Alan Banov's Central Committee Letter

Below is a copy of his letter on why he is running for reelection to an at-large spot on the Central Committee:

I am running for re-election to the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee again because I want to continue helping the County Party elect Democrats for County, State, and Federal offices and offer my extensive experience to the new members who will be elected to the Central Committee.

I have been a Democrat since I was a little boy. When I was 6 and 10, I voted for Adlai Stevenson in mock elections at my school. In Charleston, SC, not many people, young or old, supported Gov. Stevenson for President in 1952, and even fewer did so in 1956! In 1968, while I was an intern for Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC), I was proud to cast my first official vote, casting my ballot for Lyndon Johnson for President. I majored in political science and history in college (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and decided to become a lawyer to help the underdogs. For over 30 years I have had a practice devoted to representing employee and labor unions in labor and employment issues. I have always been a liberal or progressive.

I have had extensive experience in the County Democratic precinct organization since 1989, when I became a precinct chair. I have been a precinct chair (13-40 in Kensington) for nine years, an area coordinator in District 18 for four years, and I worked my way up in the District 18 Caucus, from secretary to treasurer to vice-chair to chair in 2001-2002. I was elected to MCDCC in 2002 and again in 2006. In 2006 and 2008 MCDCC elected me to be its vice-chair.

During my last four-year term I led the Issues Committee, which studies election and other issues for the Central Committee. Under my leadership, the Issues Committee recommended that the Central Committee advocate certain measures in the General Assembly; I drafted one bill; and I wrote testimony and testified in Annapolis on a number of bills, including one to reduce the electioneering buffer zone from 100 feet to 25 to 50 feet.

However, my greatest accomplishment was as co-chair of the Voter Protection Committee in the 2008 General Election. In prior years I had helped lead the voter protection efforts at the Board of Elections, Leisure World, and around the County. In the 2008 General Election Karen Czapanskiy and I recruited dozens of lawyers, developed many training materials for them, wrote FAQs for our precinct officials to read before and during the election, and solved problems as they developed. Afterwards, as reported in the November 2008 minutes of MCDCC,

“The Chair of the Central Committee reported that Bruce Marcus (General Counsel of the Maryland State Democratic Party) and Gov. Martin O’Malley both congratulated the Montgomery County Democratic Party’s voter protection program as the most organized in the state.”

Right now I am working with other members of the Central Committee to ensure that the 2010 elections will be run fairly and efficiently. In addition, I am coordinating the Dollars Drive in District 18, to help raise needed money for the operation of the County Party.

I am running with 23 other members of the 2010 Democratic Leadership Team for positions on the 24-member Central Committee – Simon Atlas, Vivian Malloy, Sandra Raymond, Elly Shaw-Belblidia, Venattia Vann, Marie Wallace, and Janet Williams (all running at large), and Marva Deskins and Arthur Edmunds (District 14), Sharon Jackson Bland and Marjorie Goldman (District 15), Almina Khorakiwala and Marc Korman (District 16), Anna Matko and Oscar Ramirez (District 17), Vic Weissberg and Gabe Albornoz (District 18), Elliot Chabot and Charlotte Crutchfield (District 19), Dan Adcock and Karla Walker (District 20), and Darrell Anderson and Francine Towbridge (District 39). All of us are unopposed except for Elliot and Charlotte in District 19.

While I am thus unopposed, I will be doing some campaigning so my fellow Democrats will get to know me and so I can answer any questions about the Central Committee.

I will appreciate the votes of Democrats in the Primary, which will be on September 14, or in the Early Voting period which precedes it (September 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9).