From former Sen. Barbara Mikulski: "...If you invest more in education, you pay less in incarceration. Schools always cost less than prisons. But under Larry Hogan, we've seen our education budget get tighter and tighter, while our budget for prisons continues to balloon. Maryland is falling behind because we're just not investing where it counts." Ben Jealous will turn that around.

It is proving pretty hard to get entrenched big money out of Prince George's politics. But there is a solid chance for change TODAY, Tuesday October 23, when the County Council votes on a bill providing for small donor contributions to political candidates who pledge to run without large contributions from the big donors who have played such a big role in county politics. Read about the possibilities for change in this account.

MAKING A PLAN TO VOTE – AND HELPING OTHERS TO DO THE SAME

Early Voting in Maryland begins Thursday (Oct. 25) across the state. Remember, if you make a plan to vote early and something doesn’t work out, you can still vote the following day, right up through Nov. 1. So make your plan, follow through -- then help to turn out your neighbors and your community. In this crucial election, expanding the electorate is the key to ending business as usual.

"Larry Hogan is running as a bipartisan. But why should we want that? Bipartisanship legitimizes reactionary American politics. Those who strive for bipartisanship and neglect party differences enable the rightward shift of American politics and ignore the extremism of the entire Republican Party."

A University of Maryland student deftly outlines the history of this corruption of our political landscape, writing in the student newspaper, The Diamondback.

As Maryland prepares to name a new governor on November 6, voters have a clear choice: Ben Jealous has put forward a platform of clear, progressive and achievable goals that include universal health care and kindergarten, debt-free college, a statewide $15 minimum wage and a 29 percent salary increase for teachers. And a plan to pay for it.

Larry Hogan’s platform, in contrast, is like much of his career: “go along to get along.” The "moderate" label he claims is belied by the pro-business and anti-people record he tries to hide.

Every specious argument in favor of Larry Hogan turns out to be an argument in favor of electing Ben Jealous governor of Maryland. Taking credit for nothing going wrong is a far cry from governing.

Check our blog below for more.

The General Election is NOVEMBER 6

BUT EARLY VOTING IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25 TO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1

DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE SURE YOU VOTE?

There are many excellent reasons for Maryland voters to back Ben Jealous, the progressive Democratic candidate for governor, against the GOP incumbent, Larry Hogan. The Washington Post, in today's endorsement of Larry Hogan, delivered some of the most convincing arguments for Jealous.

This Memo appears on a Tuesday because of yesterday’s sort-of national holiday for a native of Genoa who sailed on behalf of genocidal Spanish monarchs. We are "celebrating" the event and its catastrophic consequences with less and less enthusiasm and it is being supplanted in many places by a day to honor those Indigenous Peoples who survived all this Eurocolonialist behavior, and mourn those who did not, by organizing for real equality in our lives and communities.

As Ben Jealous steadily gains recognition and closes in on the Teflon Guv Larry Hogan, the performance of the Democratic political establishment leaves those regular Dems behind the curve of Marylanders' political preferences. As Jay Hutchins pointedly asks here, "Are [Democratic] leaders concerned ...that having a real progressive on the second floor will be a challenge to existing norms and the power structure in Annapolis?"

If Hogan were to win a second term, with no need to appear centrist, the establishment Dems would find his sudden morphing into Maryland's Trump more threatening to their power than any of the progressive reforms Jealous would bring, to say the least.