MIKULSKI TO RETIRE: Jenna Johnson and John Wagner of the Post report that U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who has served in Congress longer than any woman in history, announced Monday that she will retire after five terms in office, shocking Democrats in her state and setting off an immediate scramble to replace her.
- Sarah Gantz of the Baltimore Business Journal writes that, for U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the decision to not run for re-election in 2016 is a license to go out swinging. Maryland’s senior senator and the longest-serving woman in Congress announced Monday that she will retire when her fifth term ends in January 2017.
- Following leaks that U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) will retire after her fifth term, she formally made the announcement on Monday, writes Josh Bollinger in a story that can’t be read in full in the online Easton Star Democrat. But it can be at the Cecil Whig.
- Staff and wire reports from the Daily Record outline Mikulski’s long career in Maryland politics, creating a persona for herself as the go-to politician in Maryland for obtaining federal support for ports and research labs. A photo gallery tops the article.
- Plaudits poured in for the retiring senator. The Sun compiled a list of quotes from various politically important people, including President Barack Obama.
MIKULSKI’S LEGACY: When Sen. Barbara Mikulski took the Senate oath in 1987 she was immediately all by herself in the history books, becoming the first Democratic woman elected to a Senate seat in her own right. (Typically, women had come to hold elected office when their husband’s died.) Nia-Malika Henderson of the Post reports on Mikulski’s legacy for women politicians in the Senate and elsewhere.
- Luke Broadwater, Erin Cox and Yvonne Wenger of the Sun write that Mikulski, a 4-foot-11 social worker from Highlandtown, helped stop a highway that threatened Southeast Baltimore. She broke into politics when women on Baltimore’s City Council were still called girls — and rose to become a U.S. senator, a leader of the Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving woman in Congress.
- Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, will depart Capitol Hill the way she arrived — with a sharp tongue, an unabashed liberalism and a mission to make the Senate a place where women belong, write Marc Fisher and Jenna Johnson for the Post.
- Jon Kelvey of the Carroll County Times writes that Mikulski stepped up when specific services were needed in Carroll County.
SCRAMBLE FOR HER SEAT: John Fritze of the Sun reports that U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s startling announcement Monday that she will not seek re-election in 2016 after more than four decades in elected office set off a political free-for-all as Maryland’s most powerful politicians began to position themselves for the opportunity to run for a rare open seat.
- Just hours after Mikulski’s surprise announcement that she would step down at the end of her fifth term, no fewer than six of Maryland’s seven Democratic House members had signaled that they might take a shot at replacing her. An aide to one of them, Rep. Chris Van Hollen said he is “very likely” to run, writes John Wagner in the Post.
- Yvonne Wenger and John Fritze of the Sun outline who may run for her seat, including U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, Kendel Ehrlich and Ben Carson.
- Josh Kurtz of Center Maryland writes that sure, we can all name about 17 possible candidates, and spin a thousand down-ballot scenarios that create opportunities for dozens of other political wannabes, but in the end, most of them won’t run, and openings will be limited.
- If Martin O’Malley harbors any doubts about running for president against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he now has a viable alternative, writes the AP’s Ken Thomas.
VOTE ON NOMINEES: Four of Gov. Larry Hogan’s nominees to head Cabinet positions, including the state Department of Transportation, head to the full Senate later this week for an expected confirmation vote, Bryan Sears writes in the Daily Record.
- A Maryland Senate committee unanimously agreed Monday to approve Gov. Larry Hogan’s nominee for transportation secretary, a week after delaying the vote over questions surrounding the future of the state’s light-rail projects, Ovetta Wiggins reports in the Post.
- The vote came after Pete Rahn, a former top transportation official in New Mexico and Missouri, told the Senate Executive Nominations Committee that he is looking for ways to reduce the cost to the state of building the proposed Red and Purple light rail lines, writes Michael Dresser in the Sun.
NEW LEGISLATORS FIND BIPARTISANSHIP: The largest freshmen class in 20 years came in swinging at the State House this session, taking over the General Assembly with a “new wave” of bipartisanship, writes Rebecca Lessner for MarylandReporter.com. “It’s just an exciting time to bring fresh, new ideas. I think the body as a whole has been pretty receptive to them,” said Del. Marice Morales, D-Montgomery. The 57 new delegates and 11 new senators aren’t being shy with their bills. While some thought they would hold off and test the waters, they soon found themselves diving in.
CENTRAL COMMITTEE RULES: Steve Lash of the Daily Record writes that Maryland’s top court held Monday that a party central committee may submit multiple names to the governor to fill a General Assembly vacancy. The Court of Appeals’ one-page order permits the Republican Central Committee of Carroll County to submit more than one name, if it so chooses, to Gov. Larry Hogan to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates.
- The Court of Appeals of Maryland on Monday upheld a ruling by a Carroll County Circuit Court judge, who denied a request to prevent the county’s Republican Central Committee from sending multiple names to the governor when it was making recommendations to fill a vacated seat in the House of Delegates representing Carroll, Wiley Hayes reports for the Carroll County Times.
PROTECTIVE ORDER AGAINST DELEGATE: A temporary protective order against a state delegate from Baltimore County remains in effect for another week after he failed to appear in court, reports Bryan Sears for the Daily Record. Del. Hasan “Jay” Jalisi, a Democrat, did not appear in District Court for a scheduled hearing yesterday morning.
- A Baltimore County judge rescheduled a hearing about whether to grant a permanent protective order against Del. Hasan “Jay” Jalisi for next week after neither Jalisi nor his attorney appeared in court. The AP is reporting in the Sun that, on the phone, Jalisi’s attorney told the court that Jalisi had not received service of the temporary order.
OD ANTIDOTE EXPENSE: U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings and another U.S. lawmaker sent a letter to the drug company that produces an antidote to heroin overdose that has been jumping in price as more police and health departments use it, reports Meredith Cohn in the Sun. The letter went to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, the only maker of naloxone, requesting information on gross revenues from the drug, price paid for the drug and factors that led to the price increases.
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