In a rare move, a Maryland lawmaker is attempting to oust a colleague who has refused to show up for votes and hearings in Annapolis for weeks.

Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat, a Republican representing parts of Carroll and Frederick counties, has abandoned most of his duties in recent weeks, and several of his colleagues urged him to resign.

But Bouchat refused. Then on Friday, Del. Lauren Arikan introduced a resolution to expel Bouchat from the 141-member House of Delegates.

For several weeks, Bouchat has typically shown up at the State House in Annapolis only to register his attendance in the House of Delegates chamber before leaving. He hasn’t been voting on bills or attending bill hearings and voting sessions in the House Judiciary Committee, where he is assigned.

In late February, Bouchat tried to resign from the Judiciary Committee, writing to House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk that he needed to “reduce my level of service for the balance of my term.”

Peña-Melnyk did not grant Bouchat’s request. He has continued not to show up for meetings.

Bouchat’s frustrated districtmates — Del. Chris Tomlinson, Del. April Rose and Sen. Justin Ready — asked him to resign.

Bouchat, who was elected in 2022, offered to donate his salary to charities of their choosing.

Eventually, Bouchat left blank $1,000 checks on the three lawmakers’ desks, according to Maryland Matters. The lawmakers quickly voided the checks and alerted the General Assembly’s ethics counsel, Maryland Matters reported.

Arikan introduced her resolution to expel Bouchat at the end of the House’s business late Friday.

She said Bouchat’s absences have hindered the Judiciary Committee, sometimes making it hard to reach a quorum when other members are out due to illness or scheduling conflicts.

Bouchat, meanwhile, is “simply refusing to come” because he claims it’s harming him financially, said Arikan, a Republican from Harford County.

“We have a lot of folks on the floor today who are fighting for their lives. They are sick. They may have cancer. We have folks who have lost family members who are sitting here on the floor today, who are grieving,” Arikan told her fellow delegates. “They’re here because the work we do is incredibly important.”

Because lawmakers are nearing the end of their 90-day session, Arikan needed a two-thirds vote to introduce her resolution. After the House approved it 102-14, the measure was sent to the House Rules Committee.

Arikan said in an interview that she hopes to get a hearing in the committee so she can explain the harms caused by Bouchat’s absence and make a case for his removal.

She called his behavior “disrespectful.”

“He’s not even calling in to let us know that he’s not going to be here. He just refuses to show,” she said.

Arikan said the Judiciary Committee functions as a whole when everyone shows up, and Bouchat has made it clear he thinks his presence as a Republican in a Democratic-led legislature is “irrelevant.”

“We’ll replace you with somebody who wants to be here, who is excited to do the work,” she said.

The chair of the House Rules Committee, Del. Anne Healey, said in an interview that it’s unlikely that she’ll bring the resolution up for consideration.

“It’s very late filed. We don’t normally have hearings on late-filed bills,” said Healey, a Prince George’s County Democrat.

Asked if refusing to consider the resolution might give lawmakers carte blanche to behave poorly late in the session, Healey responded: “I don’t have anything to say about that.”

Bouchat was not present for any of Friday’s meetings in the House, including the session where Arikan presented her resolution.

“It seems to be a distraction going into Easter weekend with just two weeks before session ends,” Bouchat wrote in a text message.

Ahead of Friday’s sessions, Bouchat said he would not be present. He planned to be at work at his business in Arbutus, which offers welding, fabrication and machining services.

“I let my employees have off for a 4 day weekend in honor of Easter, so I am working to keep my business productive,” he wrote in a text Friday morning.

Bouchat is sponsoring 11 bills this session, only one of which is moving forward: Mason’s Law, which would require local governments to cover storm drains with grates. It’s named for Mason Kearns, a Mount Airy 13-year-old who died after getting stuck in a storm drain last summer.

Mason’s Law was approved in the House, 131-0, but the state Senate has not acted on it.

It is exceedingly rare for lawmakers to expel one of their own from office, and even rarer for the push to come from a single member, rather than the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics.

The last time a lawmaker was expelled by their peers was in 1998, when the Senate voted out then-Sen. Larry Young, a Baltimore Democrat who was accused of accepting gifts and using his position to benefit his private consulting company. Young was later acquitted of criminal charges and went on to a career as a radio host.

Lawmakers have options for discipline less severe than expulsion. A censure is the next most serious form of discipline, and a reprimand is a lesser punishment.

Under the state constitution, each chamber of the General Assembly can “punish a member for disorderly or disrespectful behaviour” and can expel a member with a two-thirds vote. In the 141-member House, 95 votes are required for expulsion.

The House voted to censure then-Del. Mary Ann Lisanti in 2019 after the Harford County Democrat was reported to have used a racial slur to describe a district in Prince George’s County.

Also in 2019, delegates voted to reprimand then-Del. Jay Jalisi, a Baltimore County Democrat who was accused of bullying and berating staffers.

Then-Del. Dan Morhaim was reprimanded in 2017 for failing to disclose that he was a paid consultant for a cannabis company while the Baltimore County Democrat was advocating for regulations for medical marijuana.

Each of those cases was investigated by the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics before being brought to the full chamber. The ethics committee operates with strict confidentiality, so it’s not known if members have considered Bouchat’s actions.