1. Dana Lee Dembrow is an American lawyer, legislator, and jurist who served four terms
in the Maryland General Assembly and was thereafter appointed as an administrative law
judge on the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals.
Contents
1. Education
2. Legal Profession
3. Election
4. Legislative Record
5. Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals
Education
Born in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1953, Dana Dembrow grew up in Silver
Spring, Maryland and attended Montgomery County public schools K-12, graduating
with honors from Springbrook High School in 1971. He received his B.A. in 1975 from
Duke University with honors in political science, where he graduated cum laude with a
double major in political science and psychology and also obtained a varsity letter.
Dembrow earned his J.D. in 1980 from George Washington University Law School,
where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Advocate and in 1979 was named the
university-wide recipient of the George Washington Award. Dembrow also completed
the Washington Semester Political Science Honors Program of the American University
and for a portion of his law degree attended classes at Georgetown University Law
School and Notre Dame Law School abroad at the London School of Economics and
Political Science.
Legal Profession
Shortly following his graduation from law school, Dembrow was admitted to the Bars of
the District of Columbia, Maryland, and West Virginia, licensed to practice in both state
and federal courts. His judicial clerkship was with Peter H. Wolf, Associate Judge of the
Superior Court of the District of Columbia. As a general litigation solo practitioner,
Dembrow opened his first law office on K Street in Washington, D.C., handling a wide
variety of cases, first in D.C. and later in Maryland District and Circuit Courts. After
moving from Montgomery County to Carroll County, Maryland in 2002, Dembrow filed
some newsworthy pro bono legal challenges to reverse local political actions, including
one that deferred the election of county commissioners at large rather than by district1
and another to prohibit Christian-only prayer to open public meetings of the Carroll
County Commissioners2
.
1
Dembrow v. Carroll Co. Board of Elections, Ct. App. No. 139, Sept Term 2006.
2
Hake, et al. v. Carroll County, Maryland, U.S. District Court for the District of
Maryland, Case No. 13CV1312; See Baltimore Sun, May 4, 5, 6 , 2013, March 27, 28,
April 3, 6, 9, May 6, 9, 14, 2014; Carroll County Times, May 2, 4, 5, 2013, Jan. 14, 15,
March 27, 28, 30, April 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, May 6, 7, 9, 14, 2014; Reuters, March 27,
2014; Carroll Eagle, Jan. 19, April 6, 13, 2014; Washington Post, May 7, 10, 2014; et al.

2. Election
Dembrow, a Democrat, made his first foray into elective politics in 1982 and in the
subsequent state election, by a narrow margin, won an upset victory over a highly
financed incumbent slate, thereby entering the state legislature as the youngest elected
official in the largest jurisdiction in the State of Maryland, one of three delegates
representing the eastern portion of Montgomery County, along with Delegates Peter
Franchot (D) and Sheila Hixson (D)3
. He was re-elected delegate for Legislative District
20 in 19904
, 19945
, and 19986
. In 1992 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House
of Representatives for Maryland’s 4th
Congressional District, winning a lopsided victory
in Montgomery County precincts, but finishing 3d overall, bested by Albert Wynn (D)
and Alexander Williams (D), both of Prince George’s County7
. His elective career was
shattered in April 2002 when Dembrow and his wife of 15 years, the former Susan
“Suzette” Diane Van Mater of Annapolis, MD, were involved in a domestic incident as a
result of which Dana was arrested under the state’s newly enacted mandatory arrest law,
which Dembrow had supported as an influential member of the House Judiciary
Committee. The couple reconciled and Dembrow was acquitted of all charges, but not
until after he was subjected to a barrage of negative print and broadcast media which
distracted the entire close of the 2002 legislative session. Subsequent polling showed
Dembrow nonetheless easily winning re-election in the Primary Election five (5) months
after the highly publicized incident, but two PACs supported by donors whose identities
were undisclosed until after the election inundated voters with multiple pieces of critical
direct mail advertisements on the weekend before the Tuesday Election, and Dembrow
was defeated8
.
