Perez makes political foray into St. Mary’s

Friday, July 14, 2006

Perez, a University of Maryland Law School professor and former federal prosecutor, attended church services in Chaptico, met Democratic activists at the home of a local attorney and appeared at a fundraiser for county commissioner candidate Elfreda Mathis.

‘‘It’s important to my strategy for success and it’s important for the Democratic Party to leave no county behind,” Perez said Monday at a Charles County Democratic club meeting.

The Takoma Park resident is considered an underdog in a crowded field of Democratic attorney general candidates. Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas F. Gansler, who raised about $1.5 million through January, and former Baltimore prosecutor Stuart O. Simms, an accomplished politician and lawyer who had been Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan’s gubernatorial running mate, are considered the frontrunners. Baltimore attorney J. Wyndal Gordon is also seeking the nomination, while Frederick County State’s Attorney Scott L. Rolle is the sole Republican contender. But Perez remains undeterred, saying that Southern Maryland has a ‘‘bumper crop” of undecided Democratic voters.

On Sunday, he joined Clare C. Whitbeck, a Democratic candidate for delegate in St. Mary’s, at Christ Episcopal Church in Chaptico. ‘‘We have some people, who if they don’t have a GPS [global positioning system], can’t find our community,” said Whitbeck, who said she met Perez at a labor union function earlier this year. ‘‘If there’s anybody who can find Christ Church in Chaptico, that’s a person that’s got initiative.”

Later, local attorney David Densford hosted a reception for Perez before Mathis’ fundraiser at Old Breton Inn in Leonardtown.

Whitbeck, vice president of the United Seniors of Maryland, said Perez would be an aggressive health-care advocate for citizens. If elected, Perez said he would also get tough on consumer protection and environmental polluters.

Alan Brody