There are 130 Montgomery County Democrats who met the deadline to submit petitions to seek election to the Montgomery County Democratic Party Central Committee. The petitions are not yet certified by the Board of Elections, but, as it stands now, of the county’s 360 precincts, 100 precincts have one candidate, 12 precincts have two candidates, and 2 precincts have three candidates.
Of the 130 Democrats who turned in a petition, 35 were elected to the Central Committee in 2014 and 18 were appointed to the Central Committee after the election. So there are 53 Democrats who are current members of the Central Committee who are seeking election and there are 77 Democrats seeking election who are not current members.
Seventy-three of the 132 Democrats elected to the Central Committee in 2014, failed to meet the deadline to turn in a petition. Of the 73 precincts, only 22 precincts have a Democrat seeking election to replace the exiting member. This means that, as of now, there are 51 precincts that are losing a precinct leader and that will have no replacement.
Some Democrats who failed to make the February 7 deadline for petitions are intending on making the deadline to be a write-in candidate. That deadline is February 26 at 4:00 PM to complete and submit Form No 13 to the Board of Elections. Meeting this write-in deadline means that the name of the write-in candidate will be on the accepted list. To be elected to the Central Committee, a write-in candidate must get at least five votes (the same as the number of signatures required for the February 7 petition).
Interesting that many Democrats seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for elected office seem to have no interest in being engaged in the local party organization. The following Democratic candidates live in one of the 246 precincts with no Democratic candidate for the Central Committee:
- Walter Hickman — State Representative for OHD-39
- Albert Griggs Jr — State Representative for OHD-40
- Ryan Taylor — State Representative for OHD-40
- Zach Dickerson — State Representative for OHD-42
- Autumn Kern — State Representative for OHD-42
- Daryl Ward — County Commissioner
