Vacancy Notice: St. Mary’s County Democratic Central Committee

CALIFORNIA, Md.— The St. Mary’s County Democratic Central Committee is seeking to fill four vacancies on the Committee. In order to maintain a gender-balanced committee, one position is open to a female applicant; 3 positions for male applicants; and, any one of the four vacancies are open to a non-binary applicant. This is what will be considered.

The Democratic National Committee has long required equal numbers of men and women on party central committees. In 2018, the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee required that all county central committees achieve gender balancing through election (rather than appointment) by having men and women listed separately on the ballot. The rule was intended to ensure a pipeline of future female candidates for higher office. Earlier this year, the State party determined that approach did not account for gender non-binary individuals. Therefore, committees now have the ability to appoint non-binary members, and ballots were changed to allow for their election in 2022. In this election, only 5 female and 3 male positions were filled, leaving the Committee with 4 vacancies to meet a full gender-balanced committee.

To be eligible for appointment to the St. Mary’s County Democratic Central Committee, an individual must be a registered Democratic voter in St. Mary’s County, MD. This is an unpaid position. The successful applicants will serve for the current term, which ends in December 2026.

The Committee is also seeking to fill six (6) gender-balanced associate members. To be eligible as an associate member, the individual must be a resident of St. Mary’s County and a registered Democrat. Appointments will be made by majority vote of all members of the committee and the associate member term shall expire at the end of the current Committee’s term.

Members and associate members must abide by all relevant ethics laws, including the federal Hatch Act and similar provisions of state and local law that may limit political activities of government employees.

Interested individuals may apply by submitting a resume to Julie Randall, Chair, at smcdemocrats@gmail.com. The deadline to apply is Monday, December 5, 2022.

Interviews will be scheduled subsequent to the review of submissions. The Committee will hold a vote to select the new members at a special public meeting on Thursday, December 15, 2022. The meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom.

All new Committee members will be sworn in at a Maryland State Democratic Party meeting on Saturday, 17 December at 10:00am in Lanham, Maryland.

For more information, contact Julie Randall at smcdemocrats@gmail.com.

ABOUT ST. MARY’S COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
The Committee is an elected board under the authority of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee and, thus, the Maryland Constitution. The committee’s formal roles are to fill vacancies of certain offices due to death or resignation of elected officials and to fill vacancies when no Democratic candidate has filed for nomination. The committee also makes recommendations to the Governor to fill openings on the St. Mary’s County Board of Elections and, at times, recommendations for other state and county boards.
In addition, Committee members are the grassroots-level volunteers of the Maryland Democratic Party in the county. They work to recruit Democratic candidates and ensure the election of Democrats to public office, while encouraging the participation of activists, volunteers, and financial contributors. They organize an ongoing presence at the local level by fundraising, staffing booths/events, organizing precincts, participating in canvassing operations, distributing political literature, performing voter registration, phone banking, and promoting the Democratic party and candidates on websites and social media.
The Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:00 via Zoom.