Companies, trade groups and nonprofits hire high-priced lobbyists to testify at public hearings and run ad campaigns — all in the effort to advocate for their positions on all sorts of critical issues up for debate in Annapolis.

[ READ MORE about our investigation and dig into Sun lobbying databases at baltimoresun.com/lobbying ]

Lobbyists also operate behind the scenes — meeting with lawmakers or officials in Gov. Wes Moore’s administration in the hallways of the historic State House, over steakhouse dinners and at fundraisers for elected officials’ campaigns.

The Baltimore Sun analyzed thousands of new disclosures filed with the Maryland State Ethics Commission, along with the data behind more than 40,000 lobbying reports from the last five-and-a-half years, to get a better understanding of the work of lobbyists in Maryland.

Here’s what we found.

Lobbying spending continues to hit new records

Corporations, trade groups and nonprofits combined to spend $58 million on lobbying in the last two months of 2024 and the first four months of 2025 — a period that includes the annual 90-day lawmaking session.

That was $2.76 million more than the previous year and $9.1 million more than two years ago, The Sun found.

The biggest spenders were Constellation Energy, whose $793,000 was 33% more than the same period covering the 2024 session, and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, whose $713,000 represented a 257% increase since 2022. Both organizations had much on the line in 2025, with business taxes and energy policies at the forefront.

Other new and notable spenders included Kiewit Infrastructure, the company rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge; and Stonewall Capital, the developer behind the ONE Westport project in South Baltimore.

Read the full story here: Special interests spent $58 million to influence Maryland officials during 2025 legislative session

A focus on taxes and alcohol in grocery stores

The $3.3 billion hole in the state budget dominated many conversations in Annapolis this year, spurring even more than the typical avalanche of lobbying around the state’s tax-and-spend plan.

The Chamber of Commerce and other business groups fought back on a variety of tax proposals. A corporate tax rule known as “combined reporting,” which proponents say would close a long-existing loophole, was shelved. And a broad 2.5% sales tax on business-to-business services was put aside for a narrower 3% tax on certain technology services.

The Maryland Retailers Alliance, whose $625,190 in lobbying expenses was the third highest, also significantly increased its lobbying efforts while focusing on those taxes and other policies like the state ban on selling alcohol in grocery stores.

The alliance seized on Moore’s statement in December that the law should be changed. And though legislative leaders quickly made it clear that it wouldn’t be a priority this year, the alliance stepped up its lobbying on the issue. All four of the new lobbyists it hired and collectively paid $119,000 only reported the alcohol bills as their focus.

Read the full story here: How Maryland lobbyists influenced debate on taxes, alcohol in grocery stores, other business interests

A string of other wins

Other companies with large lobbying budgets saw advancements for their causes

Northeast Maglev, a company seeking to break ground on a high-speed magnetic levitation train that would run from Washington, D.C., to New York City, routinely pays Annapolis lobbyist Gerry Evans more than any other company pays a lobbyist in Maryland — $340,000 for the latest six-month period. The company’s big win this year was getting the support of Moore, who traveled to Japan in April and rode the bullet train that inspired the effort in Maryland.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing car manufacturers, spent more than six times as much as the previous year in a pressure campaign to delay Maryland’s transition to electric vehicles. The legislation failed, but an executive order from Moore in early April had the same outcome.

Other wins were lower profile. The Baltimore Orioles successfully repealed a law that prohibited the team from conducting 50/50 raffles at every home game. Health care advocates helped expand a state board that aims to make medications more affordable.

Read the full story here: From Maglev to the Orioles, here’s how companies paid to influence Maryland government in 2025

Embattled gaming companies hire lobbyists to expand in Maryland

Two companies that got into the lobbying game in the last year have a checkered history in Maryland and in neighboring Washington, D.C.

Intralot, an international gaming company based in Greece, and another local gaming company, known as VSC, both paid top dollar for Maryland lobbyists while they were under investigation and eventually fined for what the district’s attorney general called an “elaborate scheme” related to their work in online sports betting.

VSC’s lobbying expenses came as it secured a Maryland mobile sports wagering license in 2024. Intralot’s came as it started bidding on a new, lucrative contract to run Maryland’s lottery, The Sun found.

Read the full story here: Gaming companies that allegedly deceived DC officials increased lobbying while looking to expand in Maryland

Lobbyists increased their campaign donations by 75%

With about $2.6 million donated to the campaigns of Maryland officials, lobbyists have increased their campaign spending supporting the same officials they’re trying to influence, The Sun found. Those donations since the 2022 election represented a nearly 75% increase compared to the same period in the last four-year term.

Moore, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, Senate President Bill Ferguson, all Democrats, and a litany of key legislative committee chairs were the largest recipients.

Although the donations are legal, campaign finance and ethics experts say they can lead to the perception of pay-for-play, which has prompted some states to pass stricter laws.

Read the full story here: Lobbyists increase donations to Maryland politicians by 75% since last election

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

The spike in donations has helped pad the campaign war chests of Gov. Wes Moore, top leaders in the Maryland General Assembly and hundreds of other rank-and-file lawmakers or local officials before another important election next year in 2026, The Sun found.

[ SEARCH DATABASES: Lobbyist donations to Maryland politicians | Companies that lobby most in Maryland ]

It’s also reflective of the complex — and generally spreading — web of money involved in Maryland policymaking.

