Political Appointees Fill Elected Offices
The Montgomery County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly has 32 members. With the recent appointments of now Senator Will Smith and now Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins due to the vacancy created by the election of former Senator and now Congressman Jamie Raskin that number has risen to 37.5% [i] or more than 1 in 3 of our elected officials in Montgomery County having arrived in ‘elected’ office through a non-democratic appointment process instead of being elected. 12 members of the current delegation arrived there through appointments without having been directly elected to office by their constituency. So in our great democracy, one-third of our representatives were not chosen democratically by the people they are meant to represent. The appointment process is doubly damaging in Maryland since we are one of five states that has a four year term for the lower house in the state legislature. In effect, delegates appointed a year into a four year term are able...