Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler might soon be getting a call from Gov. Martin O’Malley, if he hasn’t already received one, seeking a campaign donation.

The governor, in his solicitation, might raise the following points:

• Gansler is running unopposed for re-election; O’Malley is not.

• Gansler has campaign money he need not spend on himself; O’Malley does not.

• Gansler might want to run for governor in four years; O’Malley cannot if he wins re-election this fall against Republican challenger Robert Ehrlich and is term-limited out of office.

• Gansler, if he plans a gubernatorial run, thus has a rooting interest in O’Malley’s victory this fall, as it is easier to win an open seat than one occupied by an incumbent (O’Malley’s win over then-Gov. Ehrlich in 2006 being an exception).

But cheers of “Go, Martin, Go” do not win re-election fights. Money does — and Gansler has plenty to spare.

The attorney general might also want to spread the wealth. Donating to many Democrats in tight races this fall could be an investment that pays dividends for Gansler in 2014 when he might seek gubernatorial-campaign support.

Well, this could get awkward.

Alison Asti, who filed Monday to run for a seat on the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, is a past president of the Maryland State Bar Association. So, do you think she can count on the MSBA’s endorsement?

Not likely.

The MSBA’s longstanding policy is to endorse the sitting judges, and a vote for Asti would be a vote to unseat Judge Ronald H. Jarashow (who joined the court on March 1) or Judge Laura S. Kiessling (Feb. 19).

Bet that next Board of Governors’ meeting will be fun, won’t it?

I should mention that Asti also chairs The Daily Record’s independent Editorial Advisory Board, but this paper has a foolproof way of dealing with endorsements. We don’t make them.

When former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich opened the Baltimore office of Womble Carlyle about a month after leaving office three years ago, taking key legal and public relations staff with him, there were those who wondered about the move: Was it a law office, or campaign headquarters?

The Maryland Democratic Party has wondered more vocally over the years, and according to the Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Politics blog, took formal action Thursday by writing to the state Board of Elections, challenging the propriety of the arrangement in light of Ehrlich’s expected return to the political sphere.

Happy still snowed-in Monday! The roads are ugly, but the round-up goes on! Here are a few law links to start your week. Here’s to digging out by the next snowfall!

• Everything was closed this weekend, but the LSAT at Georgetown went on.
• Establish a health court to hear med mal claims and let docs make real apologies to their patients when they mess up, suggests The Sun’s Second Opinion.
• Citizens United could define the Roberts Supreme Court. HT: How Appealing.
• You’ve seen Carly Fiorina’s “demon sheep” ad, but have you seen the “Dr. Frankenstein” ad in the coroner’s race in Orleans Parish, Louisiana?
• Lying about being a military hero makes you a class-A jerk, but should it be a crime?

On the heels of Attorney General Doug Gansler’s call to end the popular election of circuit court judges comes an article in the latest University of Baltimore Law Forum with some additional recommendations on how to reform the system.

Retired Judge Dana M. Levitz and Baltimore County prosecutor Ephraim R. Siff (Levitz’s former law clerk) echo Gansler’s call to end judicial elections as we know them. Levitz and Siff say circuit court judges now live a “schizophrenic existence,” apolitical until they are required to “transform into consummate politicians and successful fundraisers” to win an election.

Judges with only a limited time on the bench before having to campaign are particularly hampered by the current system, Levitz and Siff write.

“It can be argued that the first few years of experience are most important to the judge’s evolution from advocate to arbiter,” they write.  “Instead of studying the new areas of the law with which they must become familiar, a new appointee is out most nights and weekends shaking hands and kissing babies at political clubs, community association meetings, bull roasts, charity events, or anywhere groups of people assemble.”

Short of abolishing the elections, the authors recommend eliminating contested re-elections, as Gansler has suggested. Levitz and Siff also propose requiring challengers to choose the particular judge they wish to run against, and requiring district court judges to resign from the bench prior to running for a circuit court seat.

“The one recommendation that is paramount is that Maryland do away with this antiquated system of choosing circuit court judges in contested elections, where the most adept fundraiser and politician is elected to sit in judgment and is authorized to dispense justice,” they conclude.

Good afternoon. Here are some Web nuggets to nosh on to help fight that case of the Mondays:

Bryan Sears with the Patuxent newspapers reports on a pair of Baltimore County lawyers who might exert some influence on next year’s County Council races.

The issues surrounding concussions and football players are not just in the sports headlines anymore – they’re appearing on law school finals.

If you’re looking for gag gift this holiday season, might I suggest this?

A writer to “Annie’s Mailbox” seeks help getting a 47-year-old lawyer friend to move out of her parents’ home. (HT: Above the Law.)

C-SPAN’s “America and the Courts” series focuses on the role of the U.S. Solicitor General in its most recent installment. Opening remarks given by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. (HT: How Appealing.)

I wrote about the newest appointments to the Baltimore County Circuit Court bench in today’s paper. Once S. Ann Brobst and John J. Nagle III are seated, the county will have 17 circuit court judges.

The county is still due a new judge whose seat was created by the General Assembly in July. A spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O’Malley told me there is no timetable for filling that seat. The new judge can also be selected from the existing candidate pool that O’Malley used to pick Brobst and Nagle.

The 18th judge, whenever he or is she is appointed, would have to run for a full, 15-year term in next year’s election along with Brobst, Nagle and Judge Sherrie R. Bailey, who was appointed in April.

Bud Clark, president of the Baltimore County Bar Association, said the organization traditionally endorses the sitting judges on an election ballot and will do so again next year.

Many news junkies will be keeping an eye on Afghanistan’s national elections Thursday, but for Mike Smith, it’s different.

Smith, a Gordon Feinblatt employment lawyer, has met three of the major candidates–incumbent Hamid Karzai and challengers Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah–and counts Ghani as a close friend. As I wrote last year, Smith has done a lot of pro bono work on Afghanistan issues, including working with a group proposing a new labor and employment code for the country, working to get the post-invasion Afghan government dismissed from a lawsuit filed by families of 9/11 attack victims and aimed at the pre-invasion Taliban government, representing Afghan Guantánamo Bay detainees and arranging a partnership between Kabul University and his alma mater, Colgate University.

Smith is rooting for long-shot Ghani, a former finance minister in Afghanistan, to win the election.

“I think he’s what the doctor [ordered] for Afghanistan, frankly, but people vote the way they vote,” Smith said.

Smith said there were high hopes for Karzai when he took office in 2004. He surrounded himself with competent, honest people. But over the past five years, many of those people have left, and Karzai has tolerated an extraordinary amount of corruption. Karzai is still seen as the front-runner in the election.

Smith said he believes Karzai’s support comes from four camps: people who believe in Karzai, those who have benefitted from the corruption in his administration, those who are following their local warlord’s voting instructions and those practicing “aggressive apathy” by sticking with the status quo.

The American-educated Ghani would focus on ending corruption, training Afghan troops and decreasing unemployment, on the theory that young men are joining the Taliban fighters not for ideological reasons but because it’s a paying job, Smith said.Smith said Abdullah, a former foreign minister, would be a decent second choice if Ghani does not win. Abdullah is expected toget the second-highest number of votes.

“I think Abdullah Abdullah would not be a horrific choice,” he said.

Media outlets have reported that even if, as expected, Karzai gets more votes than any other candidate, he may not win the more than 50 percent necessary to avoid a runoff election with his closest challenger. That, Smith guessed, is Karzai’s worst nightmare.

It is possible that even if Karzai wins reelection, he will appoint Ghani as a sort of chief executive.