Welcome to “Larry Hogan: Republicans’ Dream Senate Majority-Maker,” an update on the latest news on self-described “lifelong Republican” Larry Hogan. 

Marylanders are continuing to read about Larry Hogan’s mounting conflicts of interest – and Hogan still refuses to answer for them…

• ICYMI: “INDISPUTABLE FACTS:” TIME Magazine reporter Eric Cortellessa joined WJLA this week to discuss his reporting that as governor, Hogan funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to his real estate firm’s listed clients, including to develop land owned by his own family. Hogan refuses to answer for the “factual assertions,” instead insisting they are “made up” – and won’t say how he plans to avoid such conflicts of interest if elected to the Senate.
• KEY CORTELLESSA QUOTE → “THERE HASN’T BEEN ANY DISPUTING OF THE FACTUAL ASSERTIONS MADE IN THE PIECE. There’s no question that this award was granted to Osprey property, which was a client of Hogan, and there’s no question that it was being built on property owned at the time by Alona Hogan, Larry Hogan’s stepmother. It’s also all available in public land records… Those are indisputable facts. They’re not allegations.” 

• HOGAN’S INTIMIDATION STRATEGY: Maryland Matters writes that “Hogan’s communications shop… did a pretty effective job of intimidating state-based reporters and grinding them down so they wouldn’t be tempted” to inquire about Hogan’s handling of competitive housing awards.
• PERSONAL STORY: “In early 2018… Maryland Matters ran one of the very first articles about Hogan’s real estate holdings, written by a well-respected freelancer who had been on the staff of the defunct Baltimore City Paper. I’m still suffering PTSD from that experience, I am ashamed to say.”
• REACTIONS CONTINUE TO ROLL IN: Maryland leaders are blasting Hogan for TIME’s latest reporting that as governor, Hogan voted to spend $16 million in taxpayer dollars to develop his own family’s property which “paved the way for the ultimate sale of the property.”

Hogan’s latest ad is raising eyebrows…

• COUNTRY OVER PARTY? The Hogan campaign released an ad this week featuring a Marylander voter touting their support for Kamala Harris. However, Hogan’s talk about bipartisanship is nothing but empty rhetoric, as Hogan himself refuses to stand up to Donald Trump and back Kamala Harris for President. Instead, he’s suggested he may once again vote for a “deceased individual.”
• THE BALTIMORE SUN’S TAKE → “Larry Hogan’s ‘Symbolic’ Vote Sends the Wrong Message.” Hogan’s “plan instead will be to cast a write-in vote for someone else, a move he acknowledged would have only a ‘symbolic’ purpose. But what is that symbolism exactly? Voting is serious business. Or at least it ought to be approached as such.”
• DEBATE FLASHBACK: ALSOBROOKS ON HOGAN’S REFUSAL TO VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS → “Rather than stand up, do the right thing, choose a tough vote and vote for a Democrat, he voted for a deceased individual and said he will do so again in this election. And I think it is instructive of the way that he would operate as a Senator. Unable to make tough calls and to go, to do what is, what he declares as bipartisan. This is the most bipartisan thing you can do.”

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin joined abortion rights advocates in Baltimore to highlight the stakes of Maryland’s Senate race…

• “WHAT’S AT STAKE… GOES FAR BEYOND FILLING ONE SENATE SEAT:” Senator and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom For All Mini Timmaraju, Planned Parenthood Maryland President and CEO Karen Nelson, and Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Karen Darkes held a press conference on Tuesday highlighting how Hogan could deliver Republicans the 51st seat they need to restrict abortion access. WATCH.