While most attention is properly on the national results, Sierra Club had important election successes here in Maryland.
Baltimore has new top leadership – Mayor-elect Brandon Scott and Comptroller-elect Bill Henry – who are true advocates for the environment. Their leadership, combined with that of the 9 winning city council candidates also endorsed by Sierra Club, puts Baltimore strongly in the hands of a younger generation that is more energetic, responsive, and more strongly committed to the environment and social justice.
In Baltimore County, voters approved creation of a Citizens’ Election Fund System that will provide matching funds for small individual campaign contributions, making it possible for local candidates to run without becoming dependent on large campaign contributions from developers.
Those are the brightest highlights. Over all, voters agreed with all but one of the Sierra Club’s Maryland endorsements. The lone exception was Franca Muller Paz, the Green Party candidate in Baltimore’s 12th City Council district; she received 36% of the vote and lost to the incumbent Democrat, Robert Stokes, Sr.
Like some other jurisdictions, Baltimore City politics has suffered in the past from corruption, “pay to play”, cronyism, and disregard for the needs and complaints of the general public. A sea change has been building. In 2016, 7 of the city council districts were won by younger, more environmentally conscious candidates. In 2018, the changes extended to the city’s delegation to the General Assembly. Now in 2020, the sea change has reached the city’s top offices, which had continued to be held by the older establishment.
Mayor-elect Brandon Scott has worked to clean up Baltimore’s heavily polluted air by placing strict limits on incinerator emissions, hold DPW accountable for cleanup of sewage backups in peoples’ homes, reduce the trash that blights neighborhoods, and improve transportation and environmental justice. He fought to protect trees in Druid Hill Park when Mayor Young proposed to cut them down for a parking lot.
City Comptroller-elect Bill Henry has pledged to make city financial data and contracts available for all the public to see, and to use performance audits to find ways for city departments to be more efficient and responsive.
We can celebrate that the Sierra Club was active along with many other organizations and voters working to truly transform Baltimore City government.
Rich Norling
Chapter Political Chair