“From an optics standpoint, it is concerning if you have powerful industries or powerful interest groups that are contributing a lot of money and then getting favorable regulatory outcomes,” said Eric Petry, a campaign finance expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Companies with a stake in decisions made by state lawmakers have spent millions of dollars every year on lobbying, including $58 million in the latest six-month period covering this year’s 90-day session, according to The Sun’s review of thousands of lobbying disclosures. That spending includes lobbyists’ often lucrative compensation, ad campaigns and meals with legislators.

At the same time, lobbyists and the firms they run have increasingly donated to politicians’ campaigns, The Sun found. Such donations have been limited or barred in other states. And they’re prohibited, along with all other donations, from going to Maryland lawmakers during the annual session in order to avoid real or perceived pay-for-play.

But the timing and size of those donations — often large amounts changing hands right before the session begins in January — can still create a perception of corruption and erode public trust, good-government advocates say.

“Whether there’s an actual quid-pro-quo or not, there’s a question,” Petry said, “and it raises legitimate concerns in the public eye of why decisions are being made.”

Petry called the increase in Maryland “pretty staggering,” though he said he was unfamiliar with whether there have been similar increases in other states.

The biggest beneficiary

Twice-yearly disclosures to the Maryland State Ethics Commission are designed to highlight how lobbyists are involved in shaping policies both in public and behind closed doors.

They also reveal an interest in shaping politicians — and usually those in powerful roles.

Moore has collected the most money from registered lobbyists, $285,171, since he launched his campaign for governor in 2021, The Sun found.

About $145,000 of that was donated while he was a candidate. Another $140,000 came after his election and as he began governing.

Of the 143 lobbyists or firms who contributed to Moore, the most amount of money has come from some of the highest-paid and most sought-after lobbyists in the state. Those include:

• Tim Perry, whose client list features United Healthcare, Washington Gas and FirstEnergy;
• Gerry Evans, whose list includes the transportation group Northeast Maglev and the wind energy company Orsted;
• Major Riddick, who represents Cigna;
• and Bruce Bereano, who represents many clients pursuing state contracts.

They were among the roughly dozen lobbyists who gave Moore’s campaign the $6,000 maximum donation, or close to it, since he took office, The Sun found.

Moore, a first-time elected official and the most prominent political figure in the state, has been a successful fundraiser on multiple fronts. The lobbyists’ donations represent a relatively small portion of his overall fundraising — which amounted to more than $4.1 million last year for his own campaign account.

But lobbyists’ own donations don’t paint the entire picture. Companies that hire them also frequently make large campaign donations, which are not reported to the State Ethics Commission but are reported separately by candidates and businesses to the State Board of Elections.

In some cases, those contributions can vastly exceed the normal limits — like when Moore’s special inauguration committee in 2023 received more than two dozen donations of $30,000, including from Exelon and its subsidiary, Baltimore Gas and Electric; Amazon; and a political committee run by the state’s largest teachers’ union.

“Making campaign contributions is one way lobbyists build relationships with politicians,” said Michael Beckel, research director for the Washington, D.C.-based reform group Issue One. “Politicians need money for their campaigns, and lobbyists want to curry favor with lawmakers. This incentivizes politicians and lobbyists alike to become entangled in a web of access, influence and money.”

Legislative leaders not far behind

It wasn’t immediately clear if previous Maryland governors also saw an influx in such donations after they first won office. Data from after former Gov. Larry Hogan’s reelection win in 2018 does not show a similar increase, though Hogan did not have another campaign in sight at the time. (The data also doesn’t include fundraising for Hogan’s second inauguration in 2019, when Exelon’s $100,000 was among several large donations from corporations.)

It is not uncommon, however, for newly prominent politicians to start attracting money from powerful interests.

House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson were the second and third-largest recipients of lobbyists’ donations behind Moore, with about $100,000 and $91,000 in contributions, respectively, since November 2022.

After they assumed their leadership roles in 2019, their fundraising operations skyrocketed, largely because of individuals and groups with something at stake during the session, according to The Sun’s review of their campaign finance disclosures.

Ferguson, a Democrat representing South Baltimore, went from raising $103,000 in both 2017 and 2018, to $721,000 in 2019, The Sun found. Almost all of those 2019 donations were made in November and December, immediately after his selection as the top Senate leader and before the next session. It was also still three years away from the next election.

Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, similarly went from raising an average of $71,000 per year before her selection as speaker to raising $753,400 afterward.

Lobbyist disclosures show Jones has collected $248,000 and Ferguson has collected $210,000 from lobbyists and their firms since late 2018. Other campaign finance records show additional high-dollar contributions from the companies that hire the lobbyists.

For example, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation donated $2,500 and DoorDash donated $2,000 to Ferguson’s campaign just before the start of this year’s session in January, according to the Senate president’s most recent campaign filing. Those donations don’t appear in the lobbying disclosures, which showed both organizations significantly increasing their spending on other lobbying activities.

Both went on to get key wins in the following months. The alliance, a trade group representing car manufacturers, saw Moore sign an executive order that delayed the implementation of Maryland’s electric vehicle mandate. And DoorDash fought a proposed 75-cent fee on online retail deliveries, which lawmakers removed from Moore’s original budget proposal.

