Maryland
Kimberly Klacik, conservative radio host, running for Congress in Maryland’s 2nd District
Conservative radio host Kimberly Klacik is running for Congress again.
Klacik filed Thursday for the Republican primary in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District.
“It’s a big decision that I made in the past couple weeks,” Klacik said on social media. “It’s going to be hard work, but you know what I’ve never shyed away from hard work.”
The seat has been held since 2003 by outgoing Democrat C.A.Dutch Ruppersberger, who won the first general election since the district’s map was redrawn with 59% of the vote in November 2022. According to polling site fivethirtyeight.com, the district leans Democratic by 11 percentage points.
In November 2020, Klacik, who hosts a weekday radio show from 9 a.m. to noon on WCBM 680 AM, lost to U.S. Rep Kweisi Mfume by 43 percentage points in Maryland’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Baltimore City and part of Baltimore County. The 2nd District consists of parts of Carroll and Baltimore counties and part of North Baltimore.
Klacik gained national media attention ahead of the 2020 election when then-President Donald Trump shared one of her campaign videos on social media. She raised $8.3 million that cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Klacik raised nearly $5.7 million from contributions $200 and under. She raised around $384,000 from California residents, $375,000 from Florida residents, $339,000 from Texas residents and $223,000 from Maryland residents, according to FEC records. Klacik raised more in that two-year congressional campaign cycle than all but about a dozen current U.S. House members, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Records showed that she paid more than $4 million during that race to Republican-oriented digital advertising and media companies to elevate her profile.
A two-minute video of Klacik speaking aired during the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Last month, Klacik participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Baltimore Sun columnist and part-owner Armstrong Williams on Fox Baltimore, a television station owned by Sun owner David D. Smith.
Klacik posted a photo on social media at the State Board of Elections on Thursday alongside Republican State Dels. Brian Chisholm of Anne Arundel County, Kathy Szeliga of Baltimore County, Ryan Nawrocki of Baltimore County and Matt Morgan of St. Mary’s County, as well as Moms for Liberty Carroll County chair Kit Hart.
Excited to announce I have filed to run in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District. It’s currently an open seat & redistricted, making it competitive for a republican to flip.
Thank you, Delegate Chisholm, Chairwoman Kit Hart, Delegate Szeliga, Delegate Nawrocki & Delegate Morgan… pic.twitter.com/IH2xoZNtVp
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) February 8, 2024
Ruppersberger said in January that he would not seek a 12th term. Klacik, who listed a Middle River P.O. Box in her campaign filing, joins John Thormann, a former small-business owner who lives in Sparrows Point, and Dave Wallace, owner of Chesapeake Kitchen Wholesalers in Sykesville, in the Republican primary, according to the State Board of Elections.
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., of Dundalk, State Del. Harry Bhandari, of Nottingham, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School teacher Athanasia “Sia” Kyriakakos, of Cockeysville, LifeBridge Health medical assistant Jessica Sjoberg, of Catonsville, and insurance agent Clint Spellman Jr., of Reisterstown, have filed for the Democratic primary, according to the State Board of Elections.
The filing deadline for the May 14 primary is 9 p.m. Friday. The general election is Nov. 5.
Maryland
Maryland elections officials deal with threats of violence, turnover concerns ahead of presidential election
BALTIMORE Since the last presidential election, Maryland has seen a concerning rise in turnover among our state’s election officials—with almost half new to their positions—according to research from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
As of January 2024, Maryland saw turnover in 11 voting jurisdictions.
Turnover is also on the rise nationally according to a CBS News investigation.
What is driving the exodus? Some blame an increasingly hostile environment, fueled by citizens who do not trust the election system.
Documenting Threats in Harford County
Stephanie Taylor oversees elections in Harford County.
She gets a lot of correspondence from the public—and keeps all of it in a binder with the title “Love and Not So Much Love Notes” on the cover.
“These are our nice letters, and these are our nasty letters,” she showed WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren
“There’s a lot of cursing. We’ve been called Nazis,” Taylor said. “We’ve been accused of cheating, changing voter turnouts, changing the results, which is very hurtful to us because we take great pride in our job that we do here.”
Hellgren asked her what that says about where Maryland stands right now. “There are a lot of angry people who do not trust the election process. I don’t know how to get through to them,” she said.
Since the 2020 presidential election, Maryland has seen a 46 percent turnover rate among election officials. That is larger than the 36 percent national average.
“Have you had people leave because they could not take it?” Hellgren asked.
“Yes,” Taylor admitted. “One person who was with the office for quite a long time. She had a key role in this office. Just the stress of it—she’s just like, ‘I’m done.’ And she quit.”
