Clair Dixon calls himself an MSNBC junkie. And on a recent pleasant weekday evening, in Dixon’s well-appointed Severna Park home, stands a national hero who appears frequently on the liberal cable network, former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who is now a candidate for Congress in Maryland’s 3rd District. “You’ve got to watch out for Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Dixon advises Dunn as he introduces the candidate to the two dozen or so people assembled in the living room. “She’s a hottie.” Dunn, who has an easy-going manner and has turned into an accomplished speaker since he became a publ ..read more

As if the Maryland primaries aren’t providing enough suspense, we now announce Maryland Matters’ first election contest of 2024. Think you can sense Maryland election trends better than anyone else? Enter our contest and see how you stack up once all the ballots are counted. The lucky winner will be treated to lunch with the Maryland Matters staffer of their choice. This contest dates back to 2018, and we’ve had five winners so far. All have been men. So come on, all you political savants who are women — time to show the boys what you can do. Here’s how you play: Email your answers to the ques ..read more

By J.H. Snider The writer is the president of iSolon.org and author of Speak Softly and Carry A Big Stick: How Local TV Broadcasters Exert Political Power. He is also a former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. There is a maxim that most politicians have learned by the time they are elected to Maryland’s General Assembly: “Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel.” In other words, don’t publicly disagree with your local newspaper’s publisher. Another maxim publishers intuitively understand when lobbying to preserve their gov ..read more

Doyle L. Niemann, who served for a dozen years in the House of Delegates and had an even longer record of public service in Prince George’s County, died Wednesday at the age of 77 at the Washington Hospital Center, his family announced on the website everloved.com. A former colleague said Niemann died of complications from surgery to remove a tumor. Niemann was the classic case of a 1960s student radical who turned to community service, and eventually electoral politics, to achieve his ideals. Former Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s). Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s office phot ..read more

Maryland Matters reporters and contributors picked up half a dozen awards at the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association luncheon in Annapolis Friday. The awards recognize the work of journalists and other industry professionals in the three jurisdictions in 2023. The contest, governed by the press association’s editorial and advertising committees, considered over 1,550 entries in 86 categories. Publications compete for the awards based on the size of their readership. Maryland Matters is currently in the press association’s Division C. Within that group: Senior contributor Willia ..read more

U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-6th) dropped another $12.35 million into his U.S. Senate campaign during the first 3 1/2 weeks of April, bringing his total personal investment in the race to a jaw-dropping $54.1 million. Trone is now the second biggest self-funder in a U.S. Senate race, behind U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who spent more than $63 million of his own money in 2018, according to the campaign finance website Open Secrets. According to his latest campaign finance report, filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, Trone’s campaign took in $12,520,599.06 between April 1 and April ..read more

Republican voters in Maryland head to the polls with an opportunity to choose a candidate to represent the party in what could be one of the most competitive Senate campaigns in recent memory. Despite a field of more than a half-dozen candidates, the Republican primary has lacked the heat of its Democratic counterpart. Even so, the state’s minority party by registration has a puncher’s chance of claiming the seat come November. “If you’re a Marylander, and you’re even mildly interested in politics, sit back and enjoy the fact that for the first time since the 1980s, we’re actually going to hav ..read more

Altimont Wilks wants to debate. The small business owner running as a Democrat in the 6th congressional district said he could “crush” the other 16 candidates — including 12 Democrats — in a debate.  “Every issue they say they stand on, I either basically helped them craft that issue. Or I am the poster child for that issue when it comes to criminal justice reform, economic development, you name it, ” Wilks said. Yet when the Women’s Democratic Club of Montgomery County held a forum for 6th District candidates on April 28, Wilks did not appear. Still, as a man who spent 13 years in prison ..read more

The Biden Administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said. The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available ..read more

Two Democratic U.S. senators announced Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would require large companies to disclose quota practices to workers and prevent those quotas from threatening a worker’s health. “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would put an end to the most dangerous quotas that plague warehouses,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a sponsor of the bill, said. There is no published bill text yet. Markey said the bill would require companies to notify workers of the quotas they need to meet and ban quotas that rely on 24/7 surveillance or are likely to l ..read more