A Debate Blows Into Town, Democrats Get Feisty, And Speaker Of The Housing, In Notes From MACo

By Bryan P. Sears, Danielle J. Brown and Christine Condon, Maryland Matters

August 15, 2025

Drive up and down Coastal Highway in Ocean City during the Maryland Association of Counties convention this week and you’re sure to see at least one.

Whether it appears on an electronic sign or tacked to a hotel, the message is usually simple: “Stop offshore wind.”

Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Eastern Shore), who represents Ocean City and opposes offshore wind development, noted that the signs were also out in force as hundreds of anglers descended on Ocean City last week for the 52nd annual White Marlin Open.

“We hope you enjoyed the view. It’s about to be ruined,” read a more descriptive sign, affixed to a box truck. “Join the fight!”

The sign directs viewers to StopOffshoreWind.com, which argues that the offshore wind projects will harm local wildlife, commercial fishing, tourism and utility ratepayers. It lists sponsors, including the town of Ocean City, Worcester County and the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce.

Carozza said the local movement feels as though it’s picking up steam, with an apparent friend in President Donald Trump (R), an outspoken critic of wind projects who has placed them under added scrutiny.

But after about a decade of build-up, US Wind is busy amassing the final permits it needs to begin construction on what would be the first offshore wind farm off the coast of Maryland.

Granted, there’s also local officials’ active legal challenges against both a federal and a state permit issued to US Wind, a private company headquartered in Baltimore.

Just last month, Ocean City filed in two different places to challenge an air pollution permit issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, among the final permits that US Wind needs in order to begin construction. It came after a dust-up between Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency and MDE about how appeals should be filed.

Ocean City filed its other appeal, challenging the federal permit issued to US Wind at the end of President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, in 2024, with the Worcester County commissioners and Delaware’s Fenwick Island town council, among a host of Ocean City businesses.

Pittman and the Democratic resistance

The new head of the Maryland Democratic Party is wasting little time setting a more confrontational tone with Republican President Donald Trump.

In press releases and social media, the party led by Steuart Pittman, is taking a more aggressive posture. Pittman, who is also wrapping up his final term as Anne Arundel County executive, acknowledged the tone but seemed initially surprised when a reporter asked if it could be characterized as a change.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D), the new head of Maryland Democrats, says the party has taken a more confrontational tone in social media and press releases. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

“I do think members of the Democratic Party in Maryland want their party to stand up and fight,” Pittman said outside a reception in Ocean City. “We feel like we’re in the fight of our lives.”

Last month, Pittman and the party responded to the passage of Trump’s signature budget policy bill he has called the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The party press release renamed the bill using a bovine scatological term.

This week, the party fired off an angry retort to Trump’s comments about possibly calling up the National Guard and sending them to Baltimore as a crime enforcement measure.

The now-deleted post started with an F-bomb directed at the president and dismounted by referring to the president as a “sex pest with daddy issues.” The post was deleted from the party’s official account shortly after it was put up.

Pittman did not comment directly on the post but said he is involved in approving party communications.

Next week, the party will take the show on the road with a “Talk-Back Tour.”

Pittman said the plan is for party officials to travel to all 24 political subdivisions in the state for unfiltered forums where residents will be encouraged to “speak honestly about what matters and what needs to change.”

“It’s a more aggressive way of characterizing a listening tour,” Pittman said.

The first of those meetings is set for Aug. 18 in Frederick County and will feature Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin.

Housing a grudge?

Were officials at the Maryland Association of Counties conference deliberately iced out of an event with housing officials to discuss future housing policies? Some at the conference believe they were explicitly not invited to attend.

Officials with the Department of Housing and Community Development disagree, saying the event is not exclusive and that all were welcome to attend the discussion, which will take place at a nearby Hilton, not at the Ocean City convention center where MACo is held each year.

But tensions may be running high following a contentious 2025 legislative session where the Moore administration pushed priority legislation to tie housing development to areas with high job growth. MACo expressed significant concerns for the viability of the legislation, which died in committee.

MACo officials feel that the lack of invitation to the event may be in response to that opposition, among other concerns. They also expressed concern that Housing Secretary Jake Day declined their offer to speak during a panel Friday.

Administration officials confirmed that no state officials will speak at a panel on housing early Friday afternoon, but noted that Assistant Secretary of Homeless Solutions Danielle Meister is currently scheduled to speak at a second panel later Friday.