When Fagan Harris was announced as the chief of staff for Gov.-elect Wes Moore, he told reporters that he was a proud product of Maryland’s public schools.
WBAL-TV reporter Kate Amara asked: Which schools? “Do you want to give a shoutout?”
After all, we know in the Baltimore area that where you went to high school is a definite matter of importance.
“Yeah, let’s give some shoutouts,” Harris said. “Shout out to Pointer Ridge Elementary in Prince George’s County. Let’s shout out Marley Elementary in Anne Arundel County and Marley Middle — go Mustangs! — and Glen Burnie High School — go Gophers! I’m here with my wife who I met at Glen Burnie High School and couldn’t be more proud. My mom taught middle school at Arundel Middle School, she’s a special educator.”
Harris won’t be the first Glen Burnie Gopher to lead a governor’s staff at the State House.
One of outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan’s chiefs of staff, Matthew A. Clark, who served as chief of staff from 2017 to 2020, is a proud Glen Burnie alumnus from the Class of 1993.
And there’s yet another Glen Burnie Gopher in a high-level state government role: Secretary of General Services Ellington Churchill Jr., Class of 1998, who is a member of the school’s Alumni Wall of Honor.
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
Ben Jealous heads to the Sierra Club
Maryland’s Democratic nominee for governor in 2018, Ben Jealous, has landed a new gig as executive director of the Sierra Club, the national nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
Jealous is “an experienced civil rights leader, community organizer, coalition builder, and social justice activist,” Sierra Club President Ramón Cruz wrote in announcing the hire. The announcement included pictures of a young Jealous hiking in various settings and a current picture of him in front of water.
Jealous has headed multiple national organizations in his career, including president of People For the American Way, a progressive advocacy group, for the last two years; president and CEO of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013; and executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association from 1999 to 2002. He’s also worked in the private sector and taught at universities.
The Sierra Club announcement noted the first protest that Jealous organized was against timber clear-cutting. He also launched the NAACP’s climate justice program.
In a statement, Jealous framed environmental health as a matter of human rights. “We can both create more good jobs for communities that have suffered for too long and build a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone,” he said.
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
An almost-final word on the midterms
Winners were clear almost immediately in some of Maryland’s highest-profile midterm races on election night.
But the large accumulation of mail-in ballots, many of which were not counted until after Election Day, has meant final scores were still settling on Friday, the state deadline for certifying results. In many cases, mail ballots shifted the (almost) final margin by 10 percentage points or more in favor of Democrats.
The Associated Press called the Maryland governor’s race for Wes Moore almost immediately as polls closed on Nov. 8, but the governor-elect has increased his margins over GOP hardliner Dan Cox as more ballots have been counted since early returns. The first Black candidate elected governor in Maryland history — and only the third nationwide — Moore’s winning margin has grown to more than 30 points. Moore held nearly 64% of the vote on Friday morning, to Cox’s 33%.
It’s a triumph that Moore has touted as the largest margin in a Maryland governor’s race in 40 years, although that’s not quite the case. In 1986, William Donald Schaefer, then the reformist mayor of Baltimore, marched to Annapolis with a 64-point victory.
Maryland Democrats cruised in this year’s other statewide contests as well.
In the race for attorney general, Anthony Brown soundly defeated attorney Michael Peroutka, who hasn’t disavowed ties to the white secessionist League of the South, 64% to 36% in Friday morning’s almost-final tally. Meanwhile, Del. Brooke Lierman defeated Harford County Executive Barry Glassman by more than 20 points in the comptroller’s race. Outcomes in the attorney general and comptroller races completed a historic ticket for Maryland Democrats, with Brown becoming the first Black candidate elected to his office and Lierman becoming the first woman elected to hers.
In two of Maryland’s tightest races, mail-in ballots powered Democrats past their Republican rivals days after the close of polls.
In the newly competitive 6th Congressional District, encompassing Western Maryland, Democratic Rep. David Trone squeaked by Republican Del. Neil Parrott on Nov. 11 but went on to secure a comfortable 7-point margin, as of Friday morning’s tally. In the race for Anne Arundel county executive, Democratic incumbent Steuart Pittman eclipsed Republican challenger Jessica Haire earlier this week before riding the vote-by-mail count to a 6-point victory as of Friday.
In the race for county executive in Howard County, Democratic incumbent Calvin Ball handily defeated Republican Allan Kittleman and held an 18-point lead on Friday morning.