“The problem there is that if you’re seeing a huge uptick in lobbyist contributions right before the legislative session … It raises at least the perception that there’s some sort of pay-to-play going on, or purchasing access, purchasing influence,” Petry said.

Other legislators who chair important committees and help craft the state budget have been the other top recipients of lobbyists’ donations, according to The Sun’s review.

Sen. Craig Zucker helms the process for developing the capital budget, where billions of dollars are allocated every year for public and private projects. He has received the most from lobbyists behind Jones and Ferguson — $68,700 — since the 2022 election. Sen. Guy Guzzone, who chairs the rest of the budget process for his chamber, received $67,900 while his counterpart in the House, Del. Ben Barnes, received $55,750.

Dels. C.T. Wilson, Jheanelle Wilkins and Vanessa Atterbeary; and Sens. Pam Beidle, Brian Feldman, Jeff Waldstreicher, Will Smith and Dawn Gile — most of whom chair key committees — all received between $40,000 and $66,000 in donations from lobbyists. Nearly four-dozen others received at least $10,000.

In a state where Democrats have a supermajority in both the House and the Senate, all the top recipients of lobbyist donations were Democrats. But Republicans have benefited as well. Senate Republican Leader Steve Hershey received more than $35,600 from lobbyists, and Sens. J.B. Jennings and Justin Ready received nearly $27,000 and nearly $20,000, respectively. House Republican Leader Jason Buckel received $15,650.

Transparency and accountability

Experts say transparency and other guardrails are crucial for fostering public trust when powerful interests prop up politicians.

And though Maryland’s disclosure laws stack up well, they say, there are areas where other states have gone further.

In California, lobbyists are barred from donating to state officials’ campaigns. Some contractors or businesses seeking contracts are also limited in what they can donate — $500 maximum while the process is pending as well as in the year before and after the final decision — to officials who have a role in the decision.

In Massachusetts, lobbyists face a maximum $200 donation limit, which is one-fifth of the maximum for candidate political action committees and far less than the $5,000 maximum for state party committees.

Beckel, of Issue One, said there’s been an appetite to make reforms among voters in both parties. He pointed to 2016, when both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump rose to political prominence by railing against the influence of money in politics. Though Trump originally vowed to self-fund his campaign and said he couldn’t be “bought,” he quickly began accepting donations and corruption allegations have littered his time in office. Sanders has continued to rail against corporate money.

“There are a lot of voters left, right and center who are frustrated by the access and influence they see big money having in politics,” Beckel said.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

Though state laws require the disclosure of how they operate — and how much they spend doing so — it can be difficult for the public to make sense of the thousands of transparency reports that are filed every year.

The Baltimore Sun analyzed the data behind tens of thousands of disclosures from several years to better understand which special interests are increasing their presence in Maryland.

Read the series and its key findings here. And search the tables below that show the top-spending companies and the Maryland politicians who received the most campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

The Maryland General Assembly session, the annual 90-day legislative gathering that wrapped up its work on April 7, turned out to be a very good time for lobbyists with Annapolis influence peddlers raking in $58 million or nearly $3 million more than in 2024. That roughly 5% improvement may not seem like a bonanza but it’s pretty nice for the practiced players like attorney Lisa Harris Jones who billed $3,193,150 for the November 2024 to April 2025 six-month period, putting her at the top of the influencer heap.

Lobbyists are, of course, a fact of life and they can play an important role in educating legislators and staff about their clients and their often legitimate concerns about state laws and spending. But there is, of course, also a gray area where these individuals, in the hectic pace of a session, can wield undue influence that doesn’t always show up in disclosure forms. For examples, readers may want to take a look at recent reporting by The Sun’s Sam Janesch who chronicled growing efforts by Google, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, Constellation Energy and others to bend state government policies in their direction.

There are a number of actions Maryland might take to keep lobbyists on the straight and narrow. One might be to ban corporate contributions to political campaigns as they weaken the voice of average state residents. Another would be to require greater disclosure from lobbyists requiring them not only to report who is paying them but far greater detail on how exactly they are spending this money — not only on whom but specifically for what reason and to advance what cause?

Recently, the nonprofit Maryland PIRG Foundation added up all the money spent on Annapolis lobbyists by utilities last year: $2,245,668. Think that Baltimore Gas and Electric, Potomac Electric Power Company and others aren’t expecting a sizeable return on that investment? It’s one thing to help inform lawmakers on important issues, it’s another to push them — including through promises of campaign fundraising in the future — into actions that serve the interests of a relative few over the many without those average Marylanders even knowing what’s been going on.

Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.

One of those companies, known as VSC, is already active in Maryland. It secured a mobile sports wagering license in the state last summer, passing a state background check that found it to be in good standing, despite news reports that questioned its work in the nation’s capital city. It now oversees the operation of the LetsBetMD app.

The other, the Greece-based Intralot, is pursuing the next lucrative contract to operate Maryland’s lottery. Though the current stage of the bidding process is confidential, the company’s Annapolis-based lobbyist confirmed that the company is involved.

Contracts to operate the Maryland lottery are among the priciest and most crucial in the state, costing hundreds of millions of dollars to run a system that generates the most state revenue behind income and sales taxes.

Their procurement has also at times become controversial. A federal investigation followed an award in the 1990s. And during the last open bidding period that ended in 2017, public officials differed when ultimately selecting a more expensive offer.

