In miniature, January 21

• What state legislatures such as Maryland’s should do after Congress’s passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act [Derek Muller, Election Law Blog; Wendy Underhill, National Conference of State Legislatures]
• Virginia’s General Assembly has special elections when seats fall vacant. Why can’t Maryland’s? [Adam Pagnucco] Related: why can’t members of county party central committees at least not vote for themselves in filling the vacancies? [Steve Bohnel, Bethesda Magazine] 
• New bill signed by Biden authorizes acquiring 20 acres in Frederick County for historic trades training center, could reinforce Frederick’s role as focal point for historic preservation nationally [Preservation Maryland]
• Appalling as law, and appalling as policy: left-wing members of Congress urge Biden to use weapons of regulatory state to impose rent control nationwide. Only member of Maryland delegation to sign is Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) [Christian Britschgi, Reason]
• Grading public sector labor laws: Maryland was one of just four states to earn an “F,” along with California, Oregon, and Washington [Andrew Holman and Priya Brannick, Commonwealth Foundation of Pennsylvania]
• Power grab: Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown wants Assembly to give him much broader authority to file civil rights cases [Washington Post]

In miniature, January 1

• Recommended: Geoff Kabaservice’s interview with pollster Mileah Kromer ranges among topics like Larry Hogan’s highly successful use of Change Maryland as a vehicle, the salience of property taxes as a issue with suburban black voters, and why private colleges like Goucher are home to so many influential polls [Vital Center podcast]
• Dan Cox’s 32-point loss, in which he received only half as many votes as Larry Hogan had in 2018, decimated the Maryland GOP in close races as well as the Republican bench [Brian Griffiths, Duckpin, more, yet more]
• Gee, who’d have predicted that? Crank AG nominee Michael Peroutka, who lost to Anthony Brown by 20 points as of election night and 30 points in the final count, wasn’t inclined to concede [more from Griffiths, see also]
• It’s not a great idea for vacancies that open up in the Assembly to be filled by party central committees, especially not if the committee members can appoint themselves. A revolt against the idea among some Montgomery Democrats was quickly put down, though [Adam Pagnucco]
• Metro’s glaring operational and safety deficiencies can be traced to its weak management structure [Christian Britschgi, Reason]
• Jack Hogan interviewed a dozen people for this retrospective on Jan Gardner’s eight years as Frederick County Executive, and included my two cents [Frederick News Post]

In miniature, December 12

• From early this year but I didn’t note it here at the time: guess who made “The Duckpin 100” in Maryland politics and government? [Brian Griffiths, The Duckpin]
• Catching up again after the fact, but on June 3, 2021 I spoke before the Wicomico County Charter Review Commission to share some lessons from our work at the Frederick County Charter Review Commission. If you’re interested in the work of these commissions — test-tube constitutionalism, as I’ve called it — do give it a watch. [YouTube]
• And catching up from even further back: “If conservatives do not stand completely against the mob that stormed the Capitol, then we have let the mob hijack our values.” – State Sen. Michael Hough in the Frederick News Post, Jan. 14, 2021. Hough just lost a super-close race for Frederick County Executive to Jessica Fitzwater, but he is someone who should (and, I fearlessly predict, will) return to public service in the future.
• Now you’re not cooking with gas: Montgomery council follows through and passes ill-advised new law requiring buildings to be all-electric [Adam Pagnucco, earlier]
• Del. Gabriel Acevero, notable as a profile in courage on two different issues (LEOBR and redistricting) survives an effort to purge him from the Montgomery County delegation by de-slating [Pagnucco again]
• See you at the MACo winter conference in Cambridge, first time I’ll be attending the Winter one after a couple of times at the Summer.

