Two Top Jobs in Maryland

HAVING ALREADY endorsed Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) for a second term in office, we turn our attention to the other two top jobs in state government: attorney general and comptroller.

Democrat Douglas F. Gansler and Republican Scott L. Rolle, two tough-minded, able and experienced prosecutors, are running to be Maryland's attorney general. The race is one-sided: no Republican has been elected attorney general of Maryland since 1919, and Mr. Gansler enjoys an enormous edge in campaign cash, name recognition and organization. That's a good thing, since it is also the case that he is the better pick to be the state's top law officer and run an office of nearly 400 lawyers.

Mr. Gansler, Montgomery County's top prosecutor since 1999 and a federal prosecutor before that, is a fine lawyer and administrator who has set himself an ambitious agenda for the job he seeks. He has pledged to focus on the environment, particularly cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay; he plans to employ underutilized state and federal enforcement tools to crack down on agribusiness polluters that he believes have evaded the law.

As we noted when we endorsed Mr. Gansler for the Democratic nomination, he is an unusually brash, outspoken public official whose appetite for publicity has earned him detractors. Still, if he sticks to the law and learns the art of understatement, he may easily win allies, for he has the energy and intellect to be a first-rate attorney general.

Mr. Rolle, the chief prosecutor in Frederick County, has run a campaign stressing tougher treatment for child sex predators, including abolishing parole for them. On a range of other issues -- including abortion, which he opposes -- his views are well to the right of what most Marylanders believe. We don't doubt his legal acuity, but his experience is no match for Mr. Gansler's.

The race for Maryland's comptroller, the state's chief tax collector, is even more one-sided. Del. Peter V.R. Franchot , a Montgomery County Democrat, is a 20-year veteran of state politics whose independent-mindedness and broad familiarity with state finances make him easily more qualified than Anne M. McCarthy, the Republican candidate. Ms. McCarthy, a former business school dean, is a novice in state politics who has lived in Maryland just four years.