Reeling from a midterm election through which they misplaced each statewide race in a landslide and each aggressive county contest, Maryland Republicans on Saturday selected a brand new chief tasked with making an attempt to unite a fractured get together and broaden its attraction.
Maryland
Maryland GOP, reeling from disastrous election, picks new leadership
![Maryland GOP, reeling from disastrous election, picks new leadership Maryland GOP, reeling from disastrous election, picks new leadership](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/TFA4QPUJTLEF4MO72DRQQFFXZY.jpg&w=1440)
The Maryland Republican Celebration introduced Beus Harris’s victory on social media. She didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A advertising and marketing advisor who has finished work for Republican candidates, together with her husband, she wrote earlier than the vote that the get together wants “an entire rebranding” and a stronger fundraising machine.
Schifanelli’s candidacy was not thought-about by the Republican State Central Committee as a result of her nomination paperwork was submitted an hour after a 5 p.m. deadline on Nov. 9. A number of different candidates for get together management have been additionally disqualified.
Schifanelli mentioned that deadline was not in committee bylaws and was utilized by get together leaders to engineer their most popular outcomes. “The get together of regulation and order is the get together of lawlessness,” she mentioned following the vote.
The occasion, which introduced tons of of state Republicans to a on line casino in Hanover, was closed to press. Video shared with The Washington Publish by an attendee exhibits Schifanelli and others pounding their tables in protest on the ruling to exclude her.
“What’s happening right here is consultant of the disrespect, the disunity and the nonsense that went on on this election,” outgoing get together chairman Dirk Haire mentioned over jeers. Supporters of Schifanelli quickly walked out.
Fazenbaker, who misplaced to Beus Harris, mentioned in an announcement that “nebulous bylaws,” inconsistently enforced, led to the chaos.
“At this level, this get together must unify and hearken to Marylanders or we’ll proceed to say no in relevance,” he mentioned.
Democrats have a 2-1 benefit in voter registration within the state, however departing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan gained two phrases by presenting himself as pragmatic in his conservatism. To exchange him, major voters selected Cox, a state delegate who organized buses for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, posted in a discussion board dominated by white supremacists and tried to question Hogan over pandemic insurance policies.
Hogan refused to endorse his would-be successor, calling Cox “a QAnon whack job.” (Cox had retweeted hashtags associated to the conspiracy concept that Democrats secretly run a satanic, pedophilic cult and attended a QAnon-linked convention this 12 months.) Cox misplaced to Democrat Wes Moore this fall by greater than 30 factors. Andy Harris gained reelection in opposition to liberal former state delegate Heather Mizeur, however no different Republican congressional candidate succeeded.
Haire mentioned in his resignation letter following the November election that the get together had devolved right into a “round firing squad.” His spouse, Jessica Haire, misplaced to the Democratic incumbent within the race for Anne Arundel county government regardless of spending tons of of hundreds of {dollars} extra. Republicans additionally misplaced a aggressive county government race in Frederick County.
Republican strategist Doug Mayer, a Hogan adviser, mentioned in November that the far-right Cox dragged down credible candidates in different races. Hogan “confirmed what folks wanted to do to get elected as a Republican,” Mayer mentioned. “If folks don’t wish to comply with it, that’s on them.”
Within the race to switch Haire, Cox backed Beus Harris over Schifanelli, his November operating mate. An legal professional and immigrant from Yugoslavia, Schifanelli received into politics through the pandemic by opposition to high school closures and to anti-racist initiatives.
Schifanelli mentioned Saturday that she was completed with “backstabbing, name-calling” Maryland Republican politics and had already moved on to watching England play France within the World Cup.
“Why would I keep concerned and watch folks smear one another?” she mentioned. “All people will get what they deserve. I’m free.”
Peter Jamison contributed to this report.
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Maryland
Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is
![Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/LARRY-HOGAN-ANGELA-ALSOBROOKS.jpg)
The Democratic candidate for senate in Maryland is leading her GOP rival despite more than a third of eligible voters not recognizing her name.
