ANNAPOLIS -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., isn't wasting any time raising big money for the 1992 re-election campaign in which Republicans are looking at her as one of the Senate's vulnerable Democrats.
Next week she will host a $1,000-per-round golf fund-raiser, and she will be among the beneficiaries of a $500-a-person reception next month at the home of Bruce C. Bereano, one of Annapolis' highest-profile lobbyists.
Each of the events could raise as much as $100,000. Two Republicans have already announced plans to try to oust the state's junior senator, and others may join the race by the Dec. 23 filing deadline.
The golf outing -- dubbed Senator Barbara Mikulski's First Annual Golf Tournament -- at the Prince George's Country Club Monday is expected to include Gov. William Donald Schaefer, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., as well as Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, and former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, D-Mass.
On the afternoon of June 30, Governor Schaefer and Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., will co-host a fund-raiser for Senator Mikulski at the home of Mr. Bereano, the highest-paid lobbyist in Annapolis. Proceeds will go to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is chaired by Senator Robb and is raising money to help Ms. Mikulski and 18 other Democratic senators whoare up for re-election next year.
For the Democrats to feature Senator Robb and the governor at a Mikulski fund-raiser "this early out . . . indicates some degree of concern," said Joyce L. Terhes, chairwoman of the Maryland Republican Party. "I think they realize they are facing a more aggressive party, and a party that made a lot of gains in the '90 cycle. They may have been a little bit complacent [during the last election] and don't intend to be complacent again."
Mr. Bereano has invited 500 people to the backyard event and said he expected at least 200 to attend, including other top state officials, Democratic members of Maryland's congressional delegation and state legislators from both Virginia and Maryland. Lynda Johnson Robb, the senator's wife, is expected to be there, and former Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles also has been invited, Mr. Bereano said.
The lobbyist said that he was asked at a dinner in January at Senator Robb's Virginia home to help raise money for Ms. Mikulski's re-election and that he subsequently offered to host a reception. Mr. Bereano staged a similar event at his home three years ago that raised $40,000 for Mr. Robb's senatorial campaign.