3
1986 Primary & General Election Results; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections (*denotes winner)
PrimaryGeneralBerger (D)5,06812%Dembrow (D)*5,34113%17,45724%D’Ovidio (D)4,95612%Dunphy
(D)2,449 6%Duquette (D) 706 2%Franchot (D)*6,91217%17,59624%Hixson
(D)*5,91214%17,25523%Hodges (D)2,179 5%King (D)2,051 5%Mennell (D)1,403 3%Bennett (R)
7,43110%Eisen (R) 7,48310%Richardson (R) 6,572 9%
4
1990 Primary & General Election Results; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections (*denotes winner)
PrimaryGeneralBerger (D)7,22119%Dembrow (D)*7,95921%18,30334%Franchot
(D)*8,20222%17,87133%Hixson (D)*7,55320%17,95833%Kirchenbauer (D)6,87918%
5
1994 Primary & General Election Results; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections (*denotes winner)
PrimaryGeneralDembrow (D)*8,27627%19,67930%Franchot (D)*7,30724%18,85428%Graham
(D)3,08210%Hixson (D)*7,31224%19,42329%Silverman (D)4,97916%Harrison (R)8,24812%
6
1998 Primary & General Election Results; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections (*denotes winner)
PrimaryGeneralBates (D)1,276 5%Dembrow (D)*7,75830%22,39627%Franchot
(D)*6,48725%21,20826%Hixson (D)*7,55829%21,89527%Nixon (D)3,11712%Harrison (R) 5,602
7%Hackenberg (R) 5,163 6%Leahy ® 6,020 7%
7
1992 Democratic Primary Election; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections (*denotes winner)
Montgomery Co.Prince George’s TotalAluisi 201 3,573 3,774 6%Bates 546 362 908
1%Broadwater 287 2,277 2,564 4%Dembrow8,122 1,806 9,92815%Dupuy 494 192 686
1%Hillsman 35 149 184 0%Kelly1,199 249 1,448 2%Pedery 22 417 439
1%Pemberton2,225 6,255 8,48013%Post 171 304 475 1%Turner 222 1,103 1,325
2%Williams3,01914,048 17,06726%Wynn* 4,71313,640 18,35328%
8
2002 Democratic Primary Election Results; Source: Maryland State Board of Elections
Alvarez2,444 7%Bates 968
3%Dembrow3,60111%Franchot*8,27824%Hixson*9,72028%Murray*4,12512%Nixon
3,55610%Rosenthal 1,674 5%

3. Legislative Record
Serving for 16 years in the General Assembly, Dembrow was appointed first to the
standing committee on Constitutional and Administrative Law and later to the House
Judiciary Committee, for which he chaired the Subcommittee on Civil Law and
Procedure. He also held leadership posts as Deputy Majority Whip, Chairman of the
County Affairs Committee of the Montgomery Delegation, and Chairman of the
Intergovernmental Affairs Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference.
A prolific bill sponsor, Dembrow successfully served as chief-sponsor of three adopted
amendments to the Maryland Constitution ratified by statewide voter referendum,
including the requirement of proportionate geographic representation on both of
Maryland’s Courts of Appeals9
. He also served as initiator and primary sponsor of many
enacted proposals now Maryland statutory law, generally in the nature of non-partisan
fact-based innovations to improve the mechanics of state governance. They include
legislation creating the central Office of Administrative Hearings10
, raising the maximum
speed limit to 65 mph11
, establishing a statewide registry of convicted sex offenders12
,
providing a relay system for the hearing impaired to have telephone access13
, expanding
wetlands environmental protection though mitigation banking14
, instituting an electronic
database for tracking political campaign contributions and expenditures15
, adding
vocational rehabilitation services to workers’ compensation benefits16
, regulating the
transfer of structured settlements17
, banning prerecorded commercial solicitations by
telephone18
, repealing the prohibition of possession of cell phones on school property19
,
including a teacher representative on the State’s Professional Standards and Education
Board20
, allowing an expedited process to appeal health insurance coverage denial21
,
enabling non-profits to participate in discounted bulk purchasing contracts negotiated by
