Perez Throws His Support to Simms

This Is Not the Time for Protest Votes, Former Candidate Tells Backers

Barred by a court ruling from running for Maryland attorney general, Montgomery County Council member Tom Perez endorsed former rival Stuart O. Simms yesterday.

Appearing with Simms at an emotional rally in Takoma Park, Perez urged his backers to support the Baltimore lawyer in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary against Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler.

Perez asked cheering supporters to put aside anger over last week's decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals, which ruled that he had not practiced law long enough in Maryland to meet the constitutional requirements for the job.

"I am frustrated, too, but now is not the time or place to cast protest votes," Perez said. "The stakes are simply too high."

Perez said he would campaign with Simms during the two weeks before the primary and lend financial support. Perez, who raised nearly $600,000, said he has purchased ads in newspapers endorsing Simms.

"This race remains a jump ball, and Stu's going to win that jump ball," Perez said.

The Court of Appeals approved a request yesterday from the State Board of Elections that Perez's name stay on the ballot and that notices be posted in polling places informing voters that he is not a candidate.

The board filed a motion Monday saying that it would be "impossible" to reprogram the state's electronic voting machines and reprint absentee ballots to remove Perez's name in time for the election.

Yesterday's court order came despite objections by the Simms campaign, which filed a motion earlier in the day arguing that support for Simms would be "diluted and diminished" if Perez's name stayed on the ballot.

During yesterday's rally, Perez denounced the court ruling that bounced him from the election. "We saw the continuation of the troubling trend of elections being decided in the courtroom and not the ballot box," he said.

Simms, standing behind Perez during the afternoon rally, spoke warmly about his former rival, saying Perez had inserted "the moral soul back into Maryland politics."

Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Montgomery), a Perez supporter, predicted that the court ruling would deflate Hispanic voters who had been energized by the prospect of making Perez the first Latino to win statewide office in Maryland.

Perez's endorsement would not automatically translate into votes for Simms, she said. "If [Simms] wants to inherit that support, he's going to do quite a bit of outreach," Gutierrez said.

Mike Morrill, a spokesman for the Gansler campaign, played down the significance of the endorsement, saying that many Perez supporters were backing Gansler.

One union representative at the Perez event -- Bob Stewart, executive director for the United Food and Commercial Workers local for Montgomery and Prince George's counties -- said the organization had shifted its support from Perez to Gansler. "We don't know a whole lot about Stu," Stewart said.

In another twist in the attorney general's race yesterday, the Fraternal Order of Police lodge representing Prince George's police endorsed Scott L. Rolle, the Republican candidate in the race. Rolle, the Frederick County state's attorney, also received endorsements from lodges affiliated with Prince George's sheriff's deputies and the Maryland National Capital Park Police.

"We're beaming," Rolle said after a news conference. "For me to get a boost like this in Prince George's County, which is historically Democratic, is huge."

Staff writer Nelson Hernandez contributed to this report.