Just three short months before July's primary election, District-6 Council Member Derrick Leon Davis announced he was resigning his council position on May 15th. Although the Prince George's County Charter requires a special election to fill a vacancy when it occurs in the first three years of the term, in the fourth year, the remaining council members vote to appoint a person to fill the empty seat.

Council Member Davis has been on the wrong side of many issues: opposing public financing of elections, pushing for a property tax hike in the middle of pandemic, introducing a last minute
Redistricting Map to cut the legs out from under the campaigns of certain progressive candidates for county council. He was joined in that attack on democracy by five other council members. The move was so egregious that a citizen lawsuit opposing the redistricting was upheld by two levels of our court system.

So you may understand our concern that Davis' resignation may have been intended to allow him and certain council members to put their thumbs on the political scale and anoint one the candidates currently running for a District-6 council seat - giving that candidate the advantage of incumbency and perhaps the opportunity to slate with other incumbent and well-funded candidates in the July primary.  

We must stop this from happening. Democracy is ours; the right to elect a candidate into a council seat is ours. The right to decide who will represent District 6 for the next four years and possibly the next eight, must belong to the voters of District-6 and not to a few council members.  We must demand that the Council only fill the vacancy with a person who is not on the primary ballot.

Three council members: Dernoga, Ivey, and Burroughs have issued statements that they will not vote for a candidate on the ballot. The remaining seven council members must do the same.

Nine CD-6 residents, including two candidates on the primary ballot, have expressed interest in the vacant seat by submitting letters and resumes to the Council.  

The Council has until May 15th to decide but may vote as early as next Tuesday - May 3rd.

Please send the attached letter to all council members asking that they pick from among the seven who are not candidates on the July ballot.

In Solidarity,