state agencies22
, creating a sales tax-free week23
, coordinating inter-agency response to
habitual truancy 24
, abolishing the rule against perpetuities in estate planning25
, elevating
the crime of international child abduction to felony status to enable Interpol
9
1994 Session, HB 635 and 662; 1998 session HB 229.
10
1989 Session HB 1172.
11
1989 Session HB 197; legislation reintroduced and enacted but vetoed by Governor William Donald
Schaefer, then re-enacted and signed into law by Governor Parris Glendening.
12
1997 Session HB 342; 1999 Session HB 229; 2001 Session HB 393; 2002 Session HB 77.
13
1991 Session HB 853.
14
1993 Session HB 1018.
15
1994 Session, HB 135.
16
1988 Session, HB 888.
17
2000 Session HB 357.
18
1990 Session HB 830.
19
2001 Session HB 67.
20
1988 Session, HB 889; 1990 Session HB 514; Action Line, Jan. 20, 1988.
21
2000 Session HB 59.
22
1991 Session HB 282.
23
1998 Session HB 608, reintroduced and enacted the following year.
24
1997 Session HB 519.
25
1998 Session HB 495.

4. intervention26
, including Maryland in the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender
Supervision27
, and designating the Maryland blue crab as the state crustacean28
. In
addition to successfully chief sponsoring the aforementioned range of legislative
enactments to improve the function and operation of state government, Dembrow’s
enduring reputation in Annapolis is for his uninhibited persona, ribald antics with his
controversial wife, and for using humor, wit and precision to defeat ill-conceived but
“politically correct” legislative proposals before the Judiciary Committee and on the floor
of the House of Delegates.29
Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals
Dana Dembrow was appointed in 2006 by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. (R) as one of
three (3) administrative law judges which sit en banc as the Maryland State Board of
Contract Appeals, an independent unit of the executive branch which handles lawsuits
arising from state procurement activity. After his initial appointment to finish the term of
John S. Arnick (D), former delegate from Baltimore County, he was re-appointed in 2009
by Governor Martin O’Malley (D) along with fellow judges Michael J. Collins (D),
former state senator from Baltimore County, and Ann Marie Doory (D), former delegate
from Baltimore City. As an ALJ, Dembrow presided over cases and authored the
opinions in a number of high profile contract disputes and bid protests, including a $73
million judgment entered in an actuarial malpractice claim30
, as well as bid protests
determining the selection of companies approved to open a gambling casino in the City of
Baltimore31
, produce forgery-proof drivers’ licenses for the Motor Vehicle
Administration32
, operate a statewide call center for social service referrals33
, construct
the state’s most expensive highway34
, and provide pharmacy benefits management for
state employees in another contract also exceeding $1 billion in cost35
. In 2014 Dembrow
was elected President of the Maryland Association of Administrative Law Judiciary
(MAALJ).
26
2001 Session HB 850.
27
2001 Session HB 614.
28
1988 Session HB 1420; 1989 Session HB 1091.
29
Feature cover story articles in Montgomery Journal, April 3, 1989 and Feb. 12, 1999; feature article in
Washington Post, Feb. 14, 1995; Center Maryland, Dec. 5, 2013.
30
Appeal of Milliman, Inc. , MSBCA No. 2609 (Jan. 2009)
31
Appeal of Baltimore City Entertainment Group, MSBCA 2690 (Dec. 2010)
32
Appeal of L-1 Secure Credentialing, Inc. , MSBCA 2793 (May 2012)
33
Appeal of The Active Network, Inc., MSBCA 2781 (April 2012)
34
Appeal of Facchina-Trumbull-Skanska, J.V., MSBCA 2630 (Jan. 2009)
35
Appeal of Catalyst, Rx, MSBCA 2759, 2762, 2768, 2780 & 2784 (Jan. 2012)