The group with the lowest, losing offer that year was a joint venture between Intralot and VSC.

Now, with a new lottery contract in the works and new opportunities in sports betting, the companies have increased their lobbying –– to nearly $377,000 combined in the past year — and, in at least one case, donations to top Maryland politicians.

From losing Maryland to winning D.C. — and back to Maryland

Nearly a decade ago, the companies pitched Maryland officials together as a new entity called Gaming Innovations LLC.

Their offer to run the lottery was for $212 million over 10 years. The award went to the vendor that had already been running the lottery: Scientific Games International, at a cost of more than $262 million.

Maryland’s lottery director at the time said one of the concerns was that Gaming Innovations didn’t actually “exist other than for bidding on this contract” and that the organization’s structure “kept changing on us,” according to the transcript of a 2017 Board of Public Works meeting.

But Intralot and VSC came out ahead during another controversial contracting process less than two years later. They won the sole rights to launch Washington, D.C.’s sports betting operations through a no-bid contract worth up to $215 million.

Issues with that arrangement cropped up soon afterward. VSC, operating in the district as Veterans Services Corporation, was expected to perform at least 51% of the work but appeared to have no employees, a website that showed executives who didn’t work there and planned on performing the work through a different subsidiary funded by Intralot, not VSC, The Washington Post reported in 2019.

In January of this year, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said his office concluded an investigation that found “Intralot and VSC’s sports betting deal was a sham from the start — an elaborate scheme to secure a lucrative, high-profile opportunity on a sole-source basis while circumventing the District’s small business contracting laws.”

Schwalb said the companies hid the arrangement from city officials that allowed VSC to perform its work using resources provided by Intralot. Both companies denied wrongdoing while agreeing to a settlement in which Intralot paid the district $5 million and VSC paid $1.5 million.

A new pending Maryland lottery contract

While that investigation was finishing, both companies were beginning to lobby in Maryland for the first time in at least the last five years, according to The Sun’s analysis of thousands of lobbying disclosures.

Intralot hired two Annapolis firms starting in the second half of last year, paying Bruce Bereano — one of the most connected and highest-paid lobbyists in the state for decades — $135,000 and others at the firm Capitol Strategies a combined $90,515, The Sun found. Bereano originally reported receiving one $255,000 payment from the company, which would have been the most he received from any single entity this year, but amended reports for each of the last two disclosure periods were filed last week after The Sun asked Intralot about the payments.

The group’s lobbying activity roughly coincided with the July 19 request-for-proposal issued by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency for the next statewide lottery contract. Bids were due by late November, though it’s unclear when the agency will recommend a vendor to the Board of Public Works for a final decision before Scientific Games’ contract — which is now worth nearly $412 million — expires in May 2027.

“It’s all pending,” Bereano said, stressing that there are strict rules in place that allow lobbyists to advise potential vendors. “You have to stay at arm’s length, and of course I do. I’m just waiting to hear.”

An investigation into Bereano’s representation of a company that won the lottery contract in 1992, then worth $49 million, led to unrelated charges involving his use of client money for campaign donations. Bereano was convicted but has remained a top lobbyist in the state since then, particularly around procurement issues. One of his top-paying clients in recent years — an IT company called Digital Management that has paid him $180,000 in each of the last four years — secured an extension on a 2019 contract last year that increased the value of the agreement to $220 million through February 2026, according to state records.

Bereano attends every meeting of the Board of Public Works — the three-member contracting board made up of Gov. Wes Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck Davis. He said his work for potential vendors often involves answering questions about the process. That includes assisting with the requirements around minority business enterprises, or MBEs. Regulations require 29% of the work done for state contracts to be conducted by MBEs, although the state has struggled to meet that goal.

VSC, operating as Vital Services Contractors in Maryland, is a certified MBE in the state. In addition to its work in Maryland sports betting, the company is a subcontractor for Scientific Games to carry out the current lottery contract.

A lottery agency spokesman said the company “supports field service of lottery equipment owned and manufactured by Scientific Games.” It also “provides support to lottery retailers in marketing and the management of retailers’ scratch-off ticket inventories,” the spokesman said.

‘Good character, honest, and integrity’

The company’s entrance into Maryland’s nascent mobile sports betting industry is part of a different joint venture with the London-based company Bee-Fee Limited. Under the arrangement to operate LetsBetMD, Bee-Fee is the operator — supplying and licensing the platform to VSC, providing support and maintenance, and training VSC’s employees and co-developing software improvements, according to a March 2023 report with the results of the state’s background check.

Like any approved sports wagering licensee, VSC was required to be financially stable and have “good character, honesty, and integrity.” The company checked all the boxes, with the state giving credit to VSC’s work in Washington, according to the 2023 report.

“The applicant’s overall financial performance was positive as the company benefited greatly from its agreement with Intralot, Inc.,” lottery agency staff wrote just before they granted the license.

One year later, D.C. lottery and gaming officials announced FanDuel would replace the VSC- and Intralot-backed GamebetDC app. Schwalb revealed the settlement and “scheme” less than a year after that.

A press release announcing the settlement claimed both companies “submitted false and misleading documentation to District agencies and the DC Council.” It also claimed Intralot paid VSC owner and CEO Emmanuel Bailey “hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for his participation.” Settlement documents do not explain those payments, and a spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office told The Sun they could not go into further detail.