A poll published by Gonzales Research & Media Services this week found that Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has pulled ahead of Republican former Governor Larry Hogan by five points — 46% to 41%.
Alsobrooks’ current success in the polls comes as a surprise, given the Democratic candidate’s continued struggles with low name recognition among voters.
The Gonzales poll found that approximately 34% of registered voters do not recognize Alsobrooks by name. This includes approximately 33% of independents who do not recognize Alsobrooks, as well as 17% of eligible voters registered with the Democratic Party.
NEW POLL REVEALS REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE DEADLOCKED WITH DEM IN CRUCIAL DEEP BLUE STATE
Maryland Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks speaks at a campaign event on Gun Violence Awareness Day at Kentland Community Center in Landover, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Notably, 72% of total eligible voters told the pollster that they did not recognize the Democratic candidate.
MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE SAYS THERE SHOULD BE NO LIMIT ON ABORTION
The winner of the November election will succeed Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker.
With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, Hogan’s late entry into the race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory.
![Larry Hogan wins GOP Senate nomination in Maryland](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/Larry-Hogan-primary-night-victory-Annapolis-MD-May-14-2024-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland celebrates his victory in the 2024 Maryland Republican Senate primary, in Annapolis, Maryland. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Hogan left the governor’s office at the beginning of 2023 with very positive approval and favorable ratings.
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A vocal Republican critic of former President Trump who previously flirted with a 2024 White House run, Hogan has repeatedly said that he will not vote for the former president in November’s election. In the spring, he stood out from most other Republicans for publicly calling for the guilty verdicts in Trump’s criminal trial to be respected.
The Gonzales Research & Media Services poll was conducted from Aug. 24 to Aug. 30 and surveyed 820 self-described likely voters via phone interviews.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Maryland
Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.
![Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers. Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/03/USAT/75064386007-53969346285-3-e-86-bcd-864-b.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1023,576,x0,y53&format=pjpg&width=1200)
The lawsuit announced on Tuesday claims three stores sold one person 34 guns over six months and ignored the buyer’s red flags.
Gun trafficking: How guns travel illegally on the iron pipeline
Here’s how guns legally bought in one state are smuggled illegally into another on the iron pipeline.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The nation’s capital is grappling with a deadly flood of weapons. Prosecutors are pointing fingers at three federally licensed gun stores in Maryland.
Attorneys general of Maryland and Washington D.C. filed a lawsuit Tuesday against three gun shops for selling firearms to a straw purchaser – the same stores identified as the top retailers of recovered crime guns in Maryland between August 2020 and July 2021, according to a report commissioned by the state attorney general’s office.
According to the lawsuit, the three stores in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly 25 miles northwest of Washington D.C., collectively sold 34 semiautomatic pistols to one person in six months. Only two remained with the purchaser, while the rest are presumed to be trafficked, prosecutors said.
Some have been recovered from people accused of assault, a stabbing, and drug distribution, the lawsuit added, while most remain unaccounted for.
“Federally licensed gun dealers know the law and they know what to look for to spot possibleillegal trafficking. As this lawsuit demonstrates, gun dealers cannot just choose to ignore these warning signs and guardrails,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Let this be a warning to other dealers who put public safety at risk to make a profit: We are watching, and we will hold you accountable for illegal conduct that fuels gun violence across our region.”
The lawsuit comes as public health experts and gun safety advocates warn about an alarming level of gun violence across the nation — guns are the leading killer of children in the U.S. and kill nearly 50,000 people a year. Lawsuits in other states have also targeted sellers and traffickers as culprits in gun crimes, including New Jersey, Michigan, and Philadelphia.
Lawsuit: Man bought 34 guns in 6 months
Three federally licensed gun stores – Engage Armament, United Gun Shop and Atlantic Guns – collectively sold Demetrius Minor, an “obvious straw purchaser,” 34 guns between April 6 and October 5, 2021, according to the lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
According to Engage Armament’s records cited in the lawsuit, Minor spent more than $31,000 at the one store for at least 25 guns. In July 2021 alone, he came to the store at least four times and bought five guns, prosecutors said.