In miniature, November 22

• The week in blame-shifting: Baltimore files lawsuit against tobacco companies seeking to recoup the cost of dealing with cigarette butt litter [CBS News]
• A lot of people warned at the time that Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital ad tax was unconstitutionally drawn, and now Judge Alison Asti has struck it down [Callan Tansill-Suddath, DCist; an earlier instance in which courts struck down a media law after the General Assembly ignored warnings of likely unconstitutionality]
• Montgomery County will make a costly mistake if it goes forward with plans to ban most gas hookups in new buildings [Adam Pagnucco, Montgomery Perspective, more]
• To my list of favorite Maryland place names I can now add Tippity Wichity Island in St. Mary’s County [Baltimore Banner, more, it’s for sale]
• Frederick Magazine profiles Landmarks Foundation of Frederick County, which just had its biggest attendance ever for Oktoberfest at Schifferstadt [Kate Poindexter]
• Baltimore needs to change, part 783: Bridgeport, Newark, Detroit, and Baltimore in that order are the cities that place the highest tax burdens on households, and that’s true both at $75K and $150K/year household income levels. Among the lowest: Las Vegas, Houston, Jacksonville, Fla. and Manchester, N.H. [Chris Edwards, Cato]

In miniature, January 29

• I’m honored to have joined the board of the Frederick County Landmarks Foundation, one of my favorite local organizations, which maintains historic buildings such as Schifferstadt and runs the wonderful annual Barnstormers Tour.

• Howard Gorrell: More hypocrisy on Maryland redistricting [Maryland Reporter] LRAC’s legislative maps, unlike MCRC’s, split the city of Gaithersburg. Might that decision be vulnerable to a legal challenge? [David Lublin, The Seventh State] To help pry open the closed shop that is Maryland politics, try open primaries [Colin Alter, same]

• Reminder: Del. Dan Cox’s many baseless election-theft claims include insinuations of “rampant” poll fraud in four GOP-heavy Maryland counties that did not return the sort of margins for Trump he expected a year ago: Frederick, Carroll, Anne Arundel, and Harford. [Brian Griffiths, The Duckpin] Numbers on county shifts here; note that while these four suburban counties all swung hard against Trump (10-13 points), as did more Democratic suburban jurisdictions like Howard (10) and Baltimore County (11), many counties that are partially suburban in character swung a lot too, such as Calvert and Talbot with 11-point swings, Washington 9, Wicomico and St. Mary’s with 8, and Queen Anne’s with 7.

• The redistricting season has now wrapped up with the legislature choosing gerrymanders over our commission’s fair maps for both Congressional and legislative elections. Some clips: Henry Olsen/Washington Post, WTOP, Star-Democrat (Easton). And I’m quoted in this Frederick News-Post piece by Jack Hogan on the implications of the legislative maps for Frederick County.

• Maryland ranks near the cellar in business tax climate and Andrew Macloughlin of the Free State Foundation explains why. [Maryland Reporter]

• Baltimore Magazine cover story on literary Baltimore. And a happy Baltimore hometown story.

In miniature, January 22

• Hey, I’m in the news again on gerrymander reform [WBOC, video of governor’s press conference, more information and portal to apply for citizen seats]
• Comptroller Peter Franchot urges lawmakers to “back off” Kirwan override: “They don’t know where the $4 billion…is going to come from, other than ‘maybe this’ and ‘maybe that.’ ” [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]  Kirwan bill “is far more about grabbing political power than improving the quality of education.” [Sen. Bob Cassilly, Maryland Matters]
• Maryland bill would enact only-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising. General Assembly should sustain Hogan’s veto of this bad measure [Rebecca Snyder, Matthew McDermott and Lisa Reynolds, Frederick News-Post]
• In fatal no-knock raid shooting of Duncan Lemp, “clouded by the conflicting accounts and the lack of video evidence,” MoCo state’s attorney’s office issues report excusing police from blame [C.J. Ciaramella, Reason]
• Less latitude for bullies to file speech-deterring lawsuits: “Decision breathes some life into Maryland’s weak anti-SLAPP statute” [Paul Alan Levy]
• As if restaurants in Prince George’s County haven’t suffered enough this past year [Baylen Linnekin, Reason on nannyish children’s meal measure]

