The Political Life

For The Political Life's final episode of 2025, and to prepare our listening audience for state legislative sessions in 2026, we stood up a MultiState Group Chat to discuss all the emerging issues that may be coming to a state capitol building near you. This fall, MultiState released a 2025 Issues Review and 2026 Forecast Report. An extensive and large undertaking, the report pulls from the expertise of MultiState's Issue Management team who review hundreds of thousands of bills each year. To illuminate the report's findings, Maggie Mick hosted colleagues Morgan Scarboro, Bill Kramer, and Brock Ingmire - all subject matter experts in fiscal and tax, health care, technology and artificial intelligence, as well as elections - for a discussion on what awaits state government affairs professionals in the new year. 

Next year is huge for gubernatorial races, but don't take your eye off the 30 state attorneys general races set for 2026. Increasingly, AGs play an outsized role in state policymaking, multistate investigations, and federal activity. Beyond that, more of them are ascending to higher office including governor, Congress, and federal cabinet positions. In the eight 2024 gubernatorial races, three AGs (plus one former) ran and won the governorship in Washington, North Carolina, West Virginia, and New Hampshire.  To get a read on the landscape ahead, Maggie Mick hosted two recent conversations with executives Sean Rankin and Adam Piper respectively for the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) and Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).

This week and next week's episodes on 2026 attorneys general races are rebroadcasts of recent MultiState client webinars.  Next year is huge for gubernatorial races, but don't take your eye off the 30 state attorneys general races set for 2026. Increasingly, AGs play an outsized role in state policymaking, multistate investigations, and federal activity. Beyond that, more of them are ascending to higher office including governor, Congress, and federal cabinet positions. In the eight 2024 gubernatorial races, three AGs (plus one former) ran and won the governorship in Washington, North Carolina, West Virginia, and New Hampshire. To get a read on the landscape ahead, MultiState's Maggie Mick will host two upcoming conversations with executives Sean Rankin and Adam Piper respectively for the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) and Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).

Senator James Maroney was first elected to represent the 14th District (Milford) in 2018. Senator Maroney currently serves as the Co-Chair of the General Law Committee.  In his time as co-chair of the committee, he has passed comprehensive consumer data privacy laws, children and consumer health data privacy laws, a law governing state government use of AI, laws modernizing and expanding the practice of pharmacy in Connecticut, among others. Recently Senator Maroney was named to the inaugural Leadership Council of the Future of Privacy Forum Center for Artificial Intelligence. Senator Maroney's work on tech legislation has been recognized nationally. Prior to politics, Sen. Maroney founded and ran an educational consulting business in Milford.  In addition, he was a past president and founding member of the Milford Education Foundation and served on the Milford Board of Education. A proud and active participant in the community, he is a member and past president of the Devon Rotary, where he chaired the scholarship committee for years. Prior to a successful career in public service, State Senator Maroney attended Yale (Class of '96), where he was a 3-time varsity letter winner in both track and field and cross-country. In his senior year, he was elected captain of the track and field team and was awarded the Yale Men's Cross-Country Award for Performance and Dedication. He graduated from Jonathan Law High School of Milford in 1992.

In this week's episode, Maggie Mick hosts David Hallock, president of Two Capitols Consulting in Virginia. With 30 years of experience working in the Virginia Governor's office and General Assembly, the United States Senate, and the private sector, David is one of the most seasoned and respected operatives in the Commonwealth. Maggie and David walk through the evolving dynamics in this year's statewide election including gubernatorial and attorney general races and what could be in store in the closing weeks ahead of November's election.