They're a semi-secretive circle of Severna Park businessmen who convinced a gas station owner that his first stab at public office should be a run for the Anne Arundel County Council. Their man won, but they mourned his death a year later.

They're known as the Roop Troop, named for the candidate they supported in the 1998 election. And now they're back - this time looking to unseat the woman who filled the late Cliff Roop's council seat.

"I think we all wanted to get behind a candidate together," said Lonnie Lancione, a Roop Troop member who with his wife, Dianna, publishes the Severna Park Voice community newspaper. "We wanted to support the person who was most in line with Cliff Roop's philosophies."

Roop, a popular Manhattan Beach resident who owned a Shell service station in Odenton, died of a heart attack at a January 2000 council meeting. Despite being a Republican, Roop had during his short time on the council become one of the most trusted council allies of County Executive Janet S. Owens, a Democrat.

Their close relationship was due in large part to the man the Roop Troopers have pledged to support in 2002: George Maloney, one of the Roop Troop's original members.

The owner of Helix Construction Services Inc., a Severna Park construction company, Maloney supported Owens in the 1998 general election and later accepted appointments to her transition team and Personnel Board. He says he became known as "Roop's rabbi" because he acted as a reliable sounding board for the neophyte elected official.

Members of the Roop Troop, most of whom are Republicans, don't care much that Maloney is a lifelong Democrat.

"On a local level, the best candidate is the person who you believe will bring home the bacon, not a party affiliation," said Lancione. "We have to be pragmatic. We're not dealing with abortion issues or foreign policy here."

If Maloney survives a primary contest against St. Margaret's resident Patrick E. Gonzales, he likely would go head-to-head in the general election with Cathleen M. Vitale, appointed by the council to succeed Roop after his death.

Her campaign has its own catchy name: the V-Team. And, she says, she has earned the support of some of Roop's backers.

"People who knew Cliff Roop have told me that I am doing a good job," she said.

The Roop Troop arrived on the county political scene in the late 1990s. At the time, Severna Park's council seat was up for grabs because the county charter blocked Councilwoman Diane Evans from running for a third term.

Roop, a past member of the county's Republican Central Committee and campaign manager for Clerk of the Court Robert P. Duckworth's 1992 bid for Congress, drew the attention of Ted Janssen, a management consultant. As Janssen tells it, he recruited Roop to run for County Council because he thought the panel needed a business owner's perspective on development and environmental issues.

Janssen says he hand-picked Roop's campaign team, including Maloney and Woodfire restaurant owner Garry Anderson, who keeps photos of Roop in the restaurant's bar.

Roop was inaugurated in December 1998 amid loud cheers of "Roop, Roop, Roop."

At his funeral, members of the Roop Troop carried his coffin. Janssen sought to succeed him on the council. But council members chose Vitale, a lawyer and past chairwoman of the county's Republican Central Committee who lost to Roop by a narrow margin in the 1998 GOP primary.

Janssen is reluctant to talk much about the Roop Troop. He declined to name key members of the political organization or reveal where they regularly meet. "These are people who value their privacy," he said, adding that when a national GOP representative asked for the group's membership list during the 2000 presidential election, Janssen refused.

Although Maloney insists that this year's campaign will not be a "Roop Troop redux," he said, "The Roop Troop is a gang of friends and business associates who all supported Cliff. A lot of these same people decided they wanted to be supportive of me."

There is an unmistakably Roop-like quality to his stump speech. Maloney also paints himself as a successful entrepreneur with the experience to handle complicated budget spread sheets. Maloney says that if he is elected, he will pressure the school board to "direct more funds to the classroom," a pledge Roop repeated often.

"I know George can fulfill what Cliff started," said Evans, the former council member. Evans, who lost a primary bid against Owens for county executive, is chairwoman of the Friends of George Maloney Committee.

Vitale is confident that she will win re-election, despite the Roop backers' return to the political arena.

"It's not their seat and it's not my seat," said Vitale. "It's the voters' seat."

Still, the Roop Troop is getting noticed. State Sens. James E. DeGrange Sr., a Glen Burnie Democrat, and Philip C. Jimeno, a Brooklyn Park Democrat, and Dels. Joan Cadden, a Brooklyn Park Democrat, and David G. Boschert, a Crownsville Republican, attended last week's fund-raiser, where, Maloney said, $10,000 was collected for his campaign. Owens, a Democrat from Millersville, also was there.

"We all loved Cliff," said George T. Moran, a Severna Park insurance business owner and Roop Troop member. "But this year, we have a better candidate and a tougher race."