Tom Perez is not eligible to run for attorney general because he has not practiced law in Maryland for the required 10 years, the Court of Appeals ruled late Friday.
The news, issued on the same day that the court heard arguments in the case, could be a fatal blow for Perez’s campaign, with less than three weeks to go before he was set to face off with Democratic challengers Stuart Simms and Douglas Gansler in the Sept. 12 primary.
Neither Perez nor his campaign spokesman, Luke Clippinger, could be immediately reached Friday.
Perez’s candidacy was challenged in June by Steve Abrams, a Republican Montgomery County School Board member who is seeking election to the state comptroller’s seat. Abrams had questioned Perez’s eligibility because he had not been a member of the state bar for the required 10 years.
Perez, who was a longtime civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department under the Clinton administration, joined the bar in Maryland in 2001.
The court ordered Perez’s name removed from the ballot because he “does not possess the constitutional qualifications for the office of attorney general,” the court said in its one-page decision.
The state constitution does not specifically mention that attorney general candidates must be bar members. The law says candidates must be registered voters and must have practiced law in the state for 10 years.
An advisory opinion issued in May by retiring state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. — who is a Democrat — declared Perez eligible because of his Justice Department experience. Perez sought the opinion.
Abrams sought the ruling because of what he called “misuse of the process” by Perez. He said Perez should have sought a declaratory ruling by the state Board of Election, “instead [of choosing] to get an opinion of the attorney general.”
“This clearly was not a frivolous lawsuit,” Abrams said Friday.
Perez has accused Abrams of being an operative of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a claim Abrams denied.
“For folks who want to look at this through a political lens, that’stheir prerogative,” he said.
The decision comes on the same day that Perez, who has served as a Montgomery County council member from Silver Spring, launched his television advertising campaign. In the commercial, Perez talks about putting “skinhead gang members behind bars.”
Perez, who had a little more than $330,000 left on hand as of his Aug. 15 financial disclosure filing with the state, has been trailing Gansler, the Montgomery County state’s attorney, in recent polls.
cmabeus@dcexaminer.com
