Gansler: He’s anything but boring

Gansler also wants to be well known, judging from the 12 press releases sent out by his office in just the first week of February and the campaign-style Web site photo of the attorney general with his dress jacket slung over his shoulder.

Once in office, he started making waves. First he announced a shift of lawyers in the appellate division to the Washington suburbs — an illogical and costly move that screams politics. It’s a way to send a signal that Gansler’s home area is going to get more prime state jobs, and a way to force out some of the incumbent appellate lawyers from the Baltimore area who will have a miserable daily commute.

Moving this division to Annapolis would make a tremendous amount of sense, since that is where the group’s legal briefs are filed and oral arguments are heard. But a Montgomery County office? Attaching a walk-in consumer protection component to this new office amounts to a costly façade, since consumer complaints already are easily handled by phone from anywhere in the state.

Next, Gansler picked a fight with local state’s attorneys over who will pursue and prosecute gang violence. Gansler wants legislative approval to charge into any county and conduct major gang investigations, but state’s attorneys rightly worry about losing their jurisdictional powers as Gansler enlarges the scope of his office. Overlapping or even dueling gang probes could result.

Then Gansler outraged the juvenile justice advocacy community with his heavy-handed political actions. He abruptly demoted a nationally respected expert hired just a month ago to monitor Maryland’s juvenile delinquency facilities. That was bad enough.

But then he replaced her with an attorney-friend from Montgomery County who had been the successful campaign manager for newly elected state Sen. Jamie Raskin. She was looking for a top government job.

There’s nothing like having a skilled political campaign operative indebted to you, even though her credentials as an independent juvenile justice monitor are pretty thin.

It was no secret in last year’s campaign that Gansler wanted to be an activist attorney general whose role model was New York’s A.G.-turned-governor, Elliott Spitzer. Now Gansler is fulfilling that pledge. He exhibited sharp elbows and a penchant for over-the-top publicity as Montgomery County state’s attorney and he’s displaying those same tendencies on the state level.

This might not sit well with the governor. Gansler’s rude treatment of the deposed juvenile justice monitor is a slap in the face of retired A.G. Joe Curran, who just happens to be the governor’s father-in-law.

Gansler already had an image problem in the O’Malley household: He won his first term as Montgomery County state’s attorney by defeating Martin O’Malley’s father.

Now as attorney general, Gansler is flexing his muscles in a way the governor and legislative leaders may find threatening. He’s likely to receive a cool reception in his efforts to expand his legal adventures.

He’s also likely to find that taking on local state’s attorneys is often a losing battle. They have historically defended their powers vigorously and have won nearly every time their turf was threatened.

It’s ironic that the individual generally regarded as most likely to push the envelope as an activist state office holder — Franchot — has been uncharacteristically taciturn. After a splashy inaugural speech in which he took a position on nearly everything except the Iraq war, the new comptroller has tended to his office’s traditional chores and picked his battles carefully. His first crusade — a tax crackdown on thousands of shady video poker ‘‘amusement machines” in Baltimore city — is popular with local leaders and could make him a hero if it yields millions in unpaid tax dollars for Baltimore.

O’Malley, too, has been surprisingly low key. He made an early decision to take his time putting together his administration and to let Democratic leaders in the General Assembly take the lead on issues this session. Next year, his aides say, will be different, but for now the governor is content to settle for transitional progress during his first exposure to politics, Annapolis-style.

Only Gansler has been making waves. His high-energy vision of the attorney general’s office is in sharp contrast to Curran’s 20-year stewardship. One thing’s for sure: The new attorney general will be anything but dull.

Barry Rascovar is a communications consultant in the Baltimore area. His Wednesday morning commentaries can be heard on WYPR, 88.1 FM.