From the invocation to the introductions, the choice of former city prosecutor and state public safety chief Stuart Simms as Doug Duncan?s running mate in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday at a Baltimore Baptist church, was presented as being “about substance, not style.”
In as many ways as the Duncan backers could phrase it, they drew the contrast between the issue-oriented, underdog campaign of the 12-year Montgomery County executive and the staid Simms and that of the more charismatic Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley and Del. Anthony Brown, his lieutenant governor nominee.
“We need more than just [what] looks good,” the Rev. John Wright of Howard County?s First Baptist Church of Guilford said in a prayer in which he referred to Duncan as “anointed” by God for the governor?s mansion.
“We need to decide boyish good looks should not be the main criteria for our next governor,” said Sen. Delores Kelley of Randallstown, one of the few Baltimore-area legislators who have endorsed Duncan and not O?Malley. “We are here today to say we don?t want a coronation.”
“This is not just a team for show,” said Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy, who is frequently at odds with the mayor over law enforcement. Maryland needs a governor who emphasizes “policy over press events,” she said, praising the Duncan-Simms ticket?s “maturity, experience, integrity.”
“These are big guys with big ideas,” said former Mayor Kurt Schmoke, whom Simms succeeded as city prosecutor and who hired Jessamy and then promoted her, as did Simms.
Simms talked more about Duncan than he did about himself. He emphasized how much he was impressed with Duncan and his “passion for effective public service.”
“It pays to work collectively and not alone,” Simms said. “You?ve got to bring people together,” and Duncan does that.
Behind in fundraising and polls despite his longer record as head of Maryland?s largest jurisdiction, Duncan has been a critic of O?Malley?s performance on crime and schools. Simms defended Duncan, saying, “Doug Duncan is pro-Baltimore. ? To accuse this man of Baltimore-bashing is not right.”
“I like the mayor,” Simms insisted in an interview. “I hired him” as a prosecutor and “I wish he would stay as mayor,” but the campaign is “not personal,” he said.
Stuart Simms
Born July 17, 1950 in Baltimore.
Education: Public schools, Gilman School; B.A., Dartmouth College (captain of football team); Harvard Law School
Professional career: Litigator; staff counsel, U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes; deputy state?s attorney (prosecutor), Baltimore City, 1983-87; litigator, Brown, Goldstein & Levy, 2003-present (civil litigation, criminal defense.)
Political Career: State?s Attorney, Baltimore City (appointed to replace Kurt Schmoke, who was elected mayor); elected State?s Attorney; secretary, Md. Dept. of Juvenile Services 1995-97; secretary, Dept. of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
Family: Wife, Candace; two grown sons, Paul and Marcus; lives in Baltimore.
Anthony Brown
Chosen to be Martin O?Malley?s running mate.
Born Nov. 21, 1961, Huntington, N.Y.
Education: B.A., Harvard University; J.D., Harvard Law School
Professional career: Associate Attorney, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., 1994-98; Gibbs & Haller in Lanham, Md. (real estate, planning and zoning); U.S. Army (aviation officer), U.S. Army Reserve, lieutenant colonel, Judge Advocate General?s Corps.
Political career: Board of trustees, Prince George?s Community College, 1995-99; House of Delegates, 1999-present, Democratic majority whip, Judiciary Committee vice chair.
Family: Wife, Patricia; children, Rebecca and Jonathan; home in Lanham, Prince George?s County.
