New County Executives Among 2019 Session Winners & Losers

A Maryland Matters article (2019-04-10) highlighted the website’s perceived winners and losers of the 2019 Session. The article made it clear up front that it would not be including House Speaker Michael Busch, Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller, or their staff, on this year’s list – not because they did not have significant roles during the Session but out of a feeling that now is not the proper time to comment on either.

Among the article’s winner’s were “newbie county executives.” From the article:

Newbie county executives

They were all in Annapolis regularly – Angela D. Alsobrooks of Prince George’s; Calvin Ball of Howard; Marc B. Elrich of Montgomery; John A. “Johnny O” Olszewski of Baltimore; and Steuart Pittman of Anne Arundel – pushing for more education funding, for a higher minimum wage, for local priorities. And all did pretty well. Prince George’s got authorization to launch school construction projects using public-private partnerships, Ball saw flood protection legislation passed, Pittman got authorization to seek limits on developer contributions in his county, and so on – and they all got pretty robust allocations of school construction funding.

Other winners included:

  • House Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County)
  • State Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery)
  • State Senate Republicans
  • Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel)
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • William E. “Brit” Kirwan
  • Dels. David Moon (D-Montgomery) and Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County)
  • Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery)
  • Sen. Cory V. McCray (D-Baltimore City)
  • Craft brewers
  • Sen. Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince George’s)
  • Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery)
  • House Minority Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Anne Arundel)
  • Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard and Carroll)
  • Del. Nick J. Mosby (D-Baltimore City)
  • Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery)
  • Lobbying scions
  • ‘White hat’ lobbyists
  • Tyler C. Patton
  • Compass Government Relations Partners
  • Environmentalists
  • Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City)
  • The phrase “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”
  • “Healthy Holly” jokes

Losers included:

  • Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D)
  • Del. Mary Ann Lisanti (D-Harford)
  • Del. Hassan M. “Jay” Jalisi (D-Baltimore County)
  • Sen. Obie Patterson (D-Prince George’s)
  • University of Maryland Medical System Board
  • TEDCO
  • Electric utility lobbyists
  • Legislative Black Caucus
  • Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D)

Finally, the article acknowledged those who had made a “push” during the 2019 Session. This year’s push list included:

  • Sen. Mary L. Washington (D-Baltimore City)
  • New revenues
  • Protesters
  • Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore)
  • Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan (R)