Bouchat Gets Charitable, Ellis Gets Angry, Kramer Gets Reviewed, In Political Notes

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

March 27, 2026

The saga of Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat’s attendance record continues as the Republican attempts to fend off calls for his resignation and explain his position back home.

Bouchat, who represents Frederick and Carroll County, sent word to other lawmakers in his district that he would be willing to donate some of his salary as a lawmaker as penance for skipping out on floor votes and committee hearings for the last month.

“I am writing to share that I intend to divide the revenue from my first paycheck associated with the March protesting among three charities of your choosing, preferably local organizations. I would like to make this donation in honor of your title and name,” Bouchat wrote in an email to District 5 colleagues Sen. Justin Ready, Dels. April Rose and Chris Tomlinson,

Ready said Thursday he is not interested in naming a charity and repeated his call for Bouchat to resign.

For the past month, Bouchat has driven to the State House every morning, recorded his presence and then left almost immediately after. He stopped attending committee hearings in late February and sent a letter to House Speaker Joseline Peña Melnyk announcing his resignation from his committee assignment. Legislators cannot resign from committees, but they can stop attending.

Bouchat, in a bout of frustration, is skipping floor votes and committee sessions as term ends

Also on Thursday, Bouchat issued a press release aimed at his constituents in his district, saying he is “not planning to resign and my commitment to serving you remains strong.”

“Missing votes in a super minority does not prevent the legislature from functioning, but missing work running a business does directly impact employees, the local economy, and the sustainability of small businesses — my own included,” he wrote.

“My protest does not include neglecting my work or my commitment to our community,” said Bouchat, who showed up Thursday to record his presence in the House and then left before votes on a $70.8 billion state budget and a bill that could affect how state congressional districts are drawn.

Bouchat added that he is still responding to constituents, attending community events and meetings, and awarding legislative scholarships.

Ready said that falls far short of the work of a legislator.

“Being there and voting and being in committee is part of the job,” Ready said. “You can’t do the job if you’re not there. So he should resign and stop charging the taxpayers.”

Kramer gets an ethics review

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said comments made by a state senator to Dawn Moore, wife of the governor, were inappropriate.

“I think that it is important for every senator to act with dignity and respect for everyone, and that’s especially the case for other elected officials or for the spouses of those that are … elected officials,” Ferguson said. “No one should feel uncomfortable coming to work.”

Moore, who was testifying on a bill in Senate Finance three weeks ago, was on the receiving end of comments by Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Montgomery) that some found uncomfortable. Included in those was a reference to her physical appearance.

Kramer added “if you ever get bored with the governor … I’m just putting it out there.”

Many in the room laughed. Mrs. Moore could also be seen laughing. No one on the committee or in the audience raised an objection to the comment at the moment.

Kramer has since described the comments as an attempt at light-hearted humor. The first lady and the governor have declined to comment about the issue.

When asked immediately after the incident whether harassment rules passed by the legislature nearly a decade ago — which require presiding officers to report incidents — applied here, Ferguson said he was aware of the comments, but had not heard them.

When asked again Tuesday, Ferguson said the “ethics committee has had an opportunity to review” Kramer’s comments. The work of the committee is confidential by law unless it decides to take a public action.

Ferguson did not disclose any decision of the panel.

‘Punish Ellis’

In February, Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) said he believed he would be subject to some form of retribution for starting a one-man protest of sorts in a battle of mid-cycle congressional redistricting.

On Tuesday, Ellis said punishment had been meted out in the form of bond authorizations that were reallocated to other projects.

Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) said he would protest the lack of a vote on a redistricting bill by not recording his presence in the Senate. He now claims he is being punished for speaking out. (File photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

Ellis, during a debate on the capital budget, said leaders in the Senate “want to punish people who speak up for their constituency by defunding projects, defunding projects of boys and girls — boys and girls,” Ellis said. “Punish me. I’m a disabled veteran. I got injured in the line of duty fighting for this country for a right to stand up and speak. Punish Ellis….Punish the senator from District 28 but don’t you punish, don’t you ever, ever, ever punish the boys and girls of Charles County.”

At issue was the money set aside for two facilities that cater to children in his county, where 55% of the residents are Black, according to the Census.

