Marylander of the Year finalists: Ben Jealous

Four years after taking the helm of the NAACP and ushering in a generational change for the nation’s oldest and most prominent civil rights organization, Ben Jealous arrived as a major force in American politics this year. At a time when restrictive voter identification laws and the purging of voter rolls in some states threatened to disenfranchise millions of minority voters, Mr. Jealous stepped up the NAACP’s voter registration and mobilization -- an effor that played no small part in President Barack Obama’s victory in November.

December 3, 2012