44th District

The quick-moving political waters of the 7th District shifted again yesterday, as two possible candidates took themselves out of the running for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Kweisi Mfume.State Del. Clarence M. Mitchell IV, a first-term delegate from West Baltimore's 44th District and a member of a high-profile Baltimore political family, announced at a news conference that he would not seek Mr. Mfume's seat in the special election March 5."I and my family have made the decision that it is best that I focus my energies on the state level," Mr. Mitchell said.

As news of a nine-count indictment against former state Sen. Larry Young flashed across television screens yesterday at Mondawmin Mall, several shoppers and workers shook their heads in disappointment."

In Baltimore City Not-guilty plea is entered in fatal carjacking A Baltimore man charged in the deadly carjacking last summer of a Glen Burnie pharmacist pleaded not guilty to federal carjacking and weapons charges yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Jamal D. Barnes, 24, said little during a brief appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gesner. He acknowledged that he understood the charges against him in the August killing of Yvette A. Beakes, 26, and that two counts against him could carry the death penalty.

Expelled state Sen. Larry Young took to the radio yesterday to confirm his plans to trade politics for broadcasting -- opening up a battle between two of his longtime allies for Baltimore's 44th District Senate seat.On radio station WOLB, Young bashed the press and "the kangaroo court" of state senators who expelled him in January. But he said he could not run again with "a dark cloud [hanging] over my head" -- an apparent reference to criminal probes by both state and federal prosecutors.

Stepping out from behind the scenes, one of the most successful of Baltimore's campaign organizers is a public official herself -- and she didn't even have to run for the seat.Maggie I. McIntosh, who has managed winning campaigns at every level from presidential primaries to City Council, was sworn in yesterday as a member of the House of Delegates from Baltimore's 44th District.She replaces Anne S. Perkins, who resigned to teach in China. The oath of office was administered by House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr., D-Kent, during a ceremony in the speaker's Annapolis office.

Baltimore Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV, who threatened to leave his party to become a Republican, said yesterday that he will remain a Democrat. Mitchell said family members urged him not to switch, despite what he says is poor treatment of African-Americans by the Democratic Party leadership. Speaking at a State House news conference, he noted the rejection by General Assembly leaders of Morgan State University's request for $3.1 million in next year's budget toward a new library. Other Democrats and Republicans said the legislature reached a better compromise for the school, promising Morgan more money for the library the next year.

Winners Baltimore County: The county gets five districts entirely within its borders, up from three in Gov. Parris N. Glendening's plan. Dundalk, which had been divided, is now in a single district. Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus:The Senate minority leader, who had been thrown into a fellow Republican's district under Glendening's plan, has the 38th District to himself. Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV:The court drew a 44th District in which Mitchell is the only incumbent, and it has far more black voters than in the governor's map. Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr.:The dean of the Senate, a loser under the Glendening plan, has his political hopes resurrected.

In Maryland Third lawsuit filed opposing governor's redistricting plan ANNAPOLIS - Two state delegates and a half-dozen Democratic and Republican voters have joined in a lawsuit opposing the governor's General Assembly redistricting plan, which they say unfairly divides their communities. The lawsuit, filed yesterday in the Maryland Court of Appeals, contends that the plan violates the state constitution by drawing district lines that have no regard for natural boundaries or the boundaries of political subdivisions.

Two days after he was expelled from the Maryland Senate over findings that he used his public office for private gain, Larry Young was warmly embraced yesterday at New Shiloh Baptist Church -- where he is a deacon -- in a rousing service that brought dozens of worshipers to the altar in a special prayer for the fallen politician."

AFTER DECADES of acrimony, William Donald Schaefer has won the grudging support of one of his archrivals: Blair Lee IV, the influential political columnist, developer and former lobbyist from Montgomery County. Lee's father, Blair Lee III, was acting governor in 1978 after a mail-fraud conviction removed Marvin Mandel from office, but he lost the election. The younger Lee blames Schaefer, in part, for failing to turn out the Baltimore vote. "When [Schaefer] ran for governor, I managed his opponent's campaign," Lee wrote in a column last week.