House speaker’s aide Baker to join Moore administration as top legislative officer

Jeremy Baker, the chief of staff for Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, is expected to leave the position to join the administration of Gov. Wes Moore as chief legislative officer, according to multiple people familiar with the decision who confirmed the pending change on the condition of anonymity.

He’ll replace Eric Luedtke, a former majority leader in the House of Delegates who’s been the governor’s top legislative adviser since the administration took office in January 2023. A formal announcement of the change was expected Monday.

Luedtke will remain with the administration as a senior policy advisor.

Neither of the two responded to phone calls requesting comment on Friday.

In a statement that the governor’s office released after The Daily Record published this story, Baker said that he was “grateful to have served the Maryland House of Delegates, an institution that creates opportunity for those who want to serve the people,” and that he was looking forward to continuing his own public service with the Moore administration.

His first day in the new role will be Wednesday, according to the governor’s office.

Matthew Jackson, Jones’s deputy chief of staff, was expected to become the chief of staff following Baker’s departure.

News of the pending personnel change — the first at the Cabinet level since Moore took office in 2023 — comes roughly one month before the start of the 2025 session.

Baker will bring extensive experience working with the legislature to the governor’s office. He’s been Jones’s chief of staff since Alexandra Hughes left at the end of 2021 to set up her own public affairs firm. Before that he was a senior adviser to the late House Speaker Michael Busch for several years.

His first stint in the House speaker’s office came in 2008, according to his LinkedIn page, when he joined Busch’s team as a policy analyst before later becoming the director of member services.

Baker went on to serve as director of regional and intergovernmental relations for the Howard County government and was a deputy campaign manager for now-Attorney General Anthony Brown during a gubernatorial run in which he lost to former Gov. Larry Hogan. He has also worked on transportation policy at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

“His policy and political expertise have been invaluable as we’ve taken on transformational legislation and continued to grow our House Democratic Caucus,” Jones said of Baker in a statement. “While his departure is a loss for the House, I look forward to working with Jeremy in his new role.”

(This story has been updated to include comments from Gov. Wes Moore and House Speaker Adrienne Jones that were sent to members of the press after The Daily Record published this article.)