CECIL COUNTY — The Cecil County Republican Central Committee is aiming to remove three prominent members who leaders criticize for opposing party-endorsed candidates.
RCC Chairman Vince Sammons announced last week that he would pursue sanctions against former County Council member Bill Coutz, former Council President Joyce Bowlsbey and former County Executive Alan McCarthy.
Earlier this month, Bowlsbey ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Rebecca Hamilton, who defeated Coutz in the Republican primary in July. Coutz served as her campaign manager.
McCarthy donated to Bowlsbey’s campaign, and businesses tied to his address donated to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Franchot and Democratic comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman.
“The fact that they were elected to the central committee means they need to start toeing the line and supporting our candidates and they did the total opposite,” Sammons said. “Everyone has a party and they are supposed to work for that party and I am not afraid to hold people accountable and that’s what I did – I went to the chairman of the Maryland GOP and I presented the evidence and he addressed it.”
The order disqualifying Coutz, Bowlsbey and McCarthy – three of the county’s nine RCC members – from service was made by the Maryland Republican Party, which accused the three members of being in direct violation of section 5.4 of the Maryland GOP bylaws.
The bylaw states: “No member of the State Central Committee shall sponsor or endorse any candidate of a political party other than the Republican Party in connection with any partisan election or primary in which there is a Republican candidate. Failure of a member of the State Central Committee to comply with the foregoing prohibitions shall subject the member to removal.”
According to Sammons, in addition to making donations to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, McCarthy was seen speaking with Democratic candidates such as Lierman, Heather Mizeur, Democratic candidate for the Md. Dist. 1 US House seat, and John Dixon, a member of the Democratic Central Committee.
“I stand for the country over party and I am prepared to support any candidate that serves the betterment of the people,” said McCarthy.
The official letter issued to the public by the RCC states that the committee was informed by the Maryland GOP that Coutz, McCarthy and Bowlsbey had all been disqualified from service. The letter notes that the duty of the RCC is to support party nominees and that the failure to do so by the disqualified members “strikes at the heart of the purpose of the party and renders them unfit to serve.” The letter was signed by Sammons.
The Maryland GOP is a private party that is a self-governing entity that can create any bylaws it wants as long as those bylaws have a majority member consensus, according to Sammons. Over concerns that Democrats would change their registration to Republican in order to vote for candidates they would favor, Sammons said it pushed the Maryland GOP to create more bylaws to prevent such ‘infiltration’.
“We knew we needed a bylaw at the state level that penalized members who acted against the party, so new bylaws were created for this exact situation to ensure elected members work for the party and not for the other side,” said Sammons. “We spend a lot of money trying to get Republicans to win and if we are endorsing Democrats we are wasting money and going against our cause.”
Coutz, Bowlsbey and McCarthy were elected to the Cecil County RCC during the 2022 Gubernatorial Primary Elections. According to Coutz, as he, Bowlsbey and McCarthy have not been sworn into the RCC, they cannot be removed.
“This is just more posturing by Vince Sammons,” said Coutz. “He is used to being a bully and he stirred the wrong hornets nest this time because bullies that punch me in the nose get punched right back.”
Coutz noted that he can do whatever he wants before he is officially sworn in and on the RCC, but Sammons says otherwise.
“They were elected in the primaries and are coming into office so they were on track to be in the office and were doing stuff that went across the grain of what the rules are,” said Sammons. “Swearing in is just for a show and there is no legality for us to be sworn in at all.”
According to Coutz and McCarthy, the RCC allegedly planned to have swear-ins done at the Cecil County Circuit Courthouse Wednesday, Nov. 16. Coutz and McCarthy said that they, as well as Bowlsbey, had not been invited to the swearing-in ceremony. To counteract essentially not being allowed to be sworn in, Coutz, Bowlsbey and McCarthy set an appointment that Monday, Nov. 14 to be sworn in.
When Coutz, Bowlsbey and McCarthy contacted the Cecil County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Charlene Notarcola, they were informed that the Attorney General of the Clerk had advised Notarcola to postpone all swear-ins, given the controversy.
Notarcola originally scheduled the RCC swear-ins for Wednesday, Nov. 16 but began to look into the situation after she found out that the RCC wasn’t informing all of the members of when the swear-ins were to take place. Notarcola said McCarthy called her to find out when the RCC swear-ins were scheduled to take place, which signaled to Notarcola that there was a problem amongst the committee.
To be sworn in by the Clerk of the Circuit Court, a commission must be provided. Since none of the RCC, Coutz, Bowlsbey or McCarthy were able to provide a commission to the Clerk, none of the swear-ins were able to be performed. However, the Maryland GOP bylaws do require swear-ins, just not by the Clerk of the Court, so the RCC conducted the swear-ins themselves at their meeting Wednesday, Nov. 16. Coutz, Bowlsbey and McCarthy were absent from the meeting.
Sammons said there is not a formal disqualification process for members subject to removal and that the the RCC will simply not invite the elected members subject to removal to any committee meetings or functions.
CECIL WHIG CLIP
By Matt Hubbard