In miniature, November 12

• I joined host Mark Uncapher to discuss the successful Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and we got into a bit of Maryland stuff too [DirectLine, Montgomery County Republican Club YouTube audio, more]
• Procedural issue, not substance: “Supreme Court takes appeal of Baltimore climate-change lawsuit” [Daniel Fisher]
• “What Happened to MoCo’s Racial Equity Law?” [Adam Pagnucco/Seventh State, from the summer; Steven Malanga, City Journal earlier on municipal chief equity officers]
• “Del. Cox tweets QAnon hashtag, a theory that’s been widely debunked” [Steve Bohnel, Frederick News-Post; earlier]
• Also, as for Del. Dan Cox’s calling me (among other bad things) a “Hogan GOP rhino pretender,” if you think it’s easy to be a rhino pretender, you should see how long it takes to get into the costume [same]
• Standards for admission of expert witness testimony: “Maryland Drifts Into Daubert” [Michelle Yeary, Ronald Miller]

In miniature, August 21

• Thanks to WBAL’s Yuripzy Morgan for having me on her show to discuss my article, “What We Know, and Don’t Know, About Portland and the DHS.” You can listen here;
• As of 2017 Maryland was fourth highest among the states in police spending per capita, a remarkable 49 percent higher than the number in Virginia [Chris Edwards, Cato Institute]
• At least six contenders bypassed Maryland’s unusual bipartisan judicial election arrangements with Democratic-primary wins in July [Washington Post, Seventh State on Montgomery County controversy]
• Big brother is watching you: distracted driving “monitoring systems” considered for Maryland roads [Bryan Renbaum, Maryland Reporter]
• Attorney General Brian Frosh: just let tenants stay on without paying rent through at least January, whether they can show COVID-19 hardship or not [Bennett Leckrone, Maryland Matters] Fifty delegates, including Frederick County Del. Karen Lewis Young (D-3A), sign wildly irresponsible letter demanding rent cancellation [Adam Pagnucco, Seventh State]
• I joined Caleb Brown at the Cato Daily Podcast to criticize the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights measures on the books in Maryland and some other states [earlier]

In miniature, July 6

• Also, passing unconstitutional laws is a bad idea in itself: “Board of Public Works OKs Payout to Drug Companies After Court Overturns State Law” [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]
• Del. Vaughn Stewart’s package of housing bills “combines upzoning with Vienna-style social housing” [Christian Britschgi]
• “Maryland Uses Surveillance, Data To Track Motorists, Traffic” [Eric Myers, Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter]
• Some flashback stories on Maryland police misconduct [Radley Balko, Washington Post 2015; Danielle Gaines, Maryland Matters last year (testimony before Commission to Restore Trust in Policing)]
• Barbecue food trucks and the Maryland Constitution [Institute for Justice]
• Can’t be healthy: “with the decline of private news media, the fact is that the largest, best-financed entity now covering [Montgomery] government is the county government itself.” [Adam Pagnucco, Seventh State]

In miniature, May 29

• My law blog Overlawyered ceases publication this weekend after nearly 21 years, you can read its Maryland archives here;
• How about “no.” Does “no” work for you? “Baltimore Wants To Sue Gun Makers Over Gang Violence” [Cam Edwards, Bearing Arms]
• The environmental group fretted that suspending the bag tax will leave “the public with a false sense of security in encouraging single-use plastic shopping bags” which “are difficult to clean.” Yo, Sierra Club! That’s why they’re called “single-use” bags [Jim Bovard, American Conservative; Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters]
• Precinct-level reporting, confidentiality, ballots returned without signatures: the details of vote-by-mail (VBM) Maryland still needs to work out [Cheryl Kagan, Howard Lee Gorrell]
• Some good ideas in here for your county or municipality, too: “D.C., Maryland Jurisdictions Start Deferring Taxes, Fees and Regulations” [Adam Pagnucco, The Seventh State]
• Montgomery County development politics analyzed along the lines of the classic Bootleggers and Baptists model [Arnold Kling]