A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Maryland attorney general candidate Tom Perez’s eligibility is a Republican attempt to wound the Democrat before the Sept. 12 primary election, campaign spokesman Luke Clippinger said Monday.
The suit, filed Thursday by GOP state comptroller candidate Stephen Abrams in Anne Arundel Circuit Court, says Perez, a Montgomery County council member, is not eligible to serve because he has not been a member of the Maryland bar for 10 years. The suit also names the state Board of Elections and Elections Administrator Linda Lamone.
“I think it is safe to say he’s a Republican operative if there ever was one,” Clippinger said of Abrams.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Loney denied a temporary restraining order request from Abrams on Thursday but wrote that his complaint “raises substantial and important issues on the merits that warrant a full adversary hearing.”
Abrams said the lawsuit was not personally motivated but added that the two differed on several issues.
Clippinger said Perez joined the state bar in 2001 but prosecuted cases, some of which were in Maryland, as a longtime lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice. 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.
“Practice in Maryland authorized by federal and state law counts toward the durational experience requirement in the Maryland Constitution, even if that work was performed while the attorney was not a member of the Maryland bar,” Curran wrote.
Abrams, who is challenging Curran’s opinion, called Curran’s decision an administrative one that should be left to the General Assembly or state courts.
cmabeus@dcexaminer.com