The Maryland lottery spokesman did not answer questions from The Sun about whether VSC’s role in the state changed or was reviewed in light of the findings in D.C.

Bailey, who did not return requests for comment for this story, owns 100% of VSC and lives in Olney, Montgomery County, according to Maryland records. He’s donated about $123,000 to candidates for Maryland state offices since 2006, mostly since 2017, according to state campaign finance records.

His donations include the maximum-allowed $6,000 to Moore’s political action committee last December, $4,000 to Lierman in July 2023 and previous payments to Moore and then-Comptroller Peter Franchot during the 2022 governor’s race.

Franchot had voted against Scientific Games’ lottery bid in 2017 while referring to the $50 million cheaper bid from Intralot and VSC. Then-Gov. Larry Hogan and Treasurer Nancy Kopp voted to push through the contract that the lottery agency preferred.

Lobbying records show no spending by VSC until the second half of 2024, when it paid $100,000 to lobbyist Talmadge Branch, a former longtime state delegate from Baltimore who served as majority whip and chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. The company paid another $50,000 to lobbyists at the firm G.S. Proctor & Associates, according to the disclosures.

Branch, on his lobbying disclosure for the payment last year, reported only vaguely that his work involved a contract with the state. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

A $3.3 billion budget deficit and its ripple effects took up most of the oxygen in the 90-day lawmaking sprint that ended in April. But hundreds of other policies were debated in the State House — with special interests collectively spending $58 million to make changes along the way.

From the energy companies lobbying for changes that impact ratepayers to the Baltimore Orioles getting permission to hold regular raffles at games, here are some of the ways lobbyists looked to wield their influence in 2025, according to The Baltimore Sun’s analysis of thousands of new lobbying disclosures, public records and interviews.

Maglev momentum

One company that routinely ranks among the highest-spending lobbying entities in Maryland got a rare high-profile win right after the session.

Northeast Maglev has long been trying to break ground on a 311-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train that would stretch through the state.

Plans have stalled for more than a decade but got a boost in April when Gov. Wes Moore visited the company’s Japanese partner outside of Tokyo — where the technology originated — for the initial stop on his first major international trip as governor. Moore declared his support for the project after taking a test ride and being amazed as he watched it from the outside.

At the same time, Northeast Maglev spent $439,000 on lobbying Maryland officials, a 25% increase from the year before but less than the prior two years.

That included $340,000 in compensation to longtime Annapolis lobbyist Gerry Evans — marking the fifth time in the last six years when its payment to Evans was the single-largest payment from a company to a lobbyist in the state (in the one other year, Evans was paid $360,000 in two payments), The Sun found. Evans’ nearly $2.6 million in total compensation was the second-most among lobbyists from late 2024 through April.

“We think he was cautiously encouraging the project before, but now I think he sees what it could do to the area, not just to the Baltimore-Washington region but the entire [Washington to New York] corridor,” Evans said of Moore’s reaction to the trip.

Northeast Maglev’s spending this year also included $12,300 to host three key groups of legislators at two Annapolis steakhouses: the House Environment and Transportation Committee at Lewne’s Steakhouse in January, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee at the same location in February and the Prince George’s County Delegation — whose constituents have been the fiercest opponents to the maglev idea — at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in March, according to the disclosures. Evans said the company has hosted the dinners for years to inform lawmakers about the project’s progress.

Like other years, bills introduced that would prohibit taxpayer money from going to the construction were also defeated.

Pausing the electric vehicle mandate

Another jump in lobbying activity came from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing car manufacturers that spent more than six times as much as the year before.

The group’s $196,000 in expenses were mostly in the form of communications efforts. Facebook ads called for stopping the “gas car ban” and electric vehicle mandates — a reference to Maryland’s law that required 43% of new vehicles sold in Maryland to be electric starting with the 2027 model year.

Progress on that goal has been slower than anticipated. A bill from Del. Dana Stein, a Baltimore County Democrat, that would have delayed the penalties associated with not complying with that law failed during the session.

But car manufacturers and dealers got their desired outcome. Moore issued an executive order on April 4 that had the same effect, acknowledging both industry concerns and blaming the Trump administration for not supporting the shift to electric vehicles.

“Hats off to Gov. Moore for standing up for Maryland drivers and protecting vehicle choice with this executive order delaying Maryland’s looming and unachievable gas vehicle ban,” Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella said in a statement after months of running the digital ads featuring Moore’s image.

The energy puzzle

Movement on a handful of major energy bills both benefited and worked against the interests of corporations like Constellation Energy, Baltimore Gas and Electric, Pepco and Washington Gas — some of the largest lobbying entities, who collectively increased their spending by nearly $350,000 this year.

Constellation — whose $793,000 in spending was the most of any company — benefited from a shift in state policy that now supports keeping its Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant online for the long run and exploring options for new nuclear reactors.

But amendments that Constellation proposed to the structure of how the state encourages new nuclear — through procurement methods that would have benefited the company — were not adopted. That left in place a structure that’s likely insufficient for Constellation to effectively manage the substantial costs of pursuing a new reactor, said Mason Emnet, the company’s senior vice president for government relations.

Other amendments that Constellation pushed for in the high-profile Next Generation Energy Act were adopted. That included not going through with a proposed ban on the direct supply of electricity from a generator, like Constellation, to a commercial customer, like a data center. The final law allows the practice but permits the Public Service Commission to apply fees if it determines that such an arrangement would shift costs to other electric customers.

