Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) at a 2023 news conference after the state and Baltimore Orioles agreed on a long-term lease at Camden Yards. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines.
With just over a month until the start of the 2025 legislative session, three top State House veterans will assume new roles in a series of changes that will affect the governor’s office and leadership in the House of Delegates.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced a retooling of his legislative and policy advisers late Friday, as he reaches the midway point of his term. Moore’s chief legislative officer, Eric Luedtke, will leave that position to focus more on the budget and tax issues. He will be replaced by Jeremy P. Baker, chief of staff to House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County).
Staff changes two years into an administration are not uncommon. But these changes come as the state stares down potentially massive budget shortfalls and the fears over what a second Trump administration could mean for jobs and revenues in Maryland.
Luedtke’s new role as senior adviser for policy will have a particular focus on budget and tax issues. A former state delegate, he served for a dozen years on the Ways and Means Committee, the principal tax-writing panel in the House.
“The biggest challenge this session is in the budget and tax policy,” Luedtke said in an interview Thursday.
Moore and the legislature head into the 2025 session facing a five-year budget outlook that fiscal analysts have said includes billions of dollars in structural deficits, beginning with a $2.7 billion shortfall in the fiscal 2026 the legislature will be working on. This comes at the same time the state is implementing the most expensive parts of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reforms, which Luedtke helped shape as a lawmaker.
Those reforms will put significant pressure on the state operating budget in the later years of the five-year outlook, at the same time that the state will be draining a special fund earmarked for the Blueprint. That could force the state to rely on operating funds to keep the reform plan going.
“I think the state right now has a more difficult set of challenges than at almost any time since I’ve been at Annapolis,” Luedtke said.
“The budget is the biggest one, but there are other challenges, too — energy, public safety, the Blueprint implementation, the impending questions about what the federal government’s going to do and how the state needs to respond to that, the (Francis Scott Key) Bridge, the Red Line,” he said. “This is an incredibly complex period of time for the state.”
Moore and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) have previously rejected broad-based tax increases. The House is generally more amenable to proposing a revenue package to deal with the gaps between spending and revenue, that will grow from the projected $2.7 billion in the coming year to nearly $6 billion in five years.
The governor and lawmakers may have to consider calls to reduce the scope of the Blueprint plan or extend implementation over more years to make costs easier to absorb by both the state and local governments.
There’s also growing concern about what happens to the state if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on campaign promises to close federal agencies or move large numbers of federal employees to red states. And Maryland officials are concerned that Trump could nix plans to relocate FBI headquarters from downtown Washington, D.C., to Greenbelt, or cut funding for the Key Bridge and Red Line projects.
“There are so many question marks and implications for state governments,” Luedtke said about the change in administration.
As Luedtke’s portfolio becomes more focused, Moore will need a steady hand to keep his third-year legislative agenda on track. The governor, who plucked Luedtke from the House of Delegates in 2023, will tap Jeremy Baker as his new chief legislative officer.
“The opportunity to work for the Moore administration, and at the same time, continue to work with the members of the General Assembly that I respect and love — it’s a fantastic opportunity I really value because it doesn’t, it doesn’t come along often,” Baker said in an interview.
Baker, a longtime veteran of the House, was senior adviser to the late Speaker Michael E. Busch and Jones before he became Jones’ chief of staff.
Jones said in a prepared statement Friday that Baker’s “policy and political expertise have been invaluable as we’ve taken on transformational legislation and continued to grow our Democratic Caucus.”
“While his departure is a loss for the House, I look forward to working with Jeremy in his new role in Governor Moore’s Administration,” her statement said.
A native of Washington state, Baker cut his political teeth in the legislature there. In Maryland, he has held a number of positions in local government and worked on transportation policy at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council. He was also deputy campaign manager for Anthony Brown’s unsuccessful 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
Baker ran Busch’s electoral war room, aiding Democrats like Pam Beidle win seats in swing districts. He also helped write legislation creating a rubric meant to bring transparency and certainty to the state’s annual Consolidated Transportation Program.
In addition to extensive relationships with members of the House and its presiding officer, Baker has worked closely with Sally Robb, Ferguson’s chief of staff, as well as all four Senate committee chairs who former House members.
Baker’s move from the Speaker’s office to the second floor of the State House is something that has not happened in nearly two decades.
In 1997, Joseph Bryce, now a lobbyist with Manis Canning & Associates, was chief of staff to then-Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D). Following the legislative session that year, Bryce was lured to work as the chief legislative officer for then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D).
Baker’s departure triggers a reshuffling in Jones’ office. Matthew Jackson, Jones’ deputy chief of staff, will fill the chief of staff position. Jackson, a veteran of the Speaker’s office, would come to the position with a deep knowledge of budget policy.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Matthew since I was Chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee and he was committee counsel to the Appropriations Committee,” Jones said in her statement. “Matthew knows the House and our members well, and I have relied on his counsel during every major policy debate over the past four years. His expertise on budget and revenue policy uniquely positions him to be my Chief of Staff throughout this term and beyond.”
Jackson joined Jones’ staff in 2020 as the chief legislative counsel. Prior to that he staffed the House Appropriations committee where he focused on public safety, pension and transportation policy. A year later, Jackson was promoted to deputy chief of staff as Baker succeeded Alexandra M. Hughes, Jones’ first chief of staff.
by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
December 6, 2024
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