House Of Delegates Unanimously Votes To Censure Harford County House Delegate Mary Ann Lisanti
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — It was a unanimous vote Thursday from the Maryland House of Delegates.
A full house voted to censure Harford County Delegate Mary Ann Lisanti after she admitted to calling Prince George's County an "N-word district."
Harford County Delegate Apologizes After Allegedly Using N-Word To Describe Prince George's County
Shortly after the decision, Lisanti spoke out. She said that she was not going to resign.
"I have full voting powers, and if I leave, there will not be a replacement during this legislative session," she said. "So that will deprive people of Harford County a vote on the budget, on very important issues that face our county."
The calls for the delegate to resign grew across Maryland from the governor to fellow Democrats like Prince George's County executive Angela Alsobrooks.
"When you come to work and you're paid by the people of the state of Maryland and you utter those words at work, you ought to lose your job," said Alsobrooks.
ACLU Calls For Harford County Delegate To Resign After Allegedly Using N-Word
"With this vote, we are saying as a body that racial slurs and racially charged language cannot and will not be tolerated by this house," Kathleen Dumais, said.
Lisanti is a second-term lawmaker and a member of the House Economic Matters Committee.
Her district represents many parts of Harford County, including Edgewood, where people told WJZ they were hurt by her choice of words.
"To represent us and use that kind of language, it just is very unfair to us and the world and communities," said one resident.
Others were more forgiving.
"I think she apologized," another resident said. "and that's fine by me. I don't know about anyone else but everybody makes mistakes."
Lisanti first denied ever using the racial slur, saying that she didn't remember but then made an apology in a statement saying that word wasn't in her vocabulary.
"Not remembering that it's that we have a thousand conversations a day," she said. "It was a 17 hour day. I don't remember."
Lisanti has since announced stepping down from leadership positions and agreed to participate in sensitivity training.
Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
