How does Maryland fill vacancies in the General Assembly?  

In Maryland, County Central Committees typically recommend a replacement from the same party as the former seat holder, whom the Governor then appoints. Appointed members serve out the remainder of the four-year term. The process is enshrined in the Maryland State Constitution – see MD Constitution Article III – Section 13.

Maryland’s process creates a false equivalency between an election and an appointment.

With the power of incumbency, those appointed to fill vacancies typically prevail in elections and this results in the large percentage of current members in our legislature who started with an appointment.

Have there been attempts to legislate a change?

A bill to provide a partial change has been filed each year since 2017 by Del. Moon and in the Senate since 2019 by Sen. Lam.  It is problematic that while the Senate bill has been approved three times – unanimously – with bipartisan support – in 2020 (44-0), 2021 (47-0) and 2022 (45-0) – the House bill has only had the hearing required of all bills by House Rules and has never received a sub-committee discussion or a committee vote. In General Assembly parlance, the bill has been “put in the drawer”. This protects leadership from the need to articulate opposition, while simultaneously protecting the status quo.  

Necessary democratic reform should not be thwarted in this fashion by power held in the hands of leadership, who use it to determine whether a bill should move or not - even in the absence of any testimony in opposition to the bill.

We do not elect delegates and senators into office in order for them to find themselves unable to move needed legislation forward year after year.