The same office asking Marylanders to tighten their belts is paying a state spokesman to run opposition research on reporters who ask inconvenient questions.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
ANNAPOLIS — When a journalist asks Maryland’s governor uncomfortable questions, there are two ways to respond: answer them, or attack the journalist. Governor Wes Moore’s office has made its choice.
Gary M. Collins, a reporter and anchor with Sinclair’s Spotlight on Maryland franchise — which includes FOX45 News, WJLA, and The Baltimore Sun — has been covering the Moore administration’s record on energy costs, redistricting, approval ratings, and questions about the governor’s military background. In response, Moore’s official state spokesperson, paid with Maryland taxpayer dollars, coordinated with the Maryland Democratic Party to publicly brand Collins a “Republican operative.”
The evidence offered: a screenshot of Collins’ name on a Baltimore City Republican Party membership list.
“This is your tax dollars at work. Not campaign money. Your tax dollars.” — Gary M. Collins
A Former Party Official Who Voted for Moore
Collins did hold a vice-chair position in the Maryland Republican Party — a fact he has discussed openly for months. He also publicly resigned, citing what he described as a toxic political climate that had lost its focus on everyday Marylanders. He has stated on the record that he voted for Wes Moore in 2022.
He gave Lt. Governor Aruna Miller, Moore’s number two, one of her first live interviews — on National Women’s Day, on a show Collins hosted at WBAL NewsRadio. His recent coverage has included Republican accountability stories in Annapolis.
The political press is full of journalists with prior partisan lives. Tim Russert was a top aide to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan before becoming NBC’s Washington bureau chief. George Stephanopoulos ran Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign before anchoring ABC’s This Week. Neither is routinely dismissed as an operative when they ask a sitting president a tough question. The “operative” label, in Collins’ case, isn’t a factual description — it’s a political weapon, deployed selectively against a reporter whose questions the governor’s office doesn’t want to answer.
What the Smear Is Designed to Hide
Collins laid out the four stories Moore’s communications team has been refusing to address:
First, a recent UMBC poll showing that 24 percent of surveyed Maryland residents don’t believe the governor is honest — the first time his approval has dipped below 50 percent since taking office.
Second, an unpopular mid-cycle redistricting bill Moore touted nationally that failed to pass even in the Democrat-controlled Maryland Senate.
Third, an ongoing energy rate fight in Annapolis. Moore announced weeks ago that relief was secured. It wasn’t. Marylanders are still waiting for a $150 annual break on historically high energy bills, while the governor’s office is apparently too busy managing its image to close the deal.
Fourth, questions about the governor’s military record claims that, according to Collins, remain unanswered despite a state spokesperson previously committing to provide documentation.
Rather than hold a press conference and address any of this, Moore’s team engaged the Maryland Democratic Party apparatus and surfaced a years-old party registration to change the subject.
“One thing I learned in my prior life in politics… is that facts matter and the art of political communications is diversion when polls are low.” — Gary M. Collins
The $120,000 Influencer Director
The attack on Collins comes as Moore’s office is actively recruiting a Partnerships Director — a full-time, taxpayer-funded position paying between $97,972 and $120,642 annually. According to the job posting, the hire will “lead the Governor’s creator and digital media engagement strategy,” manage relationships with “local and national creators,” plan creator-focused events, and coordinate “podcast and digital-first media bookings” to amplify the governor’s message.
This is not a press secretary. It is not a constituent services role. It is a brand management position for a governor widely believed to have national political ambitions — funded by Maryland residents at a time when the state is wrestling with a budget shortfall that required $2.5 billion in spending cuts and over $1 billion in new taxes just last year.
The Governor’s Office defended the hire, calling it an existing backfill position and suggesting Republicans should “join Governor Wes Moore and his team in the 21st century.” That response is telling: the administration’s instinct, when questioned about spending public money on its own promotion, is to mock the people asking.
One-Party Maryland and the Fragility of Unchecked Power
Maryland’s political reality is worth stating plainly. Democrats hold every statewide office. They control the General Assembly with supermajorities. Republicans cannot chair committees, cannot block legislation, and have not won a competitive statewide race in years. In that environment, the press is not just one check on power — it is among the only ones that still functions.
Which makes the Moore administration’s response to scrutiny all the more revealing. An administration that commands total institutional control is still threatened enough by a reporter’s questions about poll numbers and energy bills to deploy official state resources against him personally. That is not the behavior of a confident government with a strong record. It is the behavior of an operation accustomed to operating without pushback, unnerved by the experience of finally receiving some.
Collins said it directly in his statement: “I will keep asking about the issues you care about and continue delivering the news despite political pressure to silence my constitutional right to inform you about what is happening in your state.”
That should not be a remarkable statement for a working journalist to have to make in Maryland in 2026. The fact that it is says more about the Moore administration than any poll.
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