In these difficult times when access to voting is under attack from the Right – especially access for poor people and those of color – some good pushback bills are in the General Assembly that deserve support. They will expand access to voting for all Marylanders.

Below is the testimony on two of them by Progressive Maryland (through Jennifer Dwyer, PM policy and legislative director) on one and by Common Cause with endorsement from Progressive Maryland on the second. The League of Women Voters, ACLU, PIRG, Brennan Center, SEIU, Sierra Club, Black Girls Vote and other organizations also signed on to the bill proposing election-day registration.

Statistics from the National Alliance for Mental Health are evidence of the importance of implementing psychologists within schools and obtaining more psychologists working in the juvenile justice system, PM's Prince George's intern shows. Without their help, many children and teens are susceptible to mental illness. We can reverse this detrimental trend by taking action and offering them access to therapy from certified mental health professionals.

Bend your energy toward the future… if everyone who marched against the current administration went out and spent a four-hour shift knocking on doors in their neighborhood in a mass canvass…. Well, you do the math. Energizing folks to realize their power – the power to vote, the power to engage in community action – is the simple startup solution to a lot of complex problems.

People's Action helped organize the Women's State of the Union event at the National Press Club Jan. 30, countering the SOTU by Pres. Trump. At the invitation of People's Action, Brandy Brooks organized a contingent from Progressive Maryland.

Claire Miller from Take Action Anne Arundel County and Chrissy Holt, State Senate District 30 candidate in Anne Arundel, joined in attending this landmark event with Progressive Maryland organizers.

Acting locally lets us touch the people we are affecting, HoCo activist Dave Bazell notes.  And it allows them to touch us.  And this feedback is essential in getting it right.  Which is not to say activism on a national level is not important or essential, it is just harder.  Harder to comprehend, harder to organize, harder to feel the immediate benefits of.

The struggle to get big money out of Maryland politics, at all levels, has gone on for many years. Still, the fact remains that big money – money from the wealthy, especially from big businesses doing business with the state or depending on state regulation to make them profitable, or from national and global corporations – pollutes the politics of Maryland. Here is news of progress on two fronts.

Canvass for Progressive Maryland’s candidates and issues – the June Primary is coming up and voters need to get their feet under them for this critical set of choices. You can help by speaking to your neighbors. And we'll be at hearings and rallies in Annapolis to keep Maryland on the right track for working families, not for the wealthy.

Baltimore's Job Opportunities Task Force released today (Feb. 1) a major study showing that Maryland's official practices in many areas have a disparate impact on poor Marylanders, aggravate their poverty and make an exit from poverty more difficult. Progressive Maryland, like JOTF, has been advocating on these issues for years.

Progressive Maryland and other organizations testified Jan. 24 at a hearing on Senate Bill 195, called a “combined reporting” bill, before the Maryland Senate Budget and Tax Committee.

 Jennifer Dwyer, Policy and Legislative Director for Progressive Maryland, explained our support for the bill: By deftly deploying their presence in other states, some major companies doing business in Maryland have historically been able to avoid or greatly reduce their state income taxes compared to the benefits that they get from doing business in a wealthy state.

The Assembly is in session, elections are approaching and our work is percolating in Annapolis and throughout the state as we contact voters about a progressive agenda for change and people’s empowerment.