To make sure her staff members feel safe, Taylor has used grants to dramatically increase security at their office and warehouse in Forest Hill.
“This is one thing everyone in the office said we needed to enclose this after all the craziness started happening after January 6th,” Taylor said as she showed WJZ the public entrance area.
She had bullet- and bomb-deflecting glass installed that will not shatter.
“We have changed the whole look of this office. We used to have an open reception area. We put walls up. We put glass in. It is not bulletproof glass, but it will change the direction of a bullet. We have coating on our windows that if someone were to put a bomb outside, this coating would catch it and it would just drop it so there wouldn’t be shards,” Taylor said.
There are also new cameras and stronger locks.
“Now, if it’s unlocked, it has a high-powered magnet and you have to be buzzed in,” she said at a secondary door to the board room.
“We have our own FBI contact. I never in my life thought I would say that I have my own FBI contact. It just never even crossed my mind,” Taylor told Hellgren.
“They were being disruptive, calling us names. We got a threat in one of the meetings that we got on tape. I did turn that in to the FBI and the sheriff’s department. It’s just the way the world looks at us now. It’s so different,” she said.
New Law Means Stiffer Penalties
Earlier this year in Annapolis, the General Assembly took action to protect poll workers, election judges and their families from threats which have been on the rise across the country.
Citing the turnover, Governor Wes Moore’s administration advocated for and and won changes to the law. There are now tougher penalties against those convicted of threatening election workers, with fines increasing from $1,000 to $2,500.
“It is becoming harder to recruit election judges. It is becoming harder to recruit elections administrators, and we need to respond to that,” said Eric Luedtke, the governor’s chief legislative officer at a hearing on February 21st.
Violators could also get up to three years behind bars.
During that hearing about the legislation, Baltimore County’s elections director revealed she, too, had been threatened.
“After receiving a threat firsthand, I was overwhelmingly thankful for the protection from my county, the FBI and homeland security,” Ruie Lavoie, the director of Baltimore County elections, told lawmakers.
WJZ asked Maryland’s state elections administrator Jared DeMarinis whether the new law does enough to deter people from threatening election workers. “I hope so. I think time will tell on that, but I think you have to have the first step and I think this was a great first step,” DeMarinis said.
State Safeguards the Vote
DeMarinis took over as elections administrator from Linda Lamone last year.
She had served in that position for more than 35 years, but DeMarinis also worked in that office for almost two decades.
“Yes, I’m a new person, but it’s not like I don’t know the electoral process,” DeMarinis told Hellgren.
On the threats, DeMarinis acknowledged “those types of incidents really shake you to the core.”
He said, “This is really trying to take it to a new level where you’re trying to inflict bodily harm or even death upon you know a person just doing their job and making sure that our democracy works.”
He made it a priority to stamp out misinformation and added a “rumor control” section to the state elections website.
“Before, there was a trust. There was an understanding in the process here, and there’s a segment of the population now that just doesn’t believe in any of that,” DeMarinis said.
DeMarinis is also pushing young people to get involved as election judges and poll workers.
He is aware that when elections officials leave, so does their experience and knowledge of the process. That is why he is partnering more experienced elections officials with newer ones to lessen the impact of any turnover.
And DeMarinis believes that turnover is not always a negative.
“Turnover brings new blood, new ideas, new points of view to the process. It helps streamline things. But yes, there is a concern about losing a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said.
A Veteran in Charge in Baltimore City
“I just don’t want to believe that people are not interested in an important process as this,” said Armstead Jones, Baltimore City’s election director
Baltimore has one of the longest-serving elections directors in the state.
Armstead Jones said in the city, the problem is not threats, but getting enough people motivated to staff the polls.
“At one time, we’d have as many as 3,200 election judges working Election Day and those numbers have dropped over the years,” Jones said. “I believe in this last election, we may have had about 1,500 judges to work. Maybe 2,100 trained, 600 did not show so those numbers are getting lower each time.”
The state remains committed to smooth and transparent elections, despite the challenges.
“Having that full confidence in the system is the underpinning of everything that we do with good, solid elections,” DeMarinis said.
Staying Despite Challenges
“I love the job. I love the people I work with,” said Taylor of her Harford County position. “If you’re in a polling location, it’s so much fun to be there and you see people coming in and taking part in democracy.”
She told Hellgren she has no plans to leave and be part of the turnover despite uncertainty about the future.
“Do you see it getting any better?” Hellgren asked. “I’ll let you know after this election. It depends on what happens after this election,” she said.
Maryland
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