U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-Md.) is the lead sponsor of a sweeping political reform bill that passed the House last year but remains stalled in the Senate.
Among other things, the legislation aims to expand the reach of the Voting Rights Act, strengthen ethics laws for public officials, limit the influence of money in politics, and make voting easier and more accessible.
Now Sarbanes is teaming with two political reform groups to try to oust one of his Republican colleagues.
Democratic congressional challenger Tedra Cobb
Tedra Cobb, the Democratic nominee in an Upstate New York congressional district, announced last week that Sarbanes would be the featured speaker at a Zoom fundraiser on July 28 for her campaign to oust Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. The event is being hosted by two political reform groups, End Citizens United and Let America Vote.
It’s a rematch of the 2018 election, when Stefanik defeated Cobb, 56.1% to 42.4%.
Cobb could certainly use the financial help: She reported a very respectable $2,699,434 on hand as of June 30. But Stefanik, considered a moderate Republican who angrily condemned the House impeachment of President Trump, has been a fundraising machine, banking $4,466,452.
Those are fundraising numbers seldom seen in Sarbanes’ congressional district.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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