Doug Gansler: Another Victim of Beach Week

Maryland attorney general Doug Gansler is under fire for stopping by a “beach week” party where high school students were pictured shirtless and dancing on tables.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate said at a press conference on Thursday that he should have done more to check if there was underage drinking going on at the party, where his son was in attendance.

“In this case, maybe I should have done something different,” Gansler told reporters.

Parents who were chaperoning the party tried to lay down the law with their sons, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

The document laid out party ground rules. For example, no girls were allowed in bedrooms and bedroom doors had to be open all times, unless the occupant was dressing or sleeping. “Hard liquor or controlled substances” were prohibited. The parent chaperones implemented a 1 a.m. curfew and no driving was allowed.

Regardless of the precautions taken by parents, the party has cast a pall over Gansler’s campaign. The candidate was forced to explain his actions after the The Baltimore Sun published an image of him wading through the rager. Gansler has vocally opposed underage drinking, appearing in a PSA against it in 2012.

Gansler told the Sun this week that his son was not drinking at the party, and that he had stopped by to tell his him they were leaving the Delaware beach the next morning. Gansler said that he does not remember if he saw any teenagers drinking.

“There could have been Kool-Aid in the red cups, but there was probably beer in the red cups,” he said.

Jordan Fabian is Fusion’s politics editor, writing about campaigns, Congress, immigration, and more. When he’s not working, you can find him at the ice rink or at home with his wife, Melissa.