BALTIMORE (CN) — Michael Anthony Peroutka promises that if elected he will criminally prosecute government officials for closing churches and businesses during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“So I am running for attorney general because of all these atrocities,” he tells the crowd of 50 “We The People” activists at a Harford County winery, many of whom were fresh from a board of elections meeting in which they claimed the 2020 election was stolen. “Do you think they’re done with you?”
“Nooo!” the assembled voters shout.
Peroutka, a retired debt collector from Pasadena who ran for president in 2004 on the U.S. Constitution Party’s ticket, is one of two candidates vying for the Republican nomination for Maryland attorney general, an office no Republican has held since 1954. His opponent, Jim Shalleck, is a former New York prosecutor whose claim to fame (“this will be the first thing in my obituary,” he told a reporter decades ago) is his small part prosecuting David Berkowitz — the infamous “Son of Sam” serial killer.
Shalleck also pledges to beef up his office’s criminal prosecutions. But he wants to turn its attention to the shocking murder rate in Baltimore City, not public health officials or the former governor. “No deals for these violent and repeat offenders,” he says in a campaign video.
As it goes in the AG race, so too in the governor’s race, where a pair of Republican candidates — one traditionally conservative, the other reactionary — vie for the right to battle one of an array of milquetoast Democrats whose solid credentials and gleaming smiles are as alike as their policy prescriptions.
“All of the candidates in both [Democratic] races are 98% the same DNA,” said Todd Eberly, an associate professor of political science at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland. “Voters will be making their decision on personality and electability.”
On the Republican side there are contrasts.
Dan Cox, an ineffectual state legislator endorsed by former President Donald Trump, says that as governor he will prohibit public health measures, ban the teaching of “critical race theory,” increase police funding and reduce taxes as part of a “Contract to Maryland.” Last year he filed articles of impeachment — which Peroutka says he wrote — against Governor Larry Hogan. The Legislature ignored him.
Cox is polling even against Lt. Governor Kelly Schulz, stoking fears among members of the Republican establishment, which has enjoyed eight years of smooth patronage under Hogan, a commercial developer with high approval ratings, presidential ambitions and a moderate reputation.
“This race is Schulz's to lose and somehow she’s figuring a way to do it,” said John Dedie, a political science professor at the Community College of Baltimore County. “She should have cut off Cox’s oxygen months ago.”
If the election turnout is low, as expected, Dedie noted, Cox’s advantage in signs throughout rural parts of the state could be telling. “I don’t think he has a shot in hell of being elected governor,” he said. “But you see all this rhetoric about a stolen election. I think you will embolden far-right groups in Maryland if Cox is the nominee.”
They’re already emboldened, having filed a federal lawsuit based on specious claims of a debunked documentary. Election day is Tuesday, July 19, but absentee ballots counting won’t start until Thursday, then go on for 10 days, because Hogan vetoed a bill that would have started the count earlier. Elections officials — already under fire from “Stop The Steal” activists — are expecting a rough time.
Democrats denounced Cox with $1 million in television ads, but Schulz claimed it would boost his prospects.
