Herb Smith (better known as Herbie Smith locally) who is a member of HoCo Forward and was elected to the Howard County Democratic Central Committee in 2018 is now seeking another role in the party…Deputy Secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee of Maryland.

The Democratic State Central Committee of Maryland is scheduled to hold elections for state party officers on December 1, 2018 at 10:00am at IBEW Local 26, 4371 Parliament Place, Lanham, MD.

Smith is the only candidate from Howard County (that I know of as of this post) seeking a state party office position. Here is the list of nominations I have seen floating around on social media:

I reached out to Herbie Smith for a comment…here is what he sent me:

“I want to help elect people who can make the lives of Marylanders better.”

The current Maryland Democratic Party Officers / DMC Members include:

  • Kathleen Matthews, Chair
  • Scherod C. Barnes, First Vice Chair
  • Victoria Jackson Stanley, Second Vice Chair
  • Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, Third Vice Chair
  • Bob Kresslein, Treasurer
  • Beth Swoap, Secretary
  • Larry R. Greenhill, Sr., Deputy Treasurer
  • Duane A. “Tony” Baysmore, Deputy Secretary
  • Greg Pecoraro, DNC Member
  • Glen Middelton, DNC Member
  • Bel Leong-Hong, DNC Member
  • Yvette Lewis, DNC Member

DMV Daily News posted an article yesterday titled “Congressman’s wife to run for Chair of the Democratic Party“. Here are some interesting pieces from that article:

…According to party insiders, Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings – who earlier this year suspended her own gubernatorial campaign due to the health conditions of her aging husband – has submitted her name for consideration to become the state party’s new chairwoman.

She will be challenging the party’s current chairwoman, Kathleen Matthews – who is married to MSNBC reporter Chris Matthews – and who has led the party since the departure of former chairman D. Bruce Poole om 2017. After a successful election cycle, Matthews is now vying to win her own four-year term as party chairwoman during next weekend’s election of party officers – but she will face stiff competition with the beautiful and charismatic Rockeymoore-Cummings whipping votes, almost certainly with the help of her powerful husband.

However, Matthews may benefit from a possible racial divide in the race, as it appears another African American female has entered the race? Theresa Dudley, the President of the Prince George’s County Educator’s Association and the first vice-chair of the county’s democratic state central committee, has reportedly also filed to run to be the next chairwoman of the state party. And if she and Mrs. Rockeymoore-Cummings divide up the Baltimore City and Prince George’s County delegation, along with the African American members of Charles County and other regions, Mrs. Matthews may very well find enough votes in the remainder of the state’s central committee membership to win on the first ballot.

The article mentions Theresa Dudley entering the race for chair…but the list I have seen on social media does not reflect that yet…if there is a more up to date list…please let me know soon and I will update this article. I am guessing that Dudley did not enter the race and my listing above is correct…I base that on a recent article from Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun:  https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-democratic-party-election-20181122-story.html

Does anyone else find it weird that Howard County is categorized as “Western Maryland”? I guess they had to put us in one of those three categories…but still looks odd to me. This would seem a better fit:

  • Western Maryland (Garrett, Allegany, Washington and Frederick counties)
  • Northern Maryland (Carroll and Howard, Cecil and Harford counties)
  • Southern Maryland (St. Mary’s, Charles, Calvert and Anne Arundel counties)
  • Eastern Shore (Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Talbot Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester counties)

I am sure there is some formula as to why it is what it is today…I just like my grouping of the counties better. Herbie…if elected…work to make this happen in the future!!!

And one last piece of information…

…Find out next Saturday, December 1st beginning at 10:00 a.m. as DMVDaily.news will be reporting LIVE from the Democratic Party elections, being held at the IBEW Local 26, located at: 4371 Parliament Place, Lanham, MD 20706.

So I guess we will find out on December 1st how this all plays out for the party…and I will be following DMV Daily News (and others) for updates…I will be cheering for Herbie (and hope you do the same) and will follow up with an article if he is elected in the new party role he seeks in 2018.

Scott E

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