And now I (somewhat) agree with David Lublin

No, hell is not freezing over, but this makes some sense:

In a post from just over a year ago, I pointed out that the obscure Democratic Central Committee was a rather powerful group of people. Recently, the Montgomery County Central Committee selected a new senator in District 39 and two new delegates in Districts 16 and 39, and there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the process for filling vacancies for the General Assembly. Some are outraged at the process and the decisions and calling for special elections to fill vacancies.

A special election would be a good reform if it were implemented sensibly. Appointments made by the Central Committee should only last until the next scheduled regular general election for either the General Assembly or for Congress. Under this scenario, the recent spate of appointments made by the Central Committee would only last until 2008 instead of a full three years.

I disagree on the point about not holding elections immediately. If special elections are only held at the next general election, that means basically a special election can only be called if there is a vacancy in the first two years of a term. But I do agree that the voters should get a choice in determining who gets to fill these vacancies. The vacancies are too important to be filled in what is basically a vacuum...