Rolle backed by expectant GOP

Friday, May 12, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Tom Fedor⁄The Gazette Frederick County State’s Attorney Scott Rolle (right) announced his attorney general bid at American Legion Post 11 in Frederick on Tuesday with some high-powered backup: Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (pictured) and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.

FREDERICK — Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele took the microphone Tuesday before more than 100 Republican faithful crowded inside the American Legion Hall in Frederick.

His baritone rang from the PA system like a velvet fog. ‘‘There’s a little man named Scott,” he said, ‘‘who’s running for a big office.”

Cheers followed, and for a Republican Party swimming against the tide of Maryland voter registration, the GOP has plenty to be happy about.

With the addition of Frederick County State’s Attorney Scott L. Rolle to the Maryland attorney general’s race, the party appears competitive in major statewide races for the first time in anyone’s memory.

Rolle — whose name is pronounced like the capital of North Carolina — joins a GOP ticket with Steele, the Republicans’ best shot at the U.S. Senate since Charles McC. Mathias retired, and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is seeking re-election.

Providing more than their endorsement, Ehrlich and Steele are fortifying Rolle’s campaign like older brothers protecting a weaker sibling. Ehrlich said he and Steele would have Rolle ‘‘bracketed” on election day.

‘‘We’re so excited what opportunities lie before us. This is a big deal,” Steele told the crowd.

Rolle’s announcement came a day after Democratic incumbent J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced he would retire from politics after 48 years. At least two Montgomery County politicians want to be Curran’s successor.

‘‘One can’t run in the state, and Doug Gansler has been cited so many times by the Maryland Bar, he’ll be thrown out of office before he can finish a term,” joked John M. Kane, the Maryland Republican Party chairman.

Rolle, 44, also won the support of U.S. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Dist. 6) of Buckeystown. Two years ago, Rolle opposed Bartlett in the GOP primary.

‘‘Everywhere I can be to help Scott, I’ll be there,” said the 79-year-old Bartlett, who is running for an eighth term.

Two years ago, Ehrlich scolded Rolle for challenging Bartlett. During the campaign, Rolle said his views were more in line with President Bush’s. He called himself the ‘‘real Republican” and ‘‘consistent conservative” in the race.

‘‘I thought it was not the right step for him,” the governor said Tuesday. ‘‘Roscoe was doing a good job. Scott thought otherwise. ... I did not want that race to occur. I think everybody’s over it.”

In his remarks this week, Rolle called Bartlett a ‘‘gentleman” and a ‘‘class act.”

‘‘Your presence here sends a message we’re unified, we stand together for the common good,” he said.

Virtually unknown outside Frederick County, the three-term prosecutor acknowledged he would need the assistance from Ehrlich and Steele on Nov. 7.

‘‘This prosecutor from Frederick is going to hang on to those coattails as hard as he can,” he told supporters.

Boosting his name recognition will take money. Rolle estimated he would need $1 million to $2 million.

‘‘He’s not a great fund-raiser. That’s a compliment,” Ehrlich told the Frederick crowd.

But money might not be a problem.

Paul S. Herrnson, director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland, said he expects money to flow into Maryland from national Republicans. He predicted $40 million to $50 million to be spent on Free State campaigns.

‘‘That will help every Republican on this ticket,” Herrnson said.

The GOP, of course, has lousy field position going into election season, with Republican registration at about 900,000 in a state with 3 million registered voters.

As attorney general, Rolle said, he would fight gang violence and end parole for murderers, rapists and child molesters. He also advocated ‘‘Jessica’s Law,” a proposal to send child rapists to prison for a minimum 25 years that has been promoted by Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.

‘‘People are looking for a law-and-order attorney general,” Rolle said in an interview. ‘‘Law-and-order candidates win whether they’re Republicans or they’re Democrats.”

Rolle also said he would not have prosecuted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo if he were Montgomery County’s state’s attorney.

He said he objected to the expense and to putting victims’ families through another trial. He also worried that the Montgomery County case could provide grist for appeals of their convictions in Virginia.

‘‘You don’t need to try the case again,” he said.

As an Army Reserve captain, Rolle recently defended a dog handler charged with tormenting prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Facing a possible prison term of 24 years, Michael J. Smith was sentenced in March to six months.

Rolle’s time as Frederick County state’s attorney has included the 2002 prosecution of Elmer Spencer Jr., who molested and murdered a 9-year-old a week after leaving prison.

In 1998, Rolle prosecuted D. Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel Prize winner who served 18 months in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center for molesting boys.

Born and raised in Montgomery County, Rolle appeared at a Rockville rally on Tuesday to drum up support. Unlike the excitement in Frederick, less than half as many people arrived.