Ellis charged the funding was stripped because spoke out in favor of midcycle congressional redistricting. He said in February that he would not register his presence on the Senate floor as a protest until the Senate agreed to bring the redistricting bill to the floor for a vote. The protest lasted about a month before Ellis quietly relented.

The redistricting bill remains in the Senate Rules Committee and is unlikely to get to the full Senate before the session ends on April 13.

Sen. Craig Zucker (D-Montgomery), chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee, explained that funding was pulled because money allocated years ago remained unused in one case and, in another, information about the project was incomplete and could not be funded.

Ellis rejected those explanations, saying the people of Charles County were being disenfranchised by the Capital Budget Subcommittee.

“This is nothing that Black people are not used to when their Black representatives stand up and speak up for their constituents, the people are punished,” Ellis said. “People are punished saying that we do not belong. You don’t go along, you will be punished. You will pay a price.”

Regan heads to NGA

Maureen Regan, deputy communications director to Gov. Wes Moore, will leave her job in the administration next month.

Regan will leave the Office of the Governor on April 14 for a job as communications director at the National Governor’s Association.

Regan joined Moore’s communications shop as deputy director in January 2023, when Moore took office.

For more than a decade, she has served in various other roles in state government. Among them, communications director at the Governor’s Coordinating Office and deputy communications director at the Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Francaviglia Blended, not stirred

The former deputy executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party has a new gig.

Joe Francaviglia will join Blended Public Affairs on April 1 as vice president of the firm founded by Alexandra Hughes, former chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Busch and his successor Adrienne Jones.

Joe Francaviglia (left), earlier this month as Maryland Democratic Party Chair Steuart Pittman met with reporters in the State House. (Photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

“We are thrilled to welcome Joe to Blended to add a new level of client support through coalition building and campaign management,” Hughes said in a statement. “Joe’s strategic eye for what moves people, coupled with his political spidey sense, has made him a go-to advisor for leaders across the Mid-Atlantic.”

In addition to his time at the state Democratic Party, Francaviglia served as campaign manager for Brooke Lierman, the first woman independently elected to a statewide office in Maryland. After the election, he served as Lierman’s director of government affairs for the Maryland Office of the Comptroller.

Francaviglia has worked as a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, and also led Strong Schools Maryland, a group that backed efforts to pass the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education plan.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a master’s degree in secondary education from Johns Hopkins University.

Opening Day hoopla

After the House of Delegates approved a nearly $71 billion fiscal 2027 budget Thursday, but the really important business for some came later in the day, when the Baltimore Orioles hosted the Minnesota Twins in Orioles Park at Camden Yards.

At least three Democratic delegates – Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) and Kent Roberson (D-Prince George’s) – donned the Orioles colors of black, white and orange baseball caps on the House floor.

Del. Eric Ebersole (D-Baltimore County) sported an Orioles black-and-orange tie and had socks to match.

Del. Eric Ebersole (D-Baltimore County) shows off his Baltimore Orioles tie and socks on Thursday. Later in the day, Ebersole will attend the Orioles’ Opening Day game at Camden Yards. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

“I’ll be there,” Ebersole said about attending Opening Day.

But the longest-tenured Orioles fan in the legislature has to be Del. Samuel “Sandy” Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City), who’s also the longest-serving member, having been in the House since 1983.

Rosenberg, who said he had an Orioles T-shirt on underneath his shirt and tie to wear for Opening Day at the ballpark, has kept score on Orioles games since he was 8 years old.

“That was the first sport I was exposed to,” Rosenberg, 75, said Thursday about baseball.

Rosenberg’s baseball memories include seeing the late Frank Robinson, a five-time all-star with the Orioles who became the first Black manager in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians in 1975. Robinson made history as a player, hitting a home run in his first at-bat against the New York Yankees. At that time, Rosenberg attended law school at Columbia University in New York City.

“You can still hear me yelling down Broadway where my apartment was. He was a hero to me from the Orioles,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said he was designating staff to “pinch hit” for him and present two of his bills Thursday – House Bill 939 to the Senate Finance Committee and House Bill 1320 to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. It is not unusual for trusted interns and staff to present bills on behalf of a lawmaker after the legislature’s crossover deadline, which was Monday.

As for how the Orioles may fare this season, Rosenberg placed a $50 bet online that the team would make the playoffs.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he said. As for Opening Day, he said, “It will be a good Opening Day if they win.”

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