AG candidate touts environmental record

Friday, June 2, 2006

‘‘There’s an opportunity for an attorney general, an aggressive, energetic attorney general, to truly address the needs of the bay,” Gansler (D) said.

Retiring Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D) leaves a legacy of environmental activism, creating an environmental crimes unit and suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for lax enforcement.

Even so, the state’s attorney general rarely comes to mind as a front-line defender against pollution.

‘‘Legally, it’s a complicated area. The attorney general doesn’t really have an independent ability to go out and do stuff,” said Terry Harris, a Baltimore lawyer active in environmental causes. ‘‘That said, there are things a good attorney general can do. ... There’s room for creative lawyering by the attorney general on environmental issues.”

The bay also represents a political opportunity for Gansler because he can temper his law-and-order record with a popular, progressive cause.

‘‘The people of Maryland really, really believe that whatever office candidates are running for, they want to know how will they make Maryland a healthier place to live,” said Dru Schmitt-Perkins, executive director of the environmental lobbying group 1,000 Friends of Maryland.

The bay has a ‘‘dead zone” that encompasses nearly a quarter of its surface, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The cause is nutrients from sewage treatment plants, agricultural runoff and other sources, it says.

Gansler said the laws to protect the bay already are on the books. But for 25 years, the state has had a ‘‘touchy-feely” approach to environmental protection, asking people not to pollute. The state needs an attorney general with the willpower and courage to go after polluters in civil and criminal cases, he said.

Gansler’s likely opponents for the Democratic nomination are Montgomery County lawyer-politicians with progressive bona fides.

Montgomery County Councilman Thomas E. Perez (D) recently announced his campaign. He already has been endorsed by 21st Century Democrats, a political action committee that includes environmental protection as one of its issues.

In a telephone news conference, Perez said he is running ‘‘because I want to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people.” He touted his efforts to allow county employees and retirees to buy cheaper prescriptions from Canada and a bill to combat lending discrimination by banks.

The other candidate is state Sen. Brian E. Frosh, who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Frosh is still deciding whether to enter the race.

But Frosh (D-Montgomery) has a legislative record in Annapolis built on protecting the environment and increasing penalties for polluters.

An environmental focus also will help build the Democratic Party in Republican areas of Maryland, most of which coincidentally border the Chesapeake. That helps Gansler fulfill a pledge to Joseph D. Tydings, an elder statesman of the Maryland Democratic Party. Tydings is supporting the 43-year-old prosecutor because Gansler promised the former U.S. senator he would campaign in so-called red counties to help Democrats down-ticket.

State Sen. Philip C. Jimeno said voters in his Anne Arundel County district will be receptive to Gansler’s environmental proposals. Jimeno, a Democrat who retires in January, represents a district where 70 percent of voters supported Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

‘‘The Democratic Party cannot give up on the red counties. They can turn purple and then blue with the right message from the right messenger,” Gansler said.

‘‘Doug is young, aggressive, smart and I think he can have a lot of appeal around the state,” said Del. John L. Bohanan Jr. (D-St. Mary’s), who declined to make an endorsement. ‘‘I’d rather see somebody making mistakes for being too aggressive than being nonchalant and missing the boat.”

But Frosh said the notion of Gansler helping other Democratic candidates ‘‘is a stretch.”

‘‘If Abe Lincoln were running for attorney general, I don’t think he would have much impact on candidates running down the ticket,” Frosh said.

The race for attorney general is going to get lost ‘‘in the blizzard” of other statewide races such as Ehrlich’s re-election campaign and the first competitive race for U.S. Senate in decades — not to mention local and congressional races, Frosh said.

‘‘It’s going to be difficult for candidates for attorney general to break out of the den and be heard,” he said. ‘‘The race for attorney general will get some focus when people announce for it, but after that it will get lost in the snowstorm.”

Staff writer Alan Brody contributed to this report.

E-mail Douglas Tallman at dtallman@gazette.net.