The feeding frenzy among Democratic Party insiders in Baltimore’s 41st District, set off by the appointment of former state Senator Jill Carter to the state Board of Contract Appeals by Governor Wes Moore, is typical of the politically incestuous, anti-democratic process for filling vacancies in the General Assembly that cries out for reform.

The reason that it was not reformed during last year’s legislative session came down to one person: House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D, Baltimore County).

Local party central committees are tasked by state law with recommending a replacement to the governor when a vacancy occurs at any time before the end of a term of a senator or delegate.

In the case of the chain of events triggered by Carter’s departure, the job fell to the eight members of the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee elected from District 41. They selected Delegate Dalya Attar (D, Baltimore) to replace Carter and now must find a replacement for Attar.

Good government groups, ranging from Common Cause Maryland to the Maryland Public Interest Research Group and Maryland League of Women Voters, have long advocated changing the law to provide for special elections.

According to Common Cause, a remarkable one-third of the 47-member State Senate and 20% of the 141-member House of Delegates – or 23% of the entire General Assembly in 2023 – first acquired their seats by appointment.

The problem is particularly acute in Montgomery County, where 41% of the senators and delegates from the county serving in 2023 were initially appointed to their seats by the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee.

PRIOR BREW COVERAGE:

• Bill to give Maryland voters more say in filling legislative vacancies is bottled up in the House (3/27/24)

• Both political parties are loading Maryland’s legislature with insiders, but we can stop them (1/7/21)

• Friends-and-family approach to filling legislative vacancies in Maryland must end (1/28/20)

• Reporter booted out of meeting where Chanel Branch is voted in (1/14/20)

The statewide situation is not improving. Maryland Matters reports that Attar would be the sixth senator to be seated by appointment since the 2022 election, with another pending in District 8 to replace Kathy Klausmeier, appointed earlier this month to replace now-Congressman Johnny Olszewski, Jr. as Baltimore County Executive.

A dozen appointees already are serving in the House since the 2022 election, with more to come when Attar’s and Klausmeier’s successors are chosen. Let’s just say it would be shocking if one of the two Democratic delegates from District 8 were not chosen to succeed Klausmeier.

Compromise Bill Dies

A compromise bill to replace the current process with special elections (to be held at the same time as primary and regular elections when a vacancy occurs during the first year of a term) enjoyed broad popular and bipartisan support during last year’s session.

To his credit, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D, Baltimore) was one of its supporters.

Not even such a limited use of special elections enjoyed the support of Jones, however. Despite passing the Senate 43-2, the bill died in the House Ways and Means Committee, where chairperson Delegate Vanessa E. Atterbeary (D, Howard) did not even place it on the agenda for a vote.

Such an ignominious end to a measure that a poll showed was backed by 85% of the voters would not have occurred without the blessing of Jones.

• David Plymyer: A failure of leadership on special elections (5/1/24)

Some advocates for retaining the current system claim that it ensures a more diverse legislature, although there is little actual evidence of that.

In an op-ed published last year, Liza Smith, a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, eloquently put to rest the idea that the current appointment system is anything other than a disenfranchisement of voters, white and Black.

Current and former state legislators have suggested to me a likely reason that members of the House of Delegates accept the current system: It gives them the inside track to replace senators who die or resign during their terms.

Bucking the System

Smith’s experience reflects the perils of bucking the will of the party hierarchy.

She was elected to the central committee in 2022, unseating an incumbent, after pledging to work to eliminate the dubious practice of committee members appointing themselves to fill vacant legislative positions, as Baltimore’s Chanel Branch did in 2020.

In 2023, she was publicly rebuked by other committee members for complaining that a high school student was appointed by the committee to be an unpaid, non-voting member of the committee without soliciting other applicants.

Smith alleged that the student was a cousin of a committee member and posted on Twitter: “The student member’s slot is for politically connected kids to embellish their college applications. There is no real intention of getting the average MCPS [Montgomery County Public Schools] student to apply.”

It’s possible other committee members see nothing wrong with that, given the way the committee generally operates.

Smith and many others are correct that the current system rewards political loyalty and advances the careers of party insiders at the expense of giving others, especially “outsiders,” an opportunity.

If you have any doubt that the system works against introducing fresh faces and new ideas into government, take a look at Baltimore’s 41st District, where former delegate Angela Gibson is one of the front runners to replace Attar, despite failing on two previous attempts to regain her seat.

The Brew described Gibson, who is 75 and worked as an aide to Baltimore mayors for three decades, as “battle tested” and a “seasoned insider.” I’ll remember those terms when someone refers to me as just plain old.

The Gap in News Coverage

Last year’s fight to reform the current system for filling legislative vacancies did not get the news coverage it deserved in the metropolitan area. Smaller news platforms like The Brew, Maryland Matters and Bethesda Magazine (formerly MoCo360) did their part to inform the public, giving the issue extensive coverage.

The Washington Post ran a story on it. Even the Maryland Daily Record stepped up and tried to get a statement from Jones on why the reform legislation was allowed to die in committee. (She declined to comment.)

On the other hand, neither of the Baltimore region’s largest news outlets, The Sun and Baltimore Banner, paid any attention to the legislation.

The same bill that failed last year has been reintroduced this year as SB2/HB174 and appears to stand a better chance of passing the House. Hopefully, news organizations with reporters assigned to cover the 2025 session will keep their readers informed on the progress of such an important reform.

• David A. Plymyer retired as Anne Arundel County Attorney after 31 years in the county law office. He can be reached at dplymyer@comcast.net and Twitter @dplymyer.