Public affairs and campaign strategy in Maryland
Maryland is where we are located: our office and mailing address are in downtown Baltimore, a half hour from the State House. Our current focus is Washington, DC and New Jersey, but when a client’s objective lives in Annapolis or Montgomery County, this is how those places run: ninety days a year, 188 legislators, a two-business-day testimony window and a lobbying law with dollar triggers in Annapolis; an eleven-member council, a $500 lobbying trigger and a public campaign financing program in the state’s largest county.
A short session with hard deadlines
The General Assembly has 47 senators and 141 delegates, one senator and three delegates from each of 47 districts, all serving four-year terms with no term limits. Every one of the 188 seats is on the November 3, 2026 ballot, along with the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller and Attorney General; the next legislative election after that is 2030.
- The session
- Convenes the second Wednesday in January for 90 days. The 2027 session runs January 13 to April 12, 2027. Special sessions can be called by the Governor or a majority of each house; 2026 had a two-day special session in August.
- Bill deadlines inside the session
- Senate bills introduced after the 24th day and House bills after the 31st go to the Rules committees and need a two-thirds vote to come out; anything in the last 35 days needs a two-thirds suspension; “crossover” is day 76. Prefiled bills are introduced on opening day, which is a real head start.
- The budget
- The Governor submits the budget on the third Wednesday in January, or within ten days of convening in the first session of a new term, which is the case in January 2027. If the legislature has not finished the budget bill seven days before the end of the session, the 83rd day, the Governor must extend the session and nothing else may be considered. The often-quoted “April 1” is not the rule. Since fiscal 2024 the General Assembly may add or increase items in certain categories, not only cut; the budget bill becomes law without the Governor’s signature and cannot be vetoed.
- Local bills and delegations
- Bills with a purely local effect are referred to the county’s delegation, which sits as a select committee. By long custom, members defer to the affected county’s delegation on bills that apply only there, so the delegation vote usually decides a local bill’s fate. Most delegations hold a public hearing on their local package before the session, usually in the late fall or early winter.
- Home rule limits
- Sixteen counties and Baltimore City have home rule, but election law and alcoholic-beverage licensing stay with the General Assembly, and voters can petition a county local bill to referendum. Towns and cities are largely off-limits to local legislation under the municipal home-rule amendment.
- State Board of Education
- Fourteen members, thirteen appointed by the Governor with Senate consent to four-year terms, including a teacher and a parent seat, plus a student member appointed to a one-year term. The board appoints the State Superintendent of Schools to a four-year term.
Testifying through MyMGA and registering with the State Ethics Commission
Testifying. Anyone submitting oral or written testimony needs a MyMGA account, and the sign-up window is narrow: it opens two business days before a hearing at 8 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. the same day, so a Tuesday hearing is signed up for the previous Friday. Written testimony is PDF only, uploaded in the same window, named with the bill number and your organization. Oral testimony is typically two minutes, you cannot switch between in-person and virtual after the window closes, and anything late goes by e-mail to the committee and lands on the next workday. Committees publish their own guidelines, and after crossover only sponsors and agencies usually testify on cross-filed bills.
Lobbying. The State Ethics Commission registers more than 3,000 lobbyists a year. The triggers in a reporting period include $500 in expenses or $2,500 in compensation for in-person lobbying, $5,000 in compensation for lobbying that is not in person, $100 in gifts or meals to executive-branch officials, $2,000 spent soliciting others to contact officials, and $2,500 paid to compensate other registrants. Register within five days of the first act that requires it, separately for each client, with a $100 fee per registration. The lobbying year runs November 1 to October 31, renewals are due by November 1, and activity reports are filed under oath twice a year, May 31 and November 30, even when there was no activity. Training is required within six months of registering. Every registration is public and searchable in real time.
Campaigns for the legislature. Candidates for Senate and House file with the State Board of Elections on West Street in Annapolis, with a $50 fee, after opening a committee in MD CRIS. Filing for 2026 closed February 24; early voting runs October 22 to 29 before the November 3 general election.
Session dates, statutory thresholds and procedures are from the Maryland Constitution, the Maryland Manual, the General Provisions Article and committee guidance, checked October 2026. Committee rules change each session; confirm with the committee before relying on them.
A charter county with an executive and an eleven-member council
Montgomery County is a charter government: an elected County Executive runs the agencies and a County Council writes the laws and passes the budget. The council grew from nine to eleven members with the 2022 election, seven elected by district and four at large, so every resident has five council members to call: one district member and the four at-large members.
- Terms and limits
- Four-year terms. Council members may serve three consecutive terms; county voters cut the Executive to two consecutive terms in a 2024 charter amendment, and that limit applies to the office starting with the December 2026 term.
- Election cycle
- County offices run on Maryland’s gubernatorial cycle. The Executive, all eleven council seats and four of the seven school board seats are on the November 3, 2026 ballot; the following regular county election is 2030.
- Where decisions get made
- The full council meets on Tuesday mornings at the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville; its committees meet Mondays and Thursdays, and many public hearings are held in the evening.
- Budget calendar
- Under the charter the Executive sends the operating budget to the council by March 15 and the council must approve it by June 1. Budget hearings land in April, so a funding ask needs to be in front of members well before then.
- Changing the charter
- Charter questions reach the ballot by council resolution or by a petition of 10,000 registered voters. In 2026 a spending-cap petition turned in more than 14,000 signatures and still fell 302 valid signatures short, which says something about how carefully a petition drive has to be run here.
