GOP attorney general candidate Rolle goes negative

Friday, Oct. 6, 2006

But Rolle (R) offers one thing Gansler (D) can’t.

He isn’t Doug Gansler.

Rolle, the 45-year-old Frederick County state’s attorney, isn’t the prosecutor whose media-friendly habits landed him a rare reprimand from the Maryland Court of Appeals in 2003.

‘‘That really resonates with people because everywhere I go there seems to be quite a bit of negative feeling towards him,” Rolle said in an interview. ‘‘This guy, he faced disbarment for making comments to the press that all prosecutors know cross the line.”

Rolle’s campaign, in part, piggybacks on the logic of Democratic diehards who urged Stuart O. Simms to run for the party’s nomination. When Simms entered the race, former attorney general Stephen H. Sachs was quoted as saying, ‘‘Nobody likes Gansler.”

Sachs said Monday that he was referring to Gansler’s past difficulties, which the primary election has helped to erase. Rolle won’t be able to capitalize on those sentiments, he said.

‘‘I think he’ll be fooling himself ... that any personal distaste of Gansler is going to translate into anything politically significant,” Sachs said.

A (Baltimore) Sun poll published Tuesday shows Gansler with a 54 percent to 26 percent lead over Rolle.

Even so, Gansler’s grandstanding is a Rolle target. ‘‘A lot of people in Montgomery County think he spent a million dollars on the sniper trial to get himself promoted. And then to look people in the face and say it only cost $2,000,” Rolle said.

Sheriff Raymond M. Kight (D) estimated the cost of John Allen Muhammad’s May trial, including overtime for police and at the jail, as exceeding $740,000.

Gansler, the Montgomery County state’s attorney, has brushed that criticism aside before. His tracking of trial costs came to $1,760. Salaries would have been paid anyway, he said.

But the costs are immaterial, Gansler said. ‘‘We are charged with prosecuting people who commit murder in this county,” he said.

As for the court’s reprimand, Gansler insists it was politically motivated after he criticized other judges.

Something else separates Gansler from Rolle — money. Gansler has more than $1 million to spend. Rolle’s campaign has about $150,000, said campaign consultant Kevin Igoe. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has promised to support Rolle’s campaign and two major fund-raisers are in the works.

But if money separates the men, ambition unites them. For years, Gansler has discussed his desires to be attorney general. Two years ago, Rolle sought the 6th Congressional District seat that Roscoe G. Bartlett (R) has held since 1992.

Ambition, Rolle said, is not necessarily a dirty word. ‘‘I just think it’s how you go about it. When you’re willing to spend taxpayer dollars to promote your ambition, that’s wrong,” he said.

Rolle’s ambitions in 2004 ran counter to the wishes of Ehrlich, who didn’t want Bartlett challenged from within the GOP. ‘‘Even though he [Ehrlich] did that, I knew he liked me and I knew he would like me in that seat at the time. But I also know as a party player, he had to do his thing,” Rolle said.

Rolle’s strategy in that 2004 race might seem a liability now that he wants to run statewide in true-blue Maryland. Two years ago, he veered right of Bartlett, who has a 95 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.

Rolle called himself a ‘‘consistent conservative.” It didn’t work; Bartlett won more than 70 percent of vote.

Since then, fences have been mended. Bartlett contributed $4,000 to Rolle. And in March, Ehrlich asked Rolle to run for attorney general.

Voters have not brought up his hard-right stances, Rolle said. Instead, he said, he has won over voters with his message of fighting gangs, protecting the environment and abolishing parole for child sex offenders.

‘‘I‘ve run into soccer moms all over the state and [they say,] ‘Look I don’t care what party you are. I like what you’re saying about kids,’” Rolle said.

One of those people is Cassandra Burckhalter, who heard Rolle speak at a Prince George’s County NAACP meeting and ultimately became his campaign chairwoman in the county. ‘‘I listened and I realized a majority of his positions represented my personal views,” she said.

Rolle has another unabashed supporter in Ehrlich. Last week, Ehrlich introduced his mother, Nancy, to Rolle at the Great Frederick Fair.

‘‘Have you seen my new lawyer?” Ehrlich asked.

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