Minor gave many of the weapons to a relative, Donald Willis, a Washington D.C. resident with a record of violent felonies, the lawsuit said, and Willis then spread the guns to other “dangerous individuals.” Minor has been convicted for his role in the straw sales. But Tuesday’s lawsuit said the stores “who chose profits over safety” have faced no consequences for their “critical role in fueling gun violence” in the D.C. metro region.
At least nine of the weapons, which the lawsuit contends were “illegally sold,” were found at crime scenes in Washington D.C. and surrounding Maryland suburbs. “Many more are likely in the hands of other individuals legally barred from possessing firearms and will be used in future crimes,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit cites a federally required form to buy a gun — the ATF firearms transaction record — which is used to determine whether a gun sale is legal. The form notes that straw purchases are illegal, meaning the firearm must go to the person who legally bought it. It also states that the seller is responsible for ensuring the sale is legal, and simply conducting a background check does not fulfill obligations.
The lawsuit notes that just as straw purchases are illegal, it is also against the law for a firearm dealer to help advance illegal sales, and federal law requires licensed dealers to report when an unlicensed buyer purchases two or more handguns within five days.
Atlantic Guns denied the straw sales allegations in a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday.
“Atlantic Guns, Inc. has never and will never knowingly sell to someone who we have reason to believe is committing a straw purchase,” the store said, declining to comment further before review of the lawsuit.
Engage Armament and United Gun Shop didn’t immediately return USA TODAY’s requests for comment.
Cities and states across U.S. go after sellers to battle gun violence
The lawsuit Tuesday is the latest to sweep the nation as cities and victims of shootings target firearm stores and traffickers to battle gun violence.
Last July, Philadelphia announced a lawsuit against three vendors that the city said were the source of more than 1,300 crime guns between 2015 and 2019. The weapons were used in shootings, a home invasion, drug crimes, vehicle theft, and more, according to the city.
Three Missouri men were charged earlier this year for illegally selling guns to the people who fired shots into the Super Bowl victory parade that killed a mother and injured over 20 people earlier this year.
In Michigan, the parents of a 14-year-old Oxford High School student who was severely injured in a 2021 mass killing, named a gun store as one of the defendants in a lawsuit, alleging Acme Shooting Goods negligently and illegally sold the firearm used in the school assault that killed four people and wounded seven others. Acme sold the gun to the shooter’s father while ignoring signs it was a straw purchase, the lawsuit alleged.
In July 2023, a northern Indiana gun shop that police called a key supplier of Chicago’s criminal firearms market announced it was closing its doors after Chicago sued Westforth Sports in 2021 over what it said was a pattern of illegal gun sales.
A USA TODAY investigation earlier this year found the majority of guns used in crimes are sold by a small fraction of the nation’s gun shops. Two of the Maryland gun shops named in Tuesday’s lawsuit – United and Atlantic – were on a list by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of stores that sold at least 25 guns traced to a crime over a year that were purchased within the past three years.
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler and Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
Maryland
Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters
![Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters](https://marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DSC_0311-scaled.jpeg)
Transportation projects around the state will be put on hold as officials grapple with ongoing budget constraints and a growing list of expensive projects.
A combination of budget pressures has created a $1.3 billion funding gap over a six year period, which Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said forced his department to defer projects across the state.
“We just don’t have enough dollars to do what we have to do within our means. So that’s what we’ve had to do,” he said.
The agency Tuesday released a draft of its latest Consolidated Transportation Program, a six-year budget that contains $19 billion in projects around the state. Wiedefeld said the draft required tough choices to address the budget gap, a “historical issue” that continues.
Wiedefeld said the state’s transportation funding shortfall is driven, in part, by an end to federal COVID-19 aid. Other factors include inflation, increased construction costs, less than expected revenue from the state’s gas tax, and reduced federal funding.
“The biggest one we do is we take a look at our financial forecast and all the ups and downs that may occur in the financial forecast,” Wiedefeld told reporters during a briefing Friday. “And so, in doing that, what we learned was that some of the projections that we had in terms of the growth of some of our sources were not growing at that rate, particularly our largest source of revenue, the motor fuel tax. There were some others that were either not growing or remaining flat again, not growing to the level that we’d hoped for.”
