President Joe Biden puts his hand on the shoulder of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Wes Moore and first lady Jill Biden addresses the Bowie crowd. Photo from Wes Moore campaign.
BIDEN, HOPING TO CLOSE THE DEAL, RALLIES FOR MOORE, OTHER DEMS: President Joe Biden delivered a closing argument at Bowie State University on the eve of the midterm elections, promoting the candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and instructing Americans that democracy is at risk because of election deniers and other threats. Jeff Barker and Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
- “This guy’s the real,” Biden said Monday among a boisterous crowd of about 1,700 at Bowie State University. “Wes is a leader who will build Maryland and leave no one behind and I believe that.” Biden criticized Moore’s Republican opponent, Del. Dan Cox, and other supporters of former President Donald Trump as unpatriotic for not speaking out against the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. Biden also called Cox an “election denier.” William Ford/Maryland Matters.
- If more Democrats are elected to Congress, Biden said, Democrats can codify reproductive rights, ban assault weapons and protect democracy, Biden told the crowd. Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
- While Biden was in Maryland, former President Donald Trump was scheduled to be in Ohio Monday night campaigning for Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, a best-selling author, who is in a tight race with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. Timothy Dashiell of CNS/MarylandReporter.
MOORES MOSTLY IGNORED MOUNTING WATER BILLS: The delinquent water charges that Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and his wife racked up on their Guilford house were not the result of inaccurate meter readings or a leaking pipe, but rather the accumulation of nearly six years of sporadic payments by the couple. Internal billing records show that the Moores mostly ignored paying their water and sewer bills after buying the house in 2017. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
POLLS ARE OPEN: Anne Arundel County voters will cast their ballots today for federal, state and local races including Congress, governor, General Assembly, county executive and County Council. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at dozens of locations across Anne Arundel. Dana Munro/The Capital Gazette.
- Polling locations across Carroll County are now open and will remain so through 8 p.m. About 20% of Carroll County’s registered voters have already cast ballots in the general election, turning out in record numbers to early voting sites, county Board of Elections Director Katherine Berry said. Sherry Greenfield/The Carroll County Times.
- The Frederick County Board of Elections will begin releasing general election results after polling places close Tuesday night, but thousands of mail-in ballots won’t be counted until later in the week. Voters who arrive before 8 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot. Polling places will remain open if there is a line of people who gathered before 8 p.m. Jack Hogan/The Frederick News Post.
- Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties will see changes in many elected positions as voters head to the polls Nov. 8. All three Lower Shore counties have county council or commissioner races up for grabs, while some of the more hotly contested races involve school boards, following a national trend. The Wicomico County Executive race has also drawn high interest. Laura Benedict Sileo/The Salisbury Daily Times
CITING TERM LIMITS, B’MORE MAY CUT YEARS FOR PENSION QUALIFICATION: Arguing that its hands were tied by the likely implementation of term limits, the Baltimore City Council advanced a bill Monday reducing the number of years required for elected officials to receive a pension. Emily Opilo/The Baltimore Sun.
OPINION: FOR TERM LIMITS FOR BALTIMORE OFFICIALS: I want to encourage Baltimore voters to vote for Question K, for term-limits for Baltimore City’s elected officials. All of us Marylanders have an interest in seeing Baltimore do well. This involves investing and growing in many of the important policy domains that are integral to the success of the city, but also continuing to strengthen the democratic institutions which are the backbone of municipal governance. Dylan Diggs/MarylandReporter.com.
Del. Sheila Hixson had chaired the House Ways and Means for 23 years.
TRAIL-BLAZING FORMER DEL. HIXSON DIES AT 89: Former Del. Sheila Ellis Hixson – who represented the Silver Spring area for more than 40 years in the Maryland House of Delegates and was among the first women to wield significant clout in that chamber – died Sunday in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. She was 89. Louis Peck/Bethesda Beat.
- “Sheila was a trailblazer in Maryland politics and government. A former staffer at the Democratic National Committee, she got involved locally and led the way for a generation of women running in Maryland elections at every level, always working pragmatically for progressive change,” Montgomery County representatives, including U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, state Sen. Will Smith, and Dels. David Moon, Jheanelle Wilkins and Lorig Charkoudian, said in a joint statement Monday afternoon. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
- “All of the progressive issues in the state of Maryland, all started with Sheila Hixson,” the late House Speaker Mike Busch (D) said during a tribute to Hixson in 2017, when she announced she would not seek another term. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
HIGH COURT WEIGHS MDE REGULATION OF AMMONIA AFFECTING BY: The Maryland Department of the Environment ignored the harm ammonia inflicts upon the Chesapeake Bay when MDE invalidly declined to impose emissions standards for the noxious gas on all Eastern Shore poultry feeding operations, an environmental attorney told a seemingly skeptical Maryland high court last week. Steve Lash/The Daily Record.
