Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin wrote a letter Wednesday urging donors to withhold fundraising and boycott the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee’s fall gala until chair Saman Qadeer Ahmad resigns. Slavin is the second prominent party member to call for Ahmad’s resignation.
“While there is much blame to go around, much of the ethics deficit we have been forced to witness in recent times is directly the fault of Chair Ahmad, who has created a toxic environment through bullying, dishonesty and malevolence,” Slavin wrote. “It is time that she put her blind ambition behind her and resign for the good of the Party.”
In addition to serving as the mayor of Somerset, an incorporated town in the Chevy Chase area of the county, Slavin previously served as first vice chair, deputy treasurer, and trustee of the Maryland Democratic Party.
“At a time when the country is watching as Republicans turn on Republicans while grinding our entire country to a halt, it’s a shame, really, it’s truly a shame that a former Democratic Party leader is adopting the same tactics to divide Democrats as MAGA Republicans do,” Ahmad said in an interview with MoCo360. “All in all, I wish Mayor Slavin well.”
The MCDCC has been subject to significant scrutiny from constituents and some public officials this year.
Committee leaders told members in a closed session in June that the panel owed $13,608 to the IRS, after an agent stopped by their Rockville offices to threaten a lien, according to members of the committee and leaked documents. The debt stems from underpayment in 2017 and 2018, prior to Ahmad’s time as chair. In August, the committee voted to pay off the remaining debt, but some committee members who spoke to MoCo360 on the condition of anonymity criticized committee leaders for not being transparent about the debt.
“We have settled the matter appropriately and we have issued a statement and been very clear about it. So that really is all behind us,” Ahmad said Thursday.
In August, committee member Nathan Feldman, who represents District 15 on the panel, alleged Ahmad pressured him to vote against a committee candidate and that she claimed she was doing so on behalf of Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D). Feldman called for Ahmad to resign.
Ahmad denied the allegation and rejected the call for her ouster. A spokesperson for Miller also denied the claims.
Ahmad, who has been chair since the beginning of 2023 and said in August that she was not entertaining the idea of stepping down.
“Why would I resign based on a false allegation?” Ahmad said in August. “I was elected to this position, and I have worked hard. This is not just about the work of one person, but the work of a committee.”
The MCDCC serves as the chapter of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County, and its duties include selecting candidates to replace Democratic General Assembly members from the county who leave their posts mid-term. The committee is responsible for 41% of Montgomery County delegation appointments. In 2023 alone, the committee was tasked with choosing four delegates and one state senator.
In his letter, Slavin groups his concerns under the headers such as “incompetence, alarming lack of transparency,” “gross intimidation,” “unpaid taxes” and “financial mismanagement.”
He criticized the committee for allegedly not being unable to raise enough money, and pushing its gala up early to the fall rather than waiting for spring, when it is traditionally held. He also accused Ahmad of trying to keep committee operations out of the public eye by holding private executive sessions even when committee members asked for them to be made public or live streamed, and for allegedly intimidating members to vote or act in certain ways.
“Such back-room shenanigans and public exclusion erode public trust just as the Democratic Party is trying to brand itself as the party of transparency and inclusion,” Slavin wrote.
Slavin also accused Ahmad of lying about the unpaid taxes.
“What would possess a publicly-elected party official to think that Trumpian-style dishonesty about unpaid taxes, of all things, was a wise move here in Montgomery County?” Slavin wrote.
Slavin said he has requested a refund for his previous contributions to the party from this fundraising cycle.
“The behavior by the MCDCC’s leadership is disgraceful, yet Chair Ahmad is not only complicit in trying to sweep such issues under an already crowded rug of scandal, she seems to thrive on it,” he wrote. “Enough is enough. We cannot allow our local Democratic Party to be run into the ground like a banana republic.”