Selected highlights of a November 7 Schwartz, Metz & Wise, P.A. memo on the election are included here.  Three physicians were elected to serve beginning in 2019. Dr. Clarence Lam prevailed in the District 12 (Baltimore/Howard Counties) Senate race, so this will put a physician in the Maryland Senate. He is expected to serve on the Education, Health & Environment Committee, which if that occurs will be a major asset to physicians. Re-elected was Delegate and Dr. Terri Hill, also of District 12, who serves on the Health & Government Operations Committee. Dr. Jay Jalisi (Baltimore County) was also re-elected, so there will be two physicians in the House of Delegates and one in the Senate.  Also of note:

• Of the 47 Senators to be sworn in in January, 18 (or 38%) will be new to the Senate.
• 43 or 44 members will be new to the House, a turnover of about 31 percent.

While the composition of the House and Senate is now known, committee assignments for newly elected members is not entirely known. With so much of the legislature’s work done at the committee level, these assignments are very important.