Political notes: Hagerstown mayor to run for 6th District seat, O’s advocacy in D.C.

Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez plans to announce Wednesday, at Vibez Lounge in the city, that she will seek the Democratic nomination to run for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, the state’s most competitive in next year’s election.

Martinez, appointed by City Council in February as the city’s first Black mayor, replaced Emily Keller who joined Gov. Wes Moore’s administration. Keller served as Hagerstown’s first woman elected as mayor.

Martinez joins a crowded field seeking to replace Rep. David Trone, who is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to replace Sen. Ben Cardin, who is not running for re-election.

George Gluck, a perennial candidate, filed in February to run in next year’s primary, about three months before Trone announced his intentions to run for Senate to replace Sen. Ben Cardin (D).

A few days after Trone’s announcement, state Del. Joe Vogel, 26, who was elected in November, announced he would run for Congress.

Del. Lesley J. Lopez (D-Montgomery) entered the race with a campaign launch video in late May.

Mia Mason announced her candidacy last month. The military veteran sought the Democratic nomination for Congress in the state’s 1st District while residing on the Eastern Shore.

Mason moved to Frederick, in the 6th District, two years ago. She seeks to become the first trans woman to serve on Capitol Hill.

Several other Democrats are pondering whether to enter the race.

Meanwhile, some Republicans also have filed to run in the “purple” district, including Mariela Roca, a medical logistics specialist and Air Force veteran who sought the seat in 2022 and finished third in that primary; Chris Hyser, a Thurmont resident and retired state trooper; and Todd Puglisi, a Germantown resident who finished ninth in a 10-candidate Republican primary scrum for U.S. Senate in 2022.

O’s advocacy in D.C.

As they work to get major state funding to expand and improve the so-called entertainment district near Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles have also hired a prominent Washington, D.C., lobbying firm to help them go after federal funding opportunities.

According to new lobbying filings first reported Tuesday by Punchbowl News, the Orioles have signed Cornerstone Government Affairs to lobby for the team on the federal level.

Cornerstone is a national firm with outposts in about a dozen states, including an office in Annapolis. But it is the federal lobbying shop that is going to work for the baseball team.

Former Maryland Del. John Bohannon (D-St. Mary’s), who has worked for Cornerstone for several years but has never registered to lobby in Maryland, will be part of the lobbying effort in D.C. So will Todd Webster, a former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).

According to the lobbying registration, Bohannon and Webster will work to try to get the [Maryland congressional] delegation to “support programs to make infrastructure investments, transportation improvements, homeland security infrastructure and services, and general coordination with federal agencies. Efforts will focus on supporting the revitalization efforts for Baltimore City’s Inner Harbor District and the Entertainment District which includes both major league franchise stadiums in the City.”

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