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Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has an unidentified county Republican central committee chairman to thank for having already locked up a second term in office.

The state GOP's last-ditch efforts to field a candidate for the race apparently were scuttled by the refusal of one of its own county chairmen to waive a required 10-day notice before executive committee meetings take place.

As details of the internal process trickled out this week, questions were raised about how cohesive the party is and fueled speculation about what motivated the decision.

James F. Shalleck, a lawyer from Montgomery Village, said he was prepared to run and had been vetted by party officials about five or six days before the July 21 party nominating deadline, but the executive committee's failure to call a meeting prevented him from being added to the ballot.

"As hard as it is for Republicans to survive [in Maryland], it's ridiculous to have internal squabbles within the house," he said Thursday.

State party officials confirmed that Shalleck, 64, had come forward and was the individual whom they hoped to nominate.

"As the state party is concerned, we did everything in our power to get somebody on the ballot," said Ryan Mahoney, the GOP's political director.

Party bylaws require executive committee meetings to be announced at least 10 days beforehand. That rule can be waived with the unanimous consent of all 24 local central committee chairs, Mahoney said.

When one person refused to go along, the party's efforts were dashed. The state executive committee needed to approve the nomination of any statewide candidate once the July 6 filing deadline passed.

"I very much wanted to have a candidate on the ballot, but I have to defer to the process and the procedure, and I understand entirely if someone did not think waiving the rules was appropriate," said state GOP chairwoman Audrey Scott. "It's their right. I'm not going to deny someone their opinion in that kind of situation."

Shalleck, who ran unsuccessfully for Montgomery County state's attorney in 1994, 1998 and 2006, was less forgiving.

"We were ready to go and somebody pulled the plug," he said Monday.

Shalleck said he considered running for attorney general before the initial deadline, but determined he would be unable to raise enough money to be competitive, and there was talk that the party had lined up another, better-funded candidate to run.

"When nobody filed, I said, ‘This is outrageous,'" Shalleck said.

With no opposition, Gansler (D) can use this election cycle to bolster his campaign coffers and marshal his forces in preparation for a possible gubernatorial run in 2014.

It also enables him to steer his abundant resources to other Democratic candidates this fall and could render the controversial same-sex marriage opinion Gansler issued in March less relevant for Democrats running in swing districts.

Gansler said he's working with individual candidates and the state party, "trying to pitch in wherever they think I can be of value." He is supporting Democrats — from Gov. Martin O'Malley all the way down to local sheriff and state's attorney races.

Although Gansler would have had far more money, Shalleck said the prospect of letting him go unchallenged was unacceptable.

Other Republicans agree.

"I can't understand why somebody would object to that, especially when the situation could have involved fielding a credible candidate to oppose the current attorney general," said Calvert County Republican Central Committee Chairman Frank McCabe. "It does upset me. I just wonder what the motivation could have been."

GOP insiders floated several theories that might have led to the outcome.

One possibility centers around the state GOP's decision earlier this year to waive a national party rule — known as Rule No. 11 — that prevents the Republican National Committee from providing resources to a candidate in a contested primary.

Supporters of Republican gubernatorial hopeful Brian Murphy have panned the decision and said it gives the impression that the party is backing former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. before the primary election.

Refusing to waive the 10-day meeting notice could be retaliation by a pro-Murphy central committee chairman still disgruntled that Rule 11 was invoked in the governor's race, observers said.

"It would shock me to know that one of the chairmen of a county [central committee] would stand in the way of the party's business," said Mike Pappas, a onetime gubernatorial candidate and former parliamentarian of the state GOP. "But as a Republican in Maryland, I never cease to be amazed at some of the things that go on on both sides."

Any objections with Shalleck or the process should have been hashed out before the full executive committee, McCabe said.

Another theory has Ehrlich's campaign conspiring to keep a Republican attorney general candidate from being nominated out of fear that it would draw more Democratic voters to the polls in support of Gansler and, in turn, O'Malley (D).

Henry Fawell, Ehrlich's communications director, rejected the suggestion that the campaign played a role. Ehrlich (R) would have welcomed a candidate to run against Gansler, he said.

"Bob Ehrlich wants the strongest possible party. The stronger the party is, the better we do and the better off Maryland is," he said.

Former Republican Del. Donald E. Murphy also dismissed the Ehrlich conspiracy theory. Social conservatives disenchanted by Gansler's decision that the state should recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states could be compelled to vote if he had Republican opposition, he said.

"There are some social conservatives who look at this election and say, ‘What's in it for me?' or ‘Why bother to vote?'" Murphy said. "If this gay marriage issue were a part of the dynamic that makes it more likely that they would vote, and then cast a vote for Bob Ehrlich."

And Ehrlich could use all the help he can get in what is expected to be an extremely tight gubernatorial contest.

"In a race that's likely to be as close as this one will be, everything matters," Murphy said.

Asked if the lack of an attorney general candidate will affect the outcome of the race for governor, Fawell said, "We'll find out Nov. 3."

Regardless of why the central committee chairman chose to object to waiving the 10-day notice, Mahoney said it should not reflect on party unity.

"We're disappointed that we couldn't get an attorney general candidate on the ballot, but I don't think that's representative of a party that's not unified towards the greater goal," he said.