Another top goal for Constellation entering the session didn’t even get off the ground.

Emnet said the company was seeking changes to reverse the impacts of the 2024 Maryland law that restricted the retail energy market. Proponents at the time said the reforms were essential in eliminating marketing tactics that preyed on customers.

With so many other energy policies on the table this year, though, Constellation was unable to even get a bill introduced that would have helped save a part of its business, Emnet said.

Wins in other areas

A few other areas where lobbyists looked to make an impact — and sometimes saw their desired outcome — included:

Baltimore Orioles: After increasing their lobbying spending fivefold — to $180,000 — during a period in late 2023 and early 2024 when they finally secured a new long-term lease to stay at the state-owned Camden Yards, the Orioles slightly scaled back their spending this year to $165,000. Lisa Jones, the team’s top-paid lobbyist, disclosed that her work included the ongoing redevelopment around the sports complex and one piece of legislation: A new law that will allow the Orioles to conduct 50/50 raffles (where half of the funds go to charity) during every home game. The team was one of only two in Major League Baseball that did not have the raffles because of a state law that limited them to 12 per year.

Child Victims Act: An update to the landmark 2023 law giving victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers was heavily lobbied by victims’ rights groups as well as lawyers and organizations that stood to either lose or gain from a new cap on settlement payments. Bailey Glasser, one of two-dozen law firms that are representing more than 4,500 people who say they were abused by staff members of Maryland detention centers, spent $157,500 on lobbying — the first time the firm had spent anything in Maryland and immediately putting it in the upper-tier of lobbying groups in the state, The Sun found.

Prescription drug payment limits: Expanding a state board that aims to make medications more affordable was a win for advocates like the Maryland Health Care for All Coalition, despite some increases in lobbying by pharmaceutical companies and groups, The Sun found. The Maryland Pharmacists Association increased its lobbying spending from $14,400 to $24,000 as it opposed the bill. Individual pharmaceutical companies stepped up, too. AbbVie, which produces Skyrizi, started spending on Maryland lobbying last year and saw one of the sharpest increases — from $10,000 to $82,000 –– out of any company in the latest six-month period.

Follow The Baltimore Sun this week for more on how lobbyists influenced state government in 2025. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

For the viewing public, it’s sometimes difficult to discern one from the other.

The Baltimore Sun analyzed data from thousands of new lobbying disclosures, reviewed other public records and interviewed individuals to understand where lobbyists and advocates tried to put their fingers on the scale in the months before and during the 90-day session that ended in April.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce, for instance, spent $713,000 — the second-most out of nearly 1,400 organizations — in a proactive effort to increase its team of lobbyists and public messaging focused on a range of issues. By the end, 14 of the 60 bills it supported became law, and the 80 bills it opposed had a 93% “kill rate,” according to a post-session report that the group produced and that was shared with The Sun.

Here are some of the policies the Chamber and other business interests worked on this year — from the $67 billion state budget and the ensuing tax debate to the failed effort to get alcohol in grocery stores.

Budget and taxes

The state budget always spurs an avalanche of lobbying. The $3.3 billion hole in it this year meant something else entirely.

Nearly every decision — from education reform to vehicle registration fee increases to the future of local development projects — came back to the budget, forcing everyone to rally for their cause.

Taxes often dominated the discussion, and the biggest lobbyists saw mixed results.

A 75-cent fee on online retail deliveries that was lobbied against by groups like Amazon and DoorDash was killed. A corporate tax rule known as “combined reporting” that progressive advocates said would end longtime loopholes was shelved after lobbying from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

A broad 2.5% sales tax on business-to-business services that was introduced and quickly fast-tracked in March was also met with fierce opposition, both from the Chamber and from progressive economic groups who said the costs would devastate businesses and have regressive impacts on consumers.

The final — and narrower — version of that idea was a 3% sales tax on certain data and IT services that the Chamber also opposed but that ultimately passed into law.

Dozens of other adjustments both large and small were made to Gov. Wes Moore’s original budget plan, finding allies among both lawmakers and special interests — from the restoration of enterprise zone tax credits that a variety of businesses sought, to the reduction of a proposed 1-cent fee on mined materials that a trade group representing utility contractors sought to eliminate.

Moving closer to alcohol in grocery stores?

Another business group, the Maryland Retailers Alliance, became the third-largest lobbying entity this year, with total expenses of $625,190.

Cailey Locklair, its president and top lobbyist, said retailers’ top priority was a success — the creation of a new felony-level “organized retail theft” crime for property with an aggregate value of more than $1,500.

Two other high-profile goals gained little traction.

One aimed to adjust the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, which lawmakers passed in 2024 to limit the amount of personal data that companies can collect. Locklair said the law went too far, severely limiting how retailers can target ads to potential customers.

The other was the repeal of Maryland’s ban on beer, wine and liquor being sold in supermarkets and other retail establishments. All four of the new lobbyists hired by the Retailers Alliance this year, in their disclosures to the State Ethics Commission that showed they were collectively paid $119,000, only listed those bills as their focus.

Moore said in December he supported the change and indicated he was confident lawmakers would send him a bill. Senate President Bill Ferguson soon dampened those expectations, saying in an interview with The Sun in January that it was “not something that we’re going to be spending a lot of brain power trying to figure out.”

