Who sets the agenda in Annapolis? Not you. Not faculty. Not communities. Corporate lobbyists, party bosses, and governors working directly with industry. This pre-Thanksgiving episode exposes how power really works in Maryland—and how we build the pressure to change it.
Special guest Lawrence Grandpre from (LBS) joins us to discuss the 2026 legislative session and the relationship between electoral organizing and movement building.
Maryland's Energy Crisis: Industry Capture at Three Levels of Government Governor Moore didn't just respond to the energy crisis—he coordinated with other governors and the data center industry to make it worse. On November 19th, PJM Interconnection rejected all 12 proposals to regulate data centers.
Andy dives into the plan Moore, PA Governor Shapiro, NJ Governor Murphy, and VA Governor Youngkin submitted WITH the Data Center Coalition (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle) to fast-track connections and gut environmental review. This is coordinated industry capture—and we show you the alternative.
Zero Elected Higher Ed Trustees: Back Room Deals Without Faculty Voice Outgoing president of the University of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke proposed merging University of Baltimore and Baltimore City Community College.
Who is included in decisions like this? Not faculty. Not students. Maryland has a severe democracy deficit in higher education, with zero elected higher education trustees.
Owen offers a counter-proposal: merge UB into Morgan State, create a Community College of Baltimore (city + county), and establish democratically elected boards.
Movement Building and Legislative Pressure: How to Force Interest Convergence Lawrence explains LBS's 2026 agenda: override Moore's reparations veto, tax nonprofit endowments like Hopkins (generating nine figures annually), end automatic charging of youth as adults , require Maryland Public Television debates for all ballot-qualified parties, and create returning citizen led reentry programs.
Lawrence explains how this agenda, third-party pressure and primary challenges force Democrats to deliver for working-class communities by threatening their general election margins.
Learn more- https://lbsbaltimore.com
Grassroots Democracy Platform: Taking Power from Party Bosses Andy and Owen do a deep dive on our campaign platform to advance grassroots and multiparty democracy in Maryland
Voter driven constitutional amendmentsExpanded voting rightsStatewide public financingRank choice voting and proportional representationBallot petition modernizationMPT debatesDemocratizing the 90-day General Assembly session. Municipal reformFixing the constitutional convention processLearn more- https://www.gogreen2026.com/democracy
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