A Calvert County legislator slammed Montgomery County for not having enough Republican representation on the county council and even proposed an amendment to try and change that. This is a battle that took some state legislators by surprise.
The debate was over House Bill 655, which would change Maryland law so that the election of a county commissioner to represent a certain district would be decided by the district the commissioner would actually represent and not by the county overall.
Certain legislators point out the rules date back to the Jim Crow era where systems in place purposefully disenfranchised communities of color.
Maryland Delegate Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s County) introduced the bill, telling FOX 5 this is about Democracy and that people should have the ability to choose who represents them in every level of government.
The bill says four counties, Calvert, Charles, Queen Anne’s, and St. Mary’s counties, operate under a hybrid structure, where no matter if they represent a certain district or the county as a whole, all of the county commissioners have to elected by the voters at large.
Delegate Mark Fisher (R-Calvert County) fired back, accusing Montgomery County of being the worst offender of disenfranchising Republicans. He noted there is not one Republican on the County Council, despite the county having over 100,000 registered voters.
Fisher proposed his own amendment that would essentially redraw Montgomery County maps to ensure at least one Republican is elected to the council. That amendment was rejected.
“If there were at least one voice in Montgomery County to represent those 100,000 Republicans, just one voice, maybe that one voice could speak out and say, ‘Hey, it’s time to open the schools,” said Del. Fisher, who also told FOX 5, “There is no other countervailing opinion or voice that’s ever heard in that county because of the way they’ve so successfully disenfranchised diversity of thought.”