Perez tosses support to Simms in AG race

County Councilman is barred from running; court strikes down early voting

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006

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by Douglas Tallman

Staff Writer

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Charlie Shoemaker⁄The Gazette

Stuart O. Simms, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, received the support of Thomas E. Perez (background) on Tuesday. A court ruled last week that Perez was not eligible to run for attorney general.

Ousted attorney general candidate Thomas E. Perez called on supporters not to express their support for him by casting votes election officials will not count.

‘‘I am frustrated, too, but now is not the time to cast protest votes. Now the stakes are simply too high. Now is the time, in my judgment ... to cast a vote for my friend Stu Simms,” Perez said Tuesday.

Perez, a 44-year-old Democrat serving on the Montgomery County Council, said he picked Simms for his progressive values, passing over the other Montgomery County name on the ballot, State’s Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D).

The Maryland Court of Appeals ordered Perez off the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot because he failed to meet a constitutional requirement that attorney general candidates practice law in the state for 10 years before the election.

Although Perez has been a bar association member only since 2001, he had argued he had worked since 1989 as a federal prosecutor with jurisdiction over Maryland.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office and the Anne Arundel Circuit Court had earlier said Perez qualified for the position.

The appeals court has not yet spelled out its rationale for coming to its conclusion, releasing only a terse order announcing its reversal of the lower court ruling.

Stephen N. Abrams, a Republican candidate for comptroller, filed the suit questioning Perez’s qualifications. A lawyer and a member of the nonpartisan Montgomery County school board, Abrams argued his case before the appeals court. He said Friday he felt vindicated by the ruling.

The State Board of Elections has asked for a modification of the court’s order, saying it could not reprogram voting machines in time for the Sept. 12 primary, said Ross Goldstein, the board’s deputy director.

Board employees are not reprogramming the election machines while they await the board’s decision, Goldstein said.

In another decision released Friday, the appeals court stuck down the General Assembly’s early voting plan. Under the plan, voters would be able to cast ballots for up to five days before an election. The court, affirming a lower court ruling, said the plan violated the state constitution’s assertion that Election Day takes place on only a single day.

Perez issued his endorsement of Simms at the Takoma Park Community Center not far from his home. About 50 supporters crammed into the small room, some wearing Perez T-shirts.

Simms then thanked Perez.

‘‘The victory you have won,” Simms said to Perez, ‘‘is to insert the moral soul back into Maryland politics.”

Meanwhile, the races for the Democratic nominations for U.S. Senate and state comptroller entered the home stretch this week.

U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Dist. 3) of Pikesville leads former U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume 43 percent to 30 percent, according to a poll released Tuesday by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies of Annapolis.

The poll, which has a 4 percent margin of error, showed that Joshua Rales, a wealthy Republican-turned-Democrat businessman from Montgomery County, is still polling in the single digits (6 percent) even though he has spent more than $5 million of his own fortune in the race.

A Zogby poll done for the Wall Street Journal this week showed that Cardin, Mfume and Rales would defeat the likely Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R), if the election were held today. In the Gonzales poll, Cardin leads Steele 44 to 39 percent. In a match-up with Mfume, Steele leads 42 to 38 percent.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) is scheduled to make a campaign stop for Steele in Montgomery County today.

Another poll, denounced by Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Del. Peter V.R. Franchot (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park, showed Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens gaining momentum. The poll was done by Gonzales, whom her campaign has hired.

And in the governor’s race, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s double-digit lead over Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has been sliced to four points, according to another Gonzales poll.

Staff Writer Thomas Dennison contributed to this report.