Primary endorsements: Cardin, Gansler and Owens

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006

In this year’s primary election — thanks largely to a generational change in the state Democratic Party — voters across Maryland must decide on highly competitive races for three major offices. The Gazette’s choices as Democratic nominees in these races are: Benjamin L. Cardin for U.S. Senator, Douglas F. Gansler for Maryland attorney general and Janet S. Owens for state comptroller.

Here’s why:

U.S. Senate

Over almost 20 years, through 10 consecutive terms as the congressman from Maryland’s 3rd District, Ben Cardin has shown a penchant for hard work and attention to detail that too few legislators exhibit.

Cardin — in the tradition of Maryland’s longest-serving U.S. senator, Paul S. Sarbanes, whose retirement leaves this seat open for the first time since 1976 — is not given to grabbing headlines, so much so that he suffers at times on the campaign trail. But his low-key manner is among his most attractive traits.

On Capitol Hill, Cardin has immersed himself in tough national and international issues: health care, retirement security, trade and human rights. He’s worked to expand Medicare to cover more preventive services, fix the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, strengthen tax-favored savings programs, improve college access, foster higher-quality K-12 teachers and bring U.S. troops home from Iraq.

As a former speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, Cardin understands this state well, and in Congress he has ably attended to its needs, working to preserve Maryland steelworkers’ jobs and to secure thousands of new jobs for the state in the Pentagon’s base realignment process.

Of particular interest to voters in Washington’s suburbs, he seems very aware of the region’s traffic crisis — and the critical need to keep addressing it.

If nominated by state Democrats, Cardin would face off against the presumed Republican candidate, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele — providing state voters with a real political choice. We look forward to that.

Among a large field of other candidates, Cardin’s strongest opponent, former 7th District representative and former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, would also offer voters a distinct choice in the general election. And, of course, his remarkable rise from very tough beginnings speaks volumes of his character.

But Mfume’s recent experiences with the NAACP have given him a national focus. His voice seems clearest when addressing national — not Maryland — issues. Cardin seems more in touch with Maryland, and his record in Congress surpasses that of Mfume’s.

Attorney General

Doug Gansler brings high energy, open ambition and a dynamic sense of the law to his race against Stuart O. Simms and Thomas E. Perez to be the Democratic nominee to succeed retiring state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.

Gansler has accomplished much in his eight years as Montgomery County state’s attorney and has the potential to be a vigorous attorney general who would look out for the public interest.

In past posts in Baltimore and Annapolis, Simms has earned wide respect. But having started out as a candidate for lieutenant governor — with Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan’s aborted campaign for governor — Simms seems to not quite have his heart in this race. As for Perez, his term as a Montgomery County councilman has not been full of accomplishment.

By contrast, Gansler has brought new management efficiencies to the Montgomery prosecutor’s office, created ‘‘community-based” prosecution teams, pioneered the county’s first drug courts and domestic-violence dockets, and formed the state’s first elder abuse task force and Internet crime unit.

If elected attorney general, he promises to pursue a wide-ranging agenda, including targeting school-based gangs and performing a comprehensive audit of how Maryland’s environmental laws are being enforced along the Chesapeake Bay. In particular, he wants to be known as the ‘‘environmental attorney general.”

One troubling note is Gansler’s tendency to leave himself open to accusations of grandstanding. He has been reprimanded by the state Court of Appeals for making prejudicial comments outside of court in a murder case. And he has been criticized for prosecuting the Washington-area snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, after Virginia already had tried and sentenced them, respectively, to death and life.

If Gansler receives the nod to run against the presumed Republican nominee, Frederick County State’s Attorney Scott L. Rolle, he should view it as an opportunity to put such concerns firmly to rest — so that they don’t cloud an otherwise highly credible candidacy.

State comptroller

Any discussion of the Democratic race for comptroller has to begin with William Donald Schaefer, who, like no other, has given deeply of himself for decades as Baltimore’s mayor, Maryland’s governor and, currently, its comptroller.

Increasingly, however, Schaefer’s unique style has devolved into embarrassing verbal transgressions involving women or minorities — embarrassing for Schaefer and for the people of Maryland. It’s time for him to retire from the public stage with grace and high honors.

In this race, The Gazette supports Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens as the steadier candidate over Del. Peter V.R. Franchot of Takoma Park.

State comptroller is a critical office — not just because it is responsible for collecting Maryland’s tax revenues, but also because the comptroller holds one of three votes, along with the governor and state treasurer, on the state Board of Public Works.

We worry that Franchot would use this high platform to pursue a too-broad agenda left over from his long legislative career. An example of this is his recent press conference calling for increased state spending on women’s reproductive health — a worthy goal but a big stretch of the comptroller’s duties. This is no job for a gadfly.

Owens offers the promise of an independent and sensible voice on the all-important board. She brings eight years of successful experience managing Anne Arundel County’s $1.1 billion budget and 5,000 employees. Under her leadership, the county has experienced healthy economic development, acquired thousands of acres of open space, and, she says, made sure to keep its pension funds in good shape under professional managers — not incidentally, another key role of the state comptroller.

In the Republican primary for comptroller, The Gazette is not endorsing any of the four candidates.