MCDCC Retiring Tax Debt, Yet Remains Plagued By Governance & Ethics Complaints

ROCKVILLE, MD – August 15, 2023 – By Pieter Friedrich

Updated at 5p.m. 8/16 to clarify agenda item issue.

Montgomery County’s troubled Democratic Party will retire its large outstanding tax obligation within the week, announced party treasurer Andrew Saundry at a tense meeting of the MCDCC on August 7, 2023. 

This comes after the Baltimore Sun reported that former party chief Dave Kunes donated at least $8,000 to the party in the last week. The source of the money remains an issue of some significance, as it is unclear whether the money actually belongs to Kunes, given his last publicly reported salary as a “confidential aide” at the County Council was $63,031.50. The cost of living in Montgomery County is significantly higher than the rest of the US, making it unclear how Kunes was able to suddenly find the financial resources to pay off the IRS balance.

Kunes works as a “special advisor” to County Council Member Will Jawando, who is running to replace Ben Cardin in the US Senate. During Kunes’ tenure as party chief in Montgomery County, he also served as Chief of Staff to County Councilmember Tom Hucker.

Questions still surround the integrity of the MCDCC and leadership of the Democratic Party in general. Last month, a party insider was convicted of embezzlement in Baltimore County. During Kunes’s tenure as chair in 2018, the Democratic Party was forced to file dozens of amended campaign finance reports, while also failing to pay the IRS withheld payroll taxes. For weeks, several journalists sought to question Kunes about the MCDCC’s financial issues after they came to light in Moderately MoCo a month ago. Kunes routinely avoided the press while putting together the funds to pay off the IRS. 

Other ethics complaints about the MCDCC, which has now appointed over a third of all legislators from Montgomery County to the state assembly, remain unresolved.

The current chair, Saman Qadeer Ahmad, faces growing calls for her resignation after revelations that she allegedly bullied and threatened other Democratic Party leaders to vote against candidates at odds with Lt. Governor Aruna Miller. Miller has been roundly criticized for her deep personal ties to US elements of India’s Hindu nationalist (aka, “Hindutva”) movement. Those ties have been confirmed in national and international reporting by The Independent of London, Huffington Post, The Intercept, and, most recently, Salon.com. Earlier this year, a coalition of organizations spearheaded by national Hindu and Muslim groups called on Miller to be disinvited from events across the state until she answers and apologizes for her ties to the Hindu nationalist movement. The Hindutva movement, which was founded by Nazi sympathizers who formally endorsed the Holocaust just before World War II, was most recently condemned by the Washington Post in May. 

On August 7, Moderately MoCo attended the MCDCC’s monthly meeting, alongside reporters from Bethesda Magazine and Maryland Matters. An agenda item was initially introduced by Chair Ahmad’s ally, Committee Member Jim Michaels to discuss what the MCDCC policy is concerning access to and use of the confidential personal information that’s in their list of precinct officials and about how they have been complying (or not) with that policy. There is speculation that it was to censure and punish MCDCC whistleblower Nathan Feldman. After internal discussions, Michaels removed the agenda item. Michaels wrote to Moderately MOCO that “During a break in the meeting, one of the MCDCC members responsible for keeping the confidential information secure, provided me with the explanation I sought. Based on that explanation, I saw no need to take it up further with the full Committee and use up their time.”

Meeting attendees report that former MCDCC chair and current member Arthur Edmunds attempted to bully a media outlet into not streaming the MCDCC’s open meeting, only to back off when he realized that more than one member of the press was in attendance.

Amidst a maelstrom of reporting on MCDCC’s lack of transparency, Ahmad spinning the IRS issue, and now a recent call for her resignation, it remains to be seen when new complaints about governance and ethics issues, which have plagued the committee all summer, will slow down.

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