Wiedefeld said that resulted in roughly a $350 million decline in projected revenues over the six-year period of fiscal 2025-2030.
“At the same time, our operating costs continue to grow at a rate a little bit more significant that we have projected,” said Wiedefeld, adding $300 million in projected costs over the six-year period.
Counties scramble for answers, options as state signals deferral of transportation requests
Additionally, lawmakers earlier this year restored proposed cuts in state aid to local governments as part of Highway User Revenues as well as proposed cuts to transit systems run by 23 counties and Baltimore City. Restoration of those proposed cuts added another $400 million over six years, Wiedefeld said.
“So those three things basically are our realities that put pressure on the financial forecast,” he said.
Finally, Wiedefeld said the amount of federal aid is falling short of expectations.
“We were pushing all the modes to really buckle down and see where else we could get federal dollars for delivering projects,” he said. “We were shooting for roughly 80% federal, 20% local match, overall for the program. Basically, we were not able to achieve that, and we’re probably not going to be able to achieve that into the future.”
Instead, Wiedefeld said the state now expects a 75-25 split. “That 5%, although it sounds small, is significant, obviously, when you think of the amount of federal dollars that would bring down,” he said.
The resulting lack of revenue means counties will see priority projects not already underway slowed down or paused
“In effect, projects that are into the future — larger projects that we want to construct — we have to slow those down in terms of the process to get them to construction, until we have available dollars to pick that back up,” Wiedefeld said.
One large project that could suffer is the proposed widening of the American Legion Bridge.
“So, on the American Legion bridge, obviously, we have the record of decision for this, you know, larger improvement there,” said Wiedefeld. “But given the stress that we’re under, we’re going to have the state highway particularly focus on the pure state of good repair issues around the American Legion bridge.”
The state applied for a federal grant to help pay for the costs of repairing “structural issues with the bridge,” he said. “So that’s where we’ll be focusing,” Wiedefeld said.
News of the delays was delivered to county leaders by Wiedefeld and transportation officials during the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference last month.
The transportation secretary said he will also seek to slow down the purchase of zero-emissions buses in the coming years, as some major bus manufacturers are having issues with the performance of electric buses, as well as availability.
Moore warns of difficult fiscal decisions ahead
A new clean diesel bus costs the state $750,000. A hybrid bus costs about $1 million each. A new electric bus costs $1.4 million each.
“So, as you play that over the program period, if you defer that, it actually saves a lot of dollars,” Wiedefeld said. “It allows us not to dig deeper into operating cuts, that we would have to do, or system preservation cuts.”
Wiedefeld said he will not request cuts to his department’s operating budget as he did last year when he cut 8% across the board. He will also not request cuts to county aid or local transit networks.
“What we’ve done is we’ve gone through all those projects, and we’re going to defer those projects at a logical deferred point,” Wiedefeld said. “So basically, some of those projects were in different levels of study. We want to make sure that they stop at a point where we don’t lose any of the effort that we had done, but we don’t have the available funds right now to continue those projects. What you’ll see in the capital program is basically those projects that will be deferred.”
A year ago, Wiedefeld proposed cuts to county shares of highway user revenues and to local transportation networks.
Highway user revenues — decimated in cuts more than a decade ago — had yet to be restored to previous levels. Proposed cuts, nixed this spring by the General Assembly, would have eliminated planned increases in future years.
“Even so, the fiscal 2025 funding for HUR (highway user revenues) falls significantly short of Maryland’s appropriate and historic funding levels, even without adjusting for inflation,” the association of county governments said in a post on its website. “This gap becomes even more pronounced when accounting for rising road maintenance and materials costs.”
The association said it would continue to seek restoration of state highway aid.
“MACo and county leaders will continue urging Maryland policymakers to advance a sustainable plan to address critical infrastructure needs across the state,” the group said in its statement. “Proper restoration of the HUR formula should be a priority in advancing solutions that create sensible and reliable support for all locally maintained roadways.”
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