Montgomery Democrats Spin Story After IRS Threatens Party with Lien

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ROCKVILLE, MD, July 12, 2023  – By Pieter Friedrich – Montgomery County’s Democratic Party is effectively broke, according to a leaked copy of the party’s budget which was shared with me by several local party leaders.

This follows revelations that current party chair, Saman Qadeer Ahmad, is trying to cover up that the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) owes upwards of $13,000 in fines to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Coinciding with its near-penniless status, the MCDCC is also apparently in breach of its own bylaws after failing to hold its annual spring gala due to poor planning by the chair and executive committee.

MCDCC Owes the IRS nearly $14,000

According to the leaked budget, MCDCC has $15,000 cash on hand, but owes the IRS nearly $14,000 in a combination of back taxes and fines after failing to pay withheld payroll taxes it collected in 2018. At their June 2023 meeting, Chair Qadeer Ahmad informed flabbergasted party officials that the MCDCC would not have enough money to pay its monthly bills — or even cover costs for any planned fundraisers — if it paid the five-year-running debt in full.

At that meeting, witnesses claim that several police officers guarded the entrance to the party’s office building while, amidst a tense open session, Ahmad abruptly recessed to a closed session. In closed session, several sources in attendance shared that Ahmad informed a shocked central committee that, two weeks earlier, an IRS agent dropped into their offices, unannounced, to inform MCDCC’s on-duty staffer that the party has failed to respond to the IRS for several years over the issue of withheld W-2 income taxes which were accrued under the tenure of previous chair Dave Kunes. The agent also informed the stunned staffer that the IRS was planning to file a lien against the Democratic Party.

Previous MCDCC Officials

Kunes, a former chief of staff to ex-county councilmember Tom Hucker, is now a special advisor to County Councilmember Will Jawando, who is currently running for US Senate.

The MCDCC is required to file publicly-accessible financial reports on a regular basis with the State Board of Elections (SBE) and the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). A review of SBE filings shows that, under the tenures of former chairs Scott Goldberg and Dave Kunes, MCDCC was required to amend their campaign finance filings numerous times each reporting period, averaging at least five amended reports each period. It is during this time that the withheld income taxes were not paid to the IRS. 

The withheld taxes, rather than being forwarded to the IRS, were reportedly instead spent on MCDCC operations.

Ahmad Aware of Situation

Ahmad was reportedly made aware of the situation weeks before she chose to tell the two dozen members of the MCDCC. Several executive committee members claimed that they had only learned about the situation hours before the rest of the committee. Many were instructed to directly lie to the press about the situation should it come to their attention, and more than one person in attendance at the June meeting believed that the police presence that night was at Ahmad’s express request in order to prevent the press from lingering and reporting anything overheard about the party’s tax woes.

Politics and the Media

On July 11, The Baltimore Sun and several other news outlets contacted Ahmad for comment after whistleblowers reached out to both the authorities and the press about what they considered to be an unethical (and possibly illegal) attempt to circumvent proper campaign finance reporting procedures by both Kunes and Ahmad. Both of their tenures have been controversial. Kunes’s time as chair of the Democratic Party was marred with reports of bullying activists and social media harassment of its critics. Ahmad’s time has followed a similar path, though no chair until now has sought to conceal party finances from public view.

While it may be practically penniless, the MCDCC remains extraordinarily powerful as a political organization in Maryland. Due to a quirk of the state constitution, the party has now appointed nearly half — 41 percent — of all currently serving Montgomery County legislators. Thus, its total membership of just 24 people is routinely supplanting voting opportunities for Montgomery County’s 1.1 million people. 

In a July 11 email to the entire Central Committee, informing them about her response to The Baltimore Sun, Ahmad tried spinning the story in a positive light. Rather than admit that the party is facing fines — and a possible tax lien — after a surprise visit from an IRS agent, she told media that, “during routine bookkeeping and compliance checks,” the party “learned of an oversight and clerical issue.” She added, “We look forward to having this behind us.”

Reacting to the spin, one committee member told me: “Lying to the public, press and, apparently, the IRS seems to just be a walk in the park for our chairwoman. This is not how democracy works. Sadly, she might find that out the hard way.”

These allegations of a coverup come barely a month after questions about lack of transparency and abuse of power were raised in the wake of MCDCC’s May 2023 meeting.

Pieter previously wrote about issues at the MCDCC here:

Questions of Transparency at Montgomery County Democrats’ Meeting – Moderately MOCO

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