Legislation in both chambers never received even an initial committee vote. Locklair acknowledged the “very strong lobby on the other side” — referring to groups like the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, whose $144,000 in lobbying expenses was about $36,000 more than the previous year. But the support from the governor and increased conversation this year was a good sign, she said.

“Absolutely we will be bringing it back,” Locklair said. “I think there’s a lot of momentum on this and a lot of positive conversations taking place.”

Building energy performance standards

Another key area of concern for all kinds of businesses was an update to Maryland’s landmark Climate Solutions Now Act from 2022.

The change dealt with the implementation of emissions rules — known as “building energy performance standards,” or BEPS — for certain large commercial and residential buildings. The law requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to develop standards for the buildings to achieve a 20% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 2025 levels) and net-zero emissions by 2040.

House Bill 49, which passed into law without Moore’s signature, altered the requirements for those regulations, added a reporting fee for building owners when they report their emission data to the state and made changes to the types of buildings covered.

Chamber spokeswoman Abbi Ludwig said it was one of the group’s top three priorities after hearing concerns from businesses about the cost to retrofit buildings. The Retailers Alliance, in written testimony, called new compliance fees that the bill proposed a “slap in the face to business owners who are making a serious and extremely costly effort to comply with the law.”

Amendments eventually stripped out those additional compliance fees and set the reporting fee at $100 annually.

Changes proposed by Johns Hopkins — the fourth-largest lobbying entity in the state — and others also added hospitals to the list of exempted buildings, as well as emissions from steam and backup generators used for healthcare facilities.

Moore let the bill become law while opposing other provisions in the bill that require his administration to further study emissions-reduction efforts related to buildings.

Follow The Baltimore Sun this week for more on how lobbyists influenced state government in 2025. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.

The spending — through six-figure payments to lobbyists, meals with legislators, and ad campaigns urging action — represented a $2.76 million increase over the previous year. It helped shape policy decisions both in public and behind closed doors, The Sun found in its analysis of data covering the past five full years of disclosures, as well as the latest six-month disclosure period.

The disclosures also reflected the dramatic realities of this year’s 90-day lawmaking sprint, where a $3.3 billion budget deficit dictated nearly every move.

“The flood of money being poured into the ongoing legislative work in Annapolis is concerning,” said Joanne Antoine, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Maryland. “Unfortunately, money does mean access.”

How it works

The work of lobbyists in Maryland, while sometimes public, can be opaque.

Lawmakers consider thousands of bills in a compressed, three-month session every year in Annapolis. Fast-moving policies are vetted in public through hearings where lobbyists frequently testify on behalf of their clients. And the advice they provide, many say, is helpful for lawmakers who are often not subject experts in areas where constituents expect them to make the best informed decisions on nuanced policies.

But the conversations also occur in private meetings and in quick interactions outside the State House in a stretch known as Lawyer’s Mall. They continue over meals at high-priced Annapolis restaurants and at fundraisers for legislators’ campaigns.

Reports filed with the State Ethics Commission every six months are designed to shine a light on who’s trying to pull which strings — and on how much money is involved in doing so.

Disclosures covering the final two months of 2024 through the end of April, a period that overlapped with the session, showed more than 1,400 businesses, trade groups, nonprofits and other organizations collectively spent $58 million on lobbying.

That was about $9.1 million more — or 19% — than the same period when Moore entered office in 2023. And it represented a larger increase compared to the final years of former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration, according to The Sun’s analysis, which included data from more than 40,000 lobbying reports filed over five-and-a-half years.

The biggest spenders

The multiyear look revealed which organizations have stepped up their efforts the most as administrations change and as different trends come to the forefront.

Google and DoorDash, for example, have each increased their lobbying activity by nearly 300% since the 2022 session, as technology issues have become more prominent in policymaking. Google’s spending shot up from $69,000 in the 2023 session to $619,000 in the 2024 session, making it the largest spender as Maryland lawmakers debated and passed a comprehensive data privacy bill that put limits on what companies like Google can collect.

Among the current largest spenders this year, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce has seen the largest swing, increasing its spending by 257% since 2022 to hit $713,000 in the latest session period.

Abbi Ludwig, the Chamber’s spokeswoman, said it’s been an intentional part of the organization’s “strategic plan.” Anticipating the fight over taxes this year, the group hired additional lobbyists and held more public events, where it drew droves of small- and medium-sized business owners criticizing the budget approach. It also doubled its spending on communications expenses, to $364,000, The Sun found.

The public disclosures, like those for other companies, don’t explain what form those communications took or what specifically they were focused on, but Ludwig said they were largely digital ads on Facebook and Instagram, and with news websites like The Sun’s.

Facebook’s transparency website shows the ad campaign starting in January when Moore released his budget, which featured higher income taxes for the wealthy and closing what some call “corporate loopholes.”

“No new taxes,” the ads read in bold lettering under depictions of struggling workers.

The messaging shifted as the session went along and leaders in Annapolis considered new proposals. “URGENT,” started one ad in March when lawmakers started considering a 2.5% tax on a broad range of business services. “TECH TAX ALERT,” read another a couple of weeks later when leaders settled on a narrower 3% tax on certain technology services.

