Marie Lavoie described a non-AI false claim that voters had to pay postage to return mail-in ballots.
Source: Baltimore Chronicle
Via The Maryland Wire: The $4B Blueprint: Lessons from Cove Point for Maryland’s Next Mega-Project Era
Barry’s Monday paid piece rewinds to the largest private capital build in Maryland history — the $3.8 billion-plus liquefaction and export conversion at Cove Point in Calvert County — and how Joel Rozner and the government-relations team at Rifkin Weiner Livingston LLC cleared it through deep-blue climate politics, local environmental scrutiny, Public Service Commission oversight and a federal FERC overlay, delivering the de-risked asset Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy later bought out for $3.3 billion. The read for Annapolis GR shops: the 4-part playbook that cleared $4 billion is the template for the next era of offshore wind interconnects, high-voltage grid expansions and data center builds — and most modern developers are struggling to replicate it.
Source: The Maryland Wire
Via The Maryland Wire: I Was Wrong About Manis Canning
Barry’s Monday paid piece applies his truth-and-kindness lens to the firm he wrote off on January 13. Half right, which he calls wrong: the alcohol distributors’ House fortress really did fall — Speaker Adrienne Jones, Ways and Means chair Vanessa Atterbeary, Business Regulation chair CT Wilson and Dereck Davis, the distributors’ strongest House friend, all gone. But the Senate, the insurance policy his own piece identified, paid the claim: the Alcoholic Beverages Modernization Act — supermarket beer and wine, with a Senate version sponsored by Antonio Hayes — died the way it always dies, and the distributors walked out of April alive. The corrective portrait: Manis Canning, with principals Nicholas Manis, Joseph Bryce, John Favazza and Andrea Mansfield, as one of Annapolis’s sharpest full-service firms.
Source: The Maryland Wire
WIRED MARYLAND | WOMEN OF DISTINCTION November 3, 2026
The Bedside-to-Bench Reformer: How Rhonda Scott Is Overhauling Maryland’s Nursing Regulatory Engine
By Barry O’Connell
When state health regulators talk about administrative friction, they are usually describing paperwork delays. But when Rhonda Scott, Esq., BSN, CRNI, talks about it, she speaks from the dual perspectives of someone who has managed bedside IV lines and argued statutory interpretation in administrative law.
As Executive Director of the Maryland State Board of Nursing (MBON), Scott stands at one of the most critical regulatory intersections in Annapolis policy. Overseeing licensing, disciplinary proceedings, and scope-of-practice standards for more than 100,000 active nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing assistants across Maryland, her agency directly impacts hospital staffing ratios, rural care access, and health system solvency.
In a statehouse environment where health policy debate often gets bogged down in bureaucratic silos, Scott has spent her tenure quietly executing a modernization overhaul.
The Legal & Clinical Bridge
What sets Scott apart in the executive director’s chair at 4140 Patterson Avenue is her credentials. Before earning her Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law, Scott spent years in the clinical trenches—holding a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Coppin State University, earning specialized certification as a Certified Registered Nurse Infusion (CRNI), and managing frontline nursing education in acute and long-term care environments.
That rare combination of clinical acumen and legal capability has proved crucial. Over the past three sessions, as the Maryland General Assembly wrestled with post-pandemic healthcare workforce bottlenecks, Scott’s office became a key clearinghouse for pragmatic statutory tweaks.
Rhonda Scott: Core Credentials & PortfolioDetailsCurrent RoleExecutive Director & Custodian of Records, Maryland State Board of NursingLegal TrainingJ.D., University of Baltimore School of LawClinical BackgroundB.S.N., Coppin State University; Associate in Nursing, UDCSpecialized CertificationsCertified Registered Nurse Infusion (CRNI), SD-CLTCPrimary Regulatory ScopeLicensing, education approvals, scope-of-practice, and PIA compliance for RNs, LPNs, APRNs, and CNAs
Modernizing Patterson Avenue
Taking the helm of an agency historically plagued by backlog complaints and legacy processing architecture, Scott focused heavily on structural mechanics:
Licensure Reciprocity & Expedited Processing: Streamlining application clearinghouses to get out-of-state compact nurses credentialed faster without lowering public safety guardrails.
Legislative Realism: Providing clear, data-backed testimony to the Senate Finance and House Health & Government Operations (HGO) committees on bills governing Certified Nursing Assistant renewals and advanced practice delegation.
Transparency Reform: Standardizing Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) response mechanisms and record custodial practices.
Why She Matters to the Annapolis Lobbying Corps
For government relations professionals, healthcare lobbyists, and health-system advocacy teams, Scott represents a shift toward pragmatic regulatory administration. She understands the statutory limits of Title 8 of the Health Occupations Article, but she also understands what happens when a community hospital emergency department is running short-staffed on a Friday night.
As the Moore-Miller administration continues pushing broader workforce development mandates leading into the upcoming budget cycle, Scott’s steady hand at MBON remains one of state government’s most reliable regulatory anchors.
From the SC Wire:
and from the New York Political Wire