- Regional structure
- The executive branch works through five Regional Services Centers (Upcounty, Mid-County, East County, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Silver Spring), each with a citizens advisory board, and the Montgomery County Civic Federation gathers civic and homeowner associations countywide on the second Monday of most months.
Registering, testifying and moving a local bill
Lobbying. The county Ethics Commission administers Chapter 19A of the Public Ethics Law. Spending or receiving more than $500 in a year to influence legislative action, or spending more than $500 on meals, gifts, travel or events to influence executive action, requires registration within five days of crossing the line, a $125 annual fee per lobbyist, and semi-annual activity reports due July 31 and January 31. Gifts of $50 or more to a public employee must be itemized.
Testifying. Live testimony at council hearings, in person or by video, is signed up for in advance online or by phone, with cut-offs that typically fall at 2 p.m. or 5 p.m. the day before the hearing. Written, audio and video testimony can be submitted instead. Every notice sets its own deadline, so we read the notice, not the habit.
Local bills. A Montgomery County bill in Annapolis goes through the county delegation first: a public hearing in the late fall, a vote in a House Delegation committee, a vote of the full House Delegation and a Senate Delegation vote, and only then a hearing in a standing committee. Bi-county bills must also clear the Prince George’s delegation. For the 2026 session the delegation’s hearings were held in early December and its votes ran from late January into February.
What a school board or council candidate is signing up for
- Board of Education
- Seven voting members elected countywide on a nonpartisan ballot, five from residency districts and two at large, in staggered four-year terms, plus a student member elected by secondary students each spring. The board appoints the Superintendent of Schools, who runs Montgomery County Public Schools.
- Filing and reporting
- Candidates for county offices and the school board file with the Montgomery County Board of Elections in Gaithersburg; state and federal candidates file with the State Board. Campaign finance reports are filed in Maryland’s MD CRIS system on a statewide schedule.
- Public Election Fund
- Montgomery County has run public campaign financing since 2018 for Executive and council races. In the 2026 rules a candidate qualifies with small contributions from county residents ($5 to $500, the first $150 matched): 500 contributions and $40,000 for Executive, 250 and $20,000 for an at-large seat, 125 and $10,000 for a district seat, with matches of up to 7-to-1 on the first $50. PACs, corporations, unions and party committees are off the table for participants.
- Municipal calendars
- The county’s cities keep their own cycles. Rockville and Gaithersburg elect in November of odd-numbered years, next in 2027. Takoma Park elects its mayor and council to two-year terms and lets 16-year-olds and non-citizen residents vote in city elections.
Thresholds, dates and dollar figures are from the county, the State Board of Elections and the council’s own pages, checked October 2026. They change; confirm current numbers with the agency before relying on them.
Baltimore City
Our office and mailing address are on West Redwood Street downtown. The short version of how the city works:
- Government
- A strong-mayor city under its own charter. A five-member Board of Estimates (Mayor, Council President, Comptroller, City Solicitor and Director of Public Works) controls contracts and the budget proposal. The City Council has 14 district members and a Council President elected citywide.
- Elections
- City offices run on the presidential cycle, so the next regular city election is 2028. Officials elected from 2024 on are limited to two consecutive full terms. The November 3, 2026 city ballot carries bond questions, charter amendments and two elected school board seats, not city offices.
- Council
- The full council meets on Monday evenings at City Hall, roughly twice a month, and every bill gets a committee hearing with public testimony, listed with video links on the council’s legislative calendar. Ten of fifteen votes override a veto.
- Lobbying
- The city Board of Ethics registers legislative lobbying at $2,500 in compensation, $500 in expenses or $100 in gifts, executive-branch lobbying at $100 in gifts, and grassroots lobbying at $1,000; registration within five days, renewal by January 1, a $100 fee, and reports due July 31 and January 31. The executive-branch trigger is the one people miss.
- Budget
- Fiscal year July 1. The Board of Estimates holds its Taxpayers’ Night in the spring and must send the Ordinance of Estimates to the council at least 45 days before the fiscal year; the council must pass it at least five days before July 1 and, since 2020, may add back items up to the amount it has cut.
- Schools
- The Board of School Commissioners has nine mayoral appointees, two elected at-large members and a student commissioner, and hires a Chief Executive Officer. The city also has its own Fair Election Fund, first used in the 2024 election with a $150 per-donor cap, and a House delegation and a Senate delegation that handle “Baltimore City” bills in Annapolis.
City rules and dates are from the Baltimore City Charter and Code, the Board of Ethics and the city Board of Elections, checked October 2026. Confirm current figures before relying on them.
Work we take on in Maryland
Legislative strategy in Annapolis
Landscape analysis, sponsor and delegation strategy, two-minute testimony that says one thing well, and the coalition behind the bill, from prefile to the Governor’s desk.
Council and budget advocacy
Stakeholder mapping across a county council, testimony prepared to the notice, and a coalition that shows up in April when the budget is actually decided.
Local-office campaigns
Pre-campaign assessments and campaign plans built around the county’s cycle, its term limits and, in Montgomery County and Baltimore City, the public financing math.
Tell us about your Maryland objective
The bill, budget item, race or community, where it will be decided, and when. If the 2027 session is the target, the fall is when the work starts.