Clicking the link in the ads led to a section on the Chamber’s website where a pre-generated email urging lawmakers to oppose the bills was ready to be sent after the user put in their name and address. That campaign and the Chamber’s other efforts led to more than 100,000 emails and 3,500 direct calls to elected officials, according to the Chamber.

“This is above and beyond what the Chamber has ever done in the past,” Ludwig said.

The only organization to spend more on lobbying also increased its efforts.

Constellation Energy spent $793,000, which was about 33% more than the same period in 2023-24. The Baltimore region’s only Fortune 500 company has been the state’s largest lobbying force since it split from Exelon in 2022, spending just under $3.5 million since then.

With 20 lobbyists from 10 different firms or companies, the company stood to gain or lose from a variety of policies and Public Service Commission decisions in recent years. Nuclear energy, in particular, rose to the forefront this year as the public outcry over rising utility rates pushed lawmakers to look for any new sources of energy generation.

The Next Generation Energy Act, sponsored by legislative leaders, became an omnibus of various energy generation tactics and constraints on utilities, including official state support for Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant to have its federal licenses renewed in 2034 and 2036. Amendments made throughout the session worked for and against Constellation as well as BGE, Pepco — two Exelon companies that combined to spend $619,000 on lobbying — and Washington Gas, which spent $429,185. In total, the four energy and utility companies combined to spend $1.8 million, nearly $350,000 more than the previous year.

By the end, environmental activists and ratepayer protection advocates were celebrating the final product and lawmakers for, as one group put it, standing up to “intense lobbying by industry polluters.”

“The original language was incredibly problematic in terms of potential climate impact,” said Brittany Baker, the Maryland director for that group, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Baker said her organization, which spent $146,500 on lobbying, supports keeping Calvert Cliffs online and maintaining existing nuclear power as a source of clean energy. The main issue with the bill for her and other environmentalist advocates was that it opened the door to building new gas plants, a scenario that was less likely after the final version of the law was passed, she said.

The ratepayer protections added to that were also “fundamental, groundbreaking changes to utility regulations that we haven’t seen in the last decade,” said Emily Scarr, a senior advisor to Maryland PIRG.

New high-priced players

The Sun’s analysis also revealed new players in the state’s influence scene — some of whom appeared to be looking for longer-term payoffs.

Kiewit Infrastructure, the Nebraska-based firm that was awarded the first $73 million contract in the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild last August, spent $140,000 to hire Maryland lobbyists for the first time. Negotiations on the next contract — which will be larger than the first as the more-than $1.7 billion project continues — are expected to start later this year, a Maryland Transportation Authority spokeswoman said.

Lisa Jones, a lawyer and one of the most sought-after lobbyists in the state, said her firm’s work for Kiewit involves giving them “an understanding of Maryland politics” and guidance on which elected officials they should connect with.

The $110,000 in compensation Jones reported receiving from Kiewit was the most she reported from her long list of clients, which includes the Baltimore Orioles, Verizon and JP Morgan. Another new client, Stonewall Capital, is the developer behind the ONE Westport project along the South Baltimore waterfront. The developer, which paid Jones $83,000, secured $1 million in the state’s capital budget this year to realign Kloman Street as construction continues, according to budget documents.

With nearly $3.2 million in compensation during the recent six-month period, Jones was by far the top earner, making $511,300 more than she did over the same period last year and $1 million more than two years ago. Jones said she attributes the success to three decades of experience, relationships that span across all levels of local and state government, and staying on top of both statewide and national trends.

She was among several longtime lobbyists who said the 2025 session was the most difficult of their careers because of the budget situation and its downstream impacts.

“I don’t think I ever remember a cloud of that much uncertainty,” said Barbara Brocato, who launched her firm 35 years ago and has been around the State House for nearly 50 years.

Bruce Bereano, whose nearly $2 million in compensation in the recent six-month period was the fourth-most of any lobbyist, separately echoed the thought.

“Of the 53 legislative sessions I’ve been involved in, it was the most challenging and difficult. Not ‘one of.’ But ‘the,’” Bereano said.

Maryland Association of Community Services CEO Laura Howell, who has worked for the nonprofit that advocates for people with developmental disabilities for more than two decades, said of this legislative session: “It was a challenge unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve had some big battles, legislatively, in my life.”

Howell said her group went into its reserve funds after being “shocked” to find out in January that Moore planned to help balance the budget with cuts to developmental disabilities services. The nonprofit ultimately spent $149,000 on lobbying during the session, which was twice as much as the previous year, The Sun found.

But in a town where observers say the biggest players can get an advantage by spending far more, Howell said groups like hers have to rely on other kinds of advocacy. She credited the might of grassroots advocates who showed up throughout the session and key legislators’ support in reversing most of the cuts.

While some advocates and lobbyists with smaller lobbying budgets say money makes a difference in Annapolis, Jones, the lobbyist, said that’s a “misconception.”

Her client list includes nonprofits like House of Ruth, which supports domestic abuse survivors, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, which treats children and young adults and is affiliated with Johns Hopkins.

“Regardless of how much money they may be paying us or how much money they may have in their budget, it’s the issues that resonate with legislators,” Jones said. “Whether it is a for-profit or a nonprofit, our firm in particular, we provide the same level of passion and energy when we work on matters.”

Follow The Baltimore Sun for more on how lobbyists influenced state government in 2025.Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch@baltsun.com, (443) 790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.