By Adam Pagnucco.
In Part One, we revealed the complaint filed by Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) Member Liza Smith against Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis. I asked the state party and the rest of MCDCC for comment. Let’s see what they said.
First up is Joe Sandler of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., a prominent national election lawyer who represents the state Democratic Party. Sandler sent me this statement:
Thanks for reaching out. We have carefully reviewed the communication from Ms. Smith. Based on accounts from others present at the meeting, the events as described by Ms. Smith simply did not occur. At no time during the meeting did the State Chair make any negative comment about or voice any criticism whatsoever of Ms. Smith personally. At no time was there any “bullying” or “intimidation” of anyone at the meeting. Those assertions are absolutely baseless and we trust that, at a minimum, you will speak to others present including the individual County Central Committee members listed in Ms. Smith’s missive, before publishing or otherwise giving credence to her assertions.
In any event, those assertions do not state any of any State Party or County Central Committee rules. Accordingly we have advised the State Party that no further response is warranted.
In accordance with Sandler’s statement, I forwarded Smith’s complaint to all of MCDCC’s members and asked them for comment. Soon after my request, MCDCC Chair Saman Qadeer Ahmad said, “Thank you for your email, I have taken the time to review this document and the complaint was not addressed to the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee. Their attorney has issued a statement and we support the accounts of that statement.” Former chair and current committee member Arthur Edmunds also referred me to Sandler’s statement.
MCDCC Member CeCe Grant told me, “My only comment is that virtually none of this happened. Ms. Smith clearly has problems with reality.”
That’s it for the on-the-record comments. More people provided off-the-record reactions and they were all over the place. Some were sympathetic to Smith. Others were not. Several sources said that Smith’s live-tweeting during the meeting was mentioned as an issue of concern by multiple participants. One allegation made by multiple people was that the chair did not share Sandler’s statement with all of the central committee members before telling me that it represented the position of the county party. Finally, one source had this to say about last week’s central committee meeting: “It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. It was like Housewives of Montgomery County.”
Some have characterized MCDCC as having two factions: pro-reform and anti-reform. It’s not that simple. There are a wide array of views that don’t cut neatly into camps. Some sympathize with Liza wholly or partially. Others think she’s a troublemaker. Some agree with at least some of her views but don’t like her tactics (including her tweets). Some want special elections, some don’t and others want a variety of changes to the appointment process. These are people who can view the exact same chain of events and come to diametrically opposed conclusions (and a whole range in between). It’s a messy situation that’s difficult, if not impossible, to govern.
Watching all of this, I recall former MCDCC chair Karen Britto, who ruled the central committee at the start of my writing tenure. Britto was tough, smart and shrewd. Above all, she was a realist. I called her the Iron Lady, and she wielded a steel fist inside a velvet glove. MCDCC has always had turnover, but under Britto, they also had stability of governance. The central committee had a wave of appointments in 2007 and 2008, causing challenges for Britto and her colleagues not so different from today. I have to believe that the Iron Lady would have found a way to resolve the issues raised by Smith. I can imagine her telling Liza, “Look, you can’t get everything you want, but we can make progress. Let’s find something to agree on, and we’ll bring it to a vote and move on.” There would certainly be no comparison to Housewives of Montgomery County.
Instead, the current MCDCC openly wages its internal battles as an appalled public looks on. These central committee members are doing everything they can to make the case for special elections.