A King Sized Democracy

For political junkies, Christmas was last night. In an overcrowded 3rd story room in Kensington, the Democratic Central Committee gathered to determine who would represent Montgomery Village, unincorporated Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, and parts of Darnestown and Germantown in the State Senate.

Under state law, whenever there is a vacancy between elections the local political party of the resigning member selects a name and forwards it to the Governor. The Governor has two choices: appoint the name selected by the local county party or send it back. So last night was election night for District 39 and that duty fell to the twenty-three members of the Democratic Central Committee and not the 100,000 residents of District 39.

Having worked two Iowa Caucuses where you have a 2:1 ratio of observers to actual voters at many precincts; this was no different where almost fifty people were watching the proceedings.

Opening Remarks
Each candidate had five minutes for an opening statement. Newcomer Saqib Ali had the strongest speech. The rhetoric and style was solid and his theme was clear “now is the time to take a stand.”

Gene Counihan was next. It was the first time I laid eyes on him. Although I knew what to look for since at least three people said he looks like Santa Claus. Counihan, a former delegate who lost to the incumbent Hogan in 1994 Senate race when P.J. was still a Republican, pointed out that his experience as a legislator – twelve years – was more than the combined experience of his opponents. Since his defeat, Counihan has been a lobbyist in Annapolis. Unfortunately, he lost track of his five minutes and missed his chance to summarize his position. I was left hanging how he would reach his “big finish”.

Rounding out the opening remarks was Nancy King, who was a School Board member for eight years prior to becoming a member of the House of Delegates. She was the most causal clutching her clip board close to her chest and speaking directly to the Central Committee. She emphasized that Annapolis is about relationships and she has some very good ones with members in both chambers. She told them that education was her area of expertise and without getting on to the Senate Budget and Tax Committee she wanted to remain in the House where she is a key chair on Education matters.

After the opening remarks, I had scored it for style and rhetoric as Ali with Counihan and King a distant second and third respectively. On content, I liked Counihan combination of numbers and its impact slightly over a tie between King and Ali.

Who dances the best: The Q&As
The Q&A was a series of eight (maybe more) questions about a range of issues. Basically, it was a chance to see how well they could think on their feet. There was a question on slots, specifically why Nancy King supported them and the rest did not. King said she wanted to keep all options open. On education, all favored GCIE though no one had a specific plan of how to protect it.

On transportation, everyone talked about the key projects for upcounty, especially the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT). For me, the 800 elephant in the room was the ICC and how financing it will be a brake on almost every other major road improvement in the county (according to Ike’s comments at a Town Meeting in Olney in December 2006). Without a massive increase to the transportation trust fund you either build the ICC or you improve roads, metro, the Purple Line and the CCT. But you can’t do both under the current transportation trust fund financing. However, since no one wants to be the bearer of bad news no one mentioned it and the Central Committee passed on asking it.

Counihan could talk of how he worked to swing District 39 from being all Republican after the 1994 races to being all Democrat today. He even recruited Nancy King to the Democratic Party. King talked of how she came in first in both the general and primary while spending a mere $7800 because she is constantly in the community talking to people. Her husband mentioned how a trip to the grocery store is longer because she is always talking to residents about local concerns.

A (non-voting) youth member of the Central Committee asked about the role of youth. This was directed primarily at Nancy King, who as a Delegate, tried to take away the youth vote from the School Board. She gave a very good reason: she was part of the School Board when they were selecting a new Superintendent and there were 3 for a candidate and 3 against. One person was not present leaving the youth school board member, who had not done any of the vetting of the candidates to decide. She felt that was too much pressure to put on teenager.

Grading the Q&A, I had it very close but if you forced me to choose I would rank them Counihan then King and Ali. But it could just as easily be reversed. King was the most conservative of the three and she had to explain her positions on more issues. Ali brought abundant energy and the freshest ideas. Counihan had a nice command of the issues and the facts behind them.

Recap the voting
The Central Committee would nominate the first person to get a majority (12 votes) and failing that then drop the lowest vote getter in the second round – basically Instant Runoff Voting. In the first round, with 23 votes and 12 votes to win, Saqib Ali got 9 votes, Gene Counihan got 6 votes, Nancy King got 7 votes and one vote came back blank. Counihan was out.

For round two, again 23 votes with 12 to win, Saqib Ali got 9 votes, Nancy King got 13 votes and one vote came back blank. So it looks as though one person did not like any of them or all of them and couldn’t decide. It seems as though all of the first round Counihan votes went to King. So Nancy King is the newest Senator.

The final image I had of the night was seeing an ashen Saqib Ali. His father, who was quietly sitting in the back of the room all night, walked up to him and gathered Saqib in a warm, full embrace. Anyone would appreciate that gesture after an emotional evening. Maybe if this vote was delayed for two years, Saqib could have had more of a record to highlight. Counihan did well but he might have been a few years too late. King, like the three porridges, was just right.

More for political junkies in September
Next month the Central Committee gets to select King’s replacement for Delegate with Central Committee member Kirill Reznik, possibly Gene Counihan again and maybe former County Council candidate Hugh Bailey as the leading players. Also the Central Committee will select the replacement for Marilyn Goldwater in District 16 from a slew of candidates. That means twice as much fun for us junkies.

My wish is the Central Committee for these major events selects a room that can accommodate everyone and not pack all into such a tiny place. Still I thought the process was fair, open and transparent.