Maryland politicians collected more than $10.2 million in campaign donations from businesses that won billions of dollars in state contracts or paid lobbyists to influence them since the 2022 election, according to disclosures reviewed by The Baltimore Sun.
Gov. Wes Moore and leaders in the Maryland General Assembly were the top beneficiaries of the corporate largesse. Major donors included Exelon and Constellation, the Maryland Association of Realtors, Comcast and Amazon.
The donations increased by $2.9 million from the same period during the previous term, part of a larger escalation in special-interest spending to sway policy in Maryland.
But those numbers also don’t tell the whole story. Maryland’s system for reporting donations from companies — designed to guard against pay-to-play — misses some contributions entirely, partially by design and partially because companies fail to disclose required contributions, The Sun found. Some top donors only disclosed recent large donations when contacted by The Sun this week.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Sam Janesch over at The Baltimore Sun
