Progressive Maryland and many other progressive organizations are strongly opposed to SB122, a bill being heard in committee TODAY, March 27. SB122 gives prosecutors excessive tools to lock up defendants and increases prison time in a racially biased way, including the creation of mandatory minimum sentences focused on the kind of drug offenses that are disproportionately charged against minorities. Defendants under SB122 would have far fewer rights in their defense. There are no protections against police misconduct.

You can fight back against this unjust proposal. Sign our petition at  http://www.progressivemaryland.org/stop_passage_of_sb_122 and follow it by sharing on social media. On Twitter, use HashTag  #MDAgainstSB122.

This is the full version of the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for March 26-April 2. The emailed memo is shorter but links to this one.

In this election cycle, Conor Lamb, Doug Jones, and others have demonstrated that Democrats can win in deep-red districts if they campaign as Sanders-style economic populists, Hal Ginsberg writes. Assuming Democratic candidates in the mid-terms follow this script, the Democrats could take control of the House in November. Even the Senate may not be out of reach although most of the contested seats this year are occupied by Democrats.

Progressive Maryland is evaluating candidates for federal, statewide and local government offices and making endorsements based on progressive, pro-people principles and records of progressive public activism and achievement, in office or as private citizens. With our two latest endorsements we have announced our backing for about fifty candidates for offices ranging from the US Congress to local county governments.

We don’t hear much use of the term “industrial policy” in current political crosstalk. It’s a worthy program – a conscious orientation of government activism creating viable, sustainable work and healthier communities by creating positive public or public-private enterprises (often worker controlled). Here, the United Electrical Workers (UE) pushes back against the false promise of Trump tariffs to protect US jobs, and instead in favor of a planned program “based on international cooperation, respect for workers’ rights, and environmental sustainability — one that raises living standards for workers across industries and across borders through investment in infrastructure, jobs and social programs.”

Did you know there are fewer than 100 days until the Maryland Primary elections, taking place on June 26th?

So far this year, Progressive Maryland has had over 100 member leaders and volunteers knock on 4,000 doors at 14 different locations across the state! 

Will you door knock with us on March 24th or 31st for our #FromProtestToPower canvasses?

Progressive Maryland’s folks have been busy during the General Assembly session testifying on, and watching the progress of, the many bills working their way through legislative committees as the Maryland legislature moves into its last month of the 2018 session.

Here’s a roundup, with selections from testimony on bills submitted or delivered at the committees’ sessions. We’re pushing on pro-working family bills that protect local autonomy, raise wages toward a living wage and provide genuine health care coverage, help preserve net neutrality, recover revenue from an ill-conceived tax move, improve voter access and protect pregnant women’s workplace rights.

California's long-serving Senator Dianne Feinstein could be headed for rough waters. She will almost certainly lose the votes of white progressives who favor a socialist economic agenda and a pacifist foreign policy. Feinstein drew jeers at a town hall last year when she declared that she opposes Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-all plan. She is one of the party’s hawks and her less confrontational approach towards President Trump has also cost her support on the left.

Progressive Maryland submitted this testimony to the House Economic Matters Committee March 12 on behalf of bills prohibiting the use of salary history in determining compensation in the hiring process – a practice that disadvantages all working people seeking employment but particularly impacts women and minorities.

Across the state of Maryland, community members are rising up to resist policies that divide and dehumanize us and to advance an agenda that puts people and planet first. They are leading and organizing their communities by knocking on doors, making calls, building relationships, leading issue campaigns, and running for office.

Help us support these leaders as they invest in their development this spring and summer!