GOP chairman calls for Currie to step down as budget chairman

Ethics filings yield few clues to Currie investigation; federal raids mean more than state ethics violations likely in play, former prosecutor says

And Common Cause, the politcs watchdog group, called the news ‘‘troubling.”

Special Agent Richard Wolf, spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore office, confirmed the agents were at Currie's house and the Shoppers Food Warehouse in Lanham, but declined to provide other details.

Currie's lawyer, Baltimore attorney Dale P. Kelberman, said the FBI executed a search warrant and took some documents. He said the agents have not said what they are investigating.

Reached at home on Friday, Currie said that he was met by two FBI agents as he left his residence at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Currie said he then drove to Baltimore to speak with Kelberman.

Currie said he did not know what the agents were investigating.

‘‘My lawyer is handling this,” the senator said. ‘‘He asked me to refer all questions to him.”

State ethics filings for Currie (D-Dist. 25) shed little light on the nature of the investigation, which also included a search of the headquarters of Shoppers Food Warehouse in Lanham.

Currie did consulting work for the grocery chain, which operates 64 stores in Maryland, Virginia and Washington and is owned by Minnesota-based Supervalu Inc., a 2,500-store national retail network.

A Supervalu spokeswoman said Thursday that the raid was related to an investigation of Currie, but provided no details about the nature of Currie's work with the company.

Currie did not list his association with Shoppers Food Warehouse in any disclosure forms filed with the State Ethics Commission through 2007. He also did not report having received any income from the grocery chain.

Currie attested in his 2007 ethics filing that he did not represent ‘‘a person for compensation before a State or local government agency other than in a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding.”

In that same filing, Currie responded to the question ‘‘During the reporting period, did you or any member of your immediate family, receive any earned income from an entity other than the State of Maryland?” by checking ‘‘No.”

An attorney at the Baltimore law firm of Miles & Stockbridge, Kelberman represented Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach during an investigation into the legality of two $100,000 donations from horse racing interests to a national legislative committee headed by Miller. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, at the time headed by Thomas M. DiBaggio, closed the investigation in September 2004 after more than a year without finding any illegal activity.

Currie is a loyal lieutenant of Miller's in the Senate, where he is well respected by colleagues who were left only to speculate about the nature of the investigation.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said he could not comment on whether there was a pending investigation.

A former assistant U.S. Attorney, who spoke only if his name wasn't published, said any federal investigation into Currie, which was indicated by the FBI's presence, would have to be handled by Rosenstein's office.

Last year, Rosenstein's office won a guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy and filing a false tax return by former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell and a guilty plea of mail fraud by his wife Mary Patricia Bromwell in connection with a contracting fraud scheme.

‘‘This is the third FBI investigation of Democratic State Senators in recent years,” Pelura said in Friday's statement. ‘‘This culture of corruption is a perfect object lesson about the dangers of one-party, monopoly rule.”

The former assistant attorney said it would be surprising if federal investigators were pursuing a mere state ethics violation.

Supervalu contributed $19,250 to the campaign accounts of various Maryland politicians between 2004 and 2007, according to campaign finance data. The company made three separate $2,500 contributions to Currie in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

‘‘Senator Currie's business relationship with Supervalu, a company that has given him $7,500 in political donations, is obviously troubling. This is the sort of relationship that undermines voters' trust in the system,” Ryan O'Donnell, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said in a statement on Friday. ‘‘Previous federal investigations of the General Assembly are fresh on Marylanders' minds. We shouldn't jump to conclusions in this case, but it's safe to say that such incidents reinforce the damaging perception of 'pay-to-play' politics, which can't be remedied without public financing of campaigns.”

Common Cause supports a Clean Elections bill that would establish voluntary public financing of campaigns.

Supervalu has also donated $3,500 to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), $2,000 to Miller and $1,000 to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R).

Shoppers Food Warehouse made more than $4,000 in campaign contributions to various recipients from 1999 to 2005, but not Currie, according to campaign finance data.

Currie is one of the Senate's most prolific fundraisers, boasting $358,000 in the bank last February. He held a $500-a-plate breakfast reception in Baltimore last October that raked in $46,000.

According to an ethics filing, Currie purchased his District Heights home in December 1990 from U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville, the House majority leader, and his wife Judith. Currie paid $169,579, according to the report.

Currie was sworn in as state senator Jan. 11, 1995. He has been chairman of the powerful Budget and Taxation Committee since 2002.

Before he was a senator, he served in the House of Delegates from January 1987 to January 1995 for District 25 in Prince George's County, serving as majority whip. The North Carolina native served in the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1963 and then attended American University where he received his master's degree in education. He was a teacher in Prince George's County for 25 years.

Colleagues were in disbelief that Currie might be a part of a federal investigation.

‘‘My first impression is that it's hard to believe anything can come of it, because Uly has just exemplified the best and the finest qualities,” said Senate Finance Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton (D-Dist. 28) of Waldorf, who sits next to Currie in the chamber. ‘‘He's gotten where he is because of his hard work and dedication and it comes as a real surprise.”

Currie's ambition to receive a college education in segregated North Carolina and his dedication to public service has earned him much respect over the years, said Sen. Jennie M. Forehand (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville, a North Carolina native who has grown close with Currie during their tenure in Annapolis.

‘‘I never heard anybody say anything bad about Ulysses Currie so this is a shock to me,” she said.