An attorney for a nominee to the Maryland House of Delegates is asking the court to prevent the Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee from withdrawing the nomination, News4's Darcy Spencer reported.
County Democrats will hold an emergency meeting Monday night to discuss whether to pull businessman Greg Hall's nomination to serve in the House. Hall's critics are urging Gov. Martin O'Malley to pull his name from consideration because of his checkered past. Hall was convicted of a misdemeanor gun charge in the 1990s and was cleared of a murder charge.
His supporters want the governor to focus on the good he's done in recent years.
"He was a troubled youth earlier on," Jazz Lewis of the Prince George’s County Young Democrats told News4. "But since then, he has worked with municipal leaders to address drug paraphernalia [and] prostitution, [and] spear economic development."
The county's Democratic Central Committee picked Hall to succeed Delegate Tiffany Alston. She was convicted of stealing money from the state.
O’Malley must decide by midnight tonight whether to withdraw his name from consideration.
Hall's attorney wants his client appointed to the seat immediately, saying O'Malley has violated his constitutional duty, Spencer reported.
Critics say Hall’s appointment could make Prince George’s County look bad and could hurt the governor’s future political aspirations.
"You can’t get tied up into, 'what if people say this about me when I’m running for president?'" Larry Stafford Jr. of the Prince George’s County Young Democrats said. "I don’t believe [Governor O’Malley] is thinking like that, and I’d hope he isn’t thinking like that."
