44th District

Unlike Chicago, dead people seldom vote in Baltimore elections. That does not mean that the Monumental City is without traditions of skulduggery, though. Just ask Carl Stokes.Mr. Stokes is the city councilman who wanted to go to the state Senate from East Baltimore's 45th District and then use his victory to build momentum for a campaign for City Council president.Whether any of that is going to happen is now uncertain because a political unknown named Clyde A. Stokes filed to oppose him, thus effectively giving the election away to Nathaniel J. McFadden.

Declaring that a legislator owes a duty to the state as a whole, not just the district that elected him, an Anne Arundel circuit judge has firmly rejected former state Sen. Larry Young's plea to have his bribery and extortion trial moved to Baltimore.In a four-page ruling issued yesterday, Judge Joseph P. Manck also rejected a request by Young's attorneys to have the entire criminal case against the West Baltimore Democrat thrown out.The decision means Young will go on trial Sept. 13 in Annapolis before an Anne Arundel County jury.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings expressed surprise yesterday at a published report that community activist Carmena F. Watson would be chosen tomorrow to succeed him in the Maryland House of Delegates."

Two Baltimore County senators, unhappy with their new districts under the governor's General Assembly redistricting plan, have sued to have the map overturned, contending that it gives Baltimore City extra representation at the expense of the county. Sens. Delores Kelley and James Brochin, both Democrats, asked the Maryland Court of Appeals to invalidate the redistricting plan, which automatically took effect this year when the legislature did not move to replace Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan with one of its own. The plan is especially disadvantageous for Brochin, whose district would become heavily Republican under the plan devised by O'Malley and legislative leaders.

State Sen. Clarence W. Blount, the West Baltimore Democrat known as "the conscience of the Senate," last night withstood a challenge by Del. Frank D. Boston Jr. in a bitter race marked by Boston's legal attempts to prove that the Senate majority leader didn't live in his district.With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Blount, who was first elected to the state Senate in 1970, had 68 percent of the vote in the 41st Legislative District to 30 percent for Boston.A third candidate, Gregory Truitt, had 2 percent.

A mad scramble has developed for the City Council seat of Perry Sfikas, who is likely to win the Sept. 13 Democratic primary for state Senate from East Baltimore's 46th District. As a courtesy, the area's two other councilmen first offered the expected vacancy to Mr. Sfikas' father. He declined. They then approached former Third District Councilman Jody Landers. But he did not want to leave his home in Hamilton and move to the district. There is no shortage of people wanting the $29,000-a-year job, however.

HERE'S A WILD idea: Maybe Clarence Mitchell IV should run for re-election. I know: It's not very imaginative, not very think-tanky. But there it is. C4 can just show us what he's got by taking on George Della for the state Senate seat in the new, psychedelically reconfigured and racially mixed 44th Legislative District. Mitchell has been squawking about the realignment since the new maps of this strange district started circulating. He thinks our dull but slippery governor betrayed him and all other African-Americans in Baltimore by reshaping the 44th and forcing him to run against Della, the white guy from South Baltimore.

SINCE Larry Young's acquittal on bribery and tax evasion charges last month, speculation about the popular former state senator's future has become a kind of parlor game. Will he run for office again? Will he write a book? Will he continue as a talk show host on WOLB-AM?We asked politicians and other citizens to weigh in on what they think Mr. Young's next career move will be.* * *State Sen. Clarence Mitchell IV represents the 44th District, the seat formerly held by Mr. Young:I suggest he enjoy his court victory.

I'm figuring Baltimoreans need a good laugh. Readers, sit yourselves down. This morning's laugh is a real howl.C. Miles, the Recovering Ebonics Negro of Radio One's WOLB, is back to his old delusions. He actually thinks his opinion matters.Monday I attended the Congressional Black Caucus news conference at Micah's Restaurant in Northwest Baltimore. Yesterday a woman sounding like a Miles groupie took to the airwaves. (Don't be surprised Miles has groupies. Even the aesthetically challenged Moms Mabley had groupies.

Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr., the Dundalk Democrat whose district had been targeted for elimination by Gov. Parris N. Glendening, was all but re-elected last night when the candidate filing deadline passed with no one opposing him. Maryland's longest-serving state lawmaker appears certain of returning to Annapolis in January for his 11th four-year term -- a remarkable turn for a politician whose career appeared on the brink of ending less than a month ago....