Doug Gansler
Maryland's new Attorney General takes a hard stance toward polluters

by Nicolas Ruggia

Loved and loathed for outspoken mannerisms with the press and admitted ambition, it is too early to say how high up the political star of Maryland's charismatic new attorney general, Doug Gansler, will rise, but he is eager to choose the right enemies.

Soon after taking office in January, as the successor to 20-year veteran Joseph Curran, Gansler began making plans to bring lawsuits against the large industrial and agribusiness polluters along waterways, particularly the Susquehanna River, that continue to choke the Chesapeake Bay with toxins and fertilizers. Municipalities that are releasing raw sewage because of deficient waste-treatment plants are also on his hit-list.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

Gansler says he is serious about following through on his campaign focus on the environment that raised some eyebrows, but, ultimately, may have won the election for him.

"In some ways I got lucky because I picked the environment as an issue before it really got as popular as it is," Gansler says. "It's now clear we're at a crossroads in terms of the Chesapeake Bay."

By listing polluters as "most wanted criminals," Gansler already is distinguishing himself as different from most state attorney generals.

He has forged his own way before. As a high school student at Sidwell Friends in Washington, he graduated early and went to Montevideo, Uruguay, to work in a leather belt factory where he studied existentialism under the guidance of a teacher from his school.

"All of my friends were at home enjoying senior year of high school while I was spending time with leather workers who lived in abject poverty," he says.

Gansler's experience in South America coupled with his early forays on Capitol Hill interning with U. S. senators Bill Bradley (D-NJ) and Birch Bayh (D-IN0 started him on a career in law and politics that has focused on tough-guy liberal issues ranging from domestic abuse and gang violence to environmental advocacy.

"I always had a fascination with politics. You can do a lot of good things," he says.

Gansler, 44, has a pedigree in public service. His father, Jacques Gansler, is a former undersecretary of acquisition at the U. S. Department of Defense and currently serves as vice-president for research at the University of Maryland. His mother, Alison, is a public school teacher.

Born in New Jersey, Gansler moved as a fifth grader to Chevy Chase in 1972 for a supposed short stay. The move ended up being permanent. "Our whole family loved it here, so my two-year stay is still going," Gansler quips.

Before Gansler embarked on his political career he worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington from 1992 to 1998 where he grappled with the hard realities of urban poverty. "My first eight cases I had in the U.S. attorney's office were domestic violence cases."

Later he prosecuted gang crimes, sex offenses, hate crimes, drug crimes, murders and financial crimes, a wide range of problems that he has continued to take on throughout his career.

He also had frustrations as an assistant prosecutor, particularly in how the judicial system handles domestic violence. In 1998 he decided to try for the top prosecutor's job in Montgomery County, challenging incumbent Robert Dean, and won in something of an upset.

Gansler gained a mixed reputation in his eight years of prosecutions in Montgomery County. His relentless courtroom pursuit of the infamous "Beltway snipers," Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, after they had already been sentenced to die in Virginia, was probably his most high-profile controversy.

Apologizing for such decisions has not been his style, however, and it is not likely he will change in his new role as the state's top prosecutor. He plans to be an aggressive advocate of consumer protection, he says, what he calls the "bread and butter of the office," and also wants to go hard after criminals who operate on the Internet.

During high school, Gansler was a lacrosse star, and he went on to play at Yale University, but, even as an athlete, he says he always had an independent streak and "an aversion to standard coaching."

Gansler continued his education at the University of Virginia School of Law. On his first day of classes he met the woman he would marry, Laura Leedy.

They have two sons, Sam, 12, and Will, 10, who, he says, are his inspiration for the hard line he intends to take against environmental crime. He wants to be remembered for stopping polluters, not turning a blind eye to the detriment of the next generation.

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