Thursday’s List — The Extreme Team

By Donald C. Fry
Recent news about Maryland’s front-running gubernatorial candidates has offered details about their campaign fundraising, their personal incomes and charitable contributions, all of which make for interesting news copy
But these factoids are not the most important things that conscientious voters want to know about Governor Martin O’Malley and his challenger, former Governor Robert [...]

At long last, the jungle has come to Montgomery County.
Politics in the county have never been as polite as people make it out to be. With its proximity to Washington, D.C., and hundreds of politically ambitious people running around, you always find a few epic Democratic primaries under way –- elections that defy conventional [...]

By Sean R. Malone
Baltimore City is Maryland’s only major league city – rich in history, architecture, traditional neighborhoods and culture. Major hospitals, major institutions of higher education, a major port and, of course, the Orioles and Ravens, who actually play downtown in beautiful stadiums, inhabit Charm City. Much like other big cities, Baltimore [...]

Center Maryland political columnist Josh Kurtz is scheduled to join Midday’s Weekly News Review today (Friday) from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on WYPR 88.1 FM. Kurtz, who is also editor of Environment and Energy Daily on Capitol Hill, will be discussing a variety of Maryland political news, including the Center Maryland poll results that [...]

A new study of the regional and national housing market paints a gloomy picture, concluding that homebuilding in Maryland has slowed considerably and hurt both jobs and revenues.
The study – conducted by the Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group for the Maryland State Builders Association – also found that declining appraisal values and an increase in foreclosures [...]

By Donald C. Fry
Last spring the Greater Baltimore Committee, in surveying members of Maryland’s bioscience community, asked a straightforward question: What is the single most important thing the state can do to ensure a robust bioscience industry?
The survey, conducted with MdBio, a division of the Tech Council of Maryland, yielded an overwhelmingly straightforward answer. [...]

Center Maryland continues its review of court records for candidates seeking local offices around Maryland. Today, we feature Baltimore City’s candidates for the Maryland legislature.
Too frequently in the past several years, unfortunate disclosures have emerged from court records about candidates – after the election has already taken place. So Center Maryland is going to [...]

Maryland voters continue to be pessimistic about the state’s economy, with 82 percent saying they believe Maryland’s economy is either getting worse or staying about the same, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
The Center Maryland / OpinionWorks telephone poll of likely voters also found that one-third of Marylanders worry every day about their own [...]

Imagine a candidate for governor who is young, handsome and wealthy, an entrepreneur, the ultimate political outsider, with hard-line, conservative positions on illegal immigration and taxes and abortion. Now imagine he’s been endorsed by Sarah Palin, the one Republican folk hero out there. Wouldn’t you think, in this throw-the-bums-out election year, that he’d have a [...]

Gov. Martin O’Malley leads former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. 47 percent to 41 percent among likely voters in November’s general election, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The Center Maryland / OpinionWorks telephone poll of likely Maryland voters also found that 49 percent approve of the job O’Malley is doing as governor, compared to [...]

Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Brian Murphy may have boosted the Republican gubernatorial long-shot’s efforts at attracting attention from the media, but it appears to do more harm than good among likely GOP primary voters, according to a new poll released Monday.
The Center Maryland / OpinionWorks telephone poll of likely Maryland voters found that former Gov. [...]

Center Maryland continues its review of court records for candidates seeking local offices around Maryland. Today, we feature second half of the candidates for Baltimore County Council.
Too frequently in the past several years, unfortunate disclosures have emerged from court records about candidates – after the election has already taken place. So over the next [...]

By Donald C. Fry
The Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission is nearing the completion of two years of work reviewing the way our state taxes businesses. This fall members of the commission will formulate its report to the General Assembly, which is due by December 15.
Having been asked specifically to review and evaluate whether Maryland should [...]

The first major campaign fund-raising period of the 2010 campaign season officially ended August 10th. Maryland candidates are required to file their annual finance reports with state officials this week. With the September primary election and November general elections just around the corner, Center Maryland has gone through the data to determine how much candidates [...]

The first major campaign fund-raising period of the 2010 campaign season officially ended August 10th. Maryland candidates are required to file their annual finance reports with state officials this week. With the September primary election and November general elections just around the corner, Center Maryland has gone through the data to determine how much candidates [...]