Democratic Central Committee Files Lawsuit Against County Council

UPDATE (7:17 p.m.)—The Democratic Central Committee has  for excluding members of its party from the Decennial Redistricting Commission.

Nearly a month ago,  to the committee that will advise the County Council on redrawing election districts for the next 10 years.

“It’s not a surprise because we had been told all along that they were going to be challenging our decision,” County Council President Billy Boniface said. “I’m fine with that; I welcome the opportunity for the courts to look at it.”

So does chairwoman of the Democratic Central Committee, Wendy Sawyer.

“Whatever they decide, we’ll follow the law,” she said. “I’m not going to let somebody else criticizing me stop me from asking a question.”

The Harford County charter states that each party whose County Council candidates received at least 15 percent of the votes in the previous general election is eligible to have two members of its party appointed to the commission. The council is also granted an at large selection from any party it chooses.

Chris Pate and Jason Gallion were selected from the Republican Central Committee’s five recommendations, along with at large selection Benjamin Lloyd, also a Republican.

Only 11.6 percent of November's votes for County Council candidates were cast for Democrats despite 41.5 percent of the county's registered voters representing the party.

The Democratic Central Committee contends that votes cast for the County Council president should not count toward the percentages because the position does not represent an individual district. If votes for Boniface, a Republican who ran unopposed, were not included, 21.5 percent of the votes would have been cast for Democratic candidates.

"The Maryland Constitution recognizes the office of president of a County Council, in a charter county, as an office separate from that of its members of the Council," reads a statement from the Democratic Central Committee.

“If the state constitution says something different then that’s what rules today,” Sawyer said. “It’s what we’ve been saying all along and they’ve been mocking us and making fun of us and now the state constitution says that.”

Councilman Dion Guthrie, a Democrat, made a motion to appoint two members of his party at the Feb. 15 legislative session. By a vote of 5–2, Cathy Reilly and Joseph Tydings were rejected from the committee. Guhtrie and Mary Ann Lisanti, the only other Democratic council member, voted in favor of the appointments.

The Decennial Redistricting Commission had its first meeting earlier this month, with Pate selected as the chair.

“We’re not going to tell the redistricting commission to stop moving forward until the courts tell us to stop and we haven’t received anything from them so they’ll keep moving forward,” Boniface said. “At the end of the day the council’s responsible for getting this complete by the end of the year.”

The Democratic Central Committee also claims that the charter was approved in 1970 when the council president as well as the other six council members were elected at large, instead of by district.

"If the Council accepts a redistricting plan from a commission from which Democrats have been totally excluded, a party representing more than 40 percent of the County’s voters will have been completely shut out of the process," reads a portion of the lawsuit. "The exclusion of the Democratic Party in Harford County from the Redistricting Commission severely burdens the ability of voters who are registered Democrats to associate for the advancement of their beliefs and to elect candidates of their choice."

The council president said he will accept the legal decision.

“We need to keep moving forward, otherwise we’re going to have to do it all ourselves,” Boniface said. “Whatever comes out of it, if the court decides in favor of the Democratic Central Committee, that’ll be great. We’ll put two members on the commission.”

Sawyer expects to have a hearing within two weeks.

“Republicans have been challenging the constitutionality of everything they can think of for two years including whether our president was born in this country,” she said. “They have no problem questioning the constitution when it’s them and when we bring up a constitution issue, we’re a bunch of idiots and cry babies.”