7th District

Nearly two dozen candidates for Rep. Kweisi Mfume's congressional seat gathered last night for the first public forum of the primary season, offering a variety of views on the challenges facing the 7th District.The two-hour forum, sponsored by Marylanders Organized for Responsibility and Equity (MORE), brought together candidates whose names are known throughout the 7th District, along with the politically unknown, and put them on stage together to answer questions.The extraordinary size of the field made the gathering at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Maryland, on Eutaw Place, look more like a choir rehearsal than a political forum.

A day after his decisive primary victory, Elijah E. Cummings seemed a little awed by the prospect of being poised to assume the historic 7th District congressional seat.In Annapolis yesterday morning, the self-described "son of sharecroppers" was greeted by an extended standing ovation from his colleagues in the House of Delegates. He got calls from national magazines -- Jet, Ebony, Time and Newsweek among them. And, as he sat for an interview yesterday afternoon at a Mount Vernon restaurant, a stream of well-wishers approached him to offer congratulations and shake his hand.

A could-be 7th Congressional District candidate says he will ask a federal judge today to stop the state from combining the special primary election to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Kweisi Mfume with the state's regular March 5 primary.The Rev. St. George I. B. Crosse III, a former Republican, one-time congressional candidate and Baltimore gadfly, said yesterday that he will ask for an injunction to halt the merging of the special primary to complete Mr. Mfume's term with the state's regularly scheduled federal primary, maintaining that doing so would be unconstitutional.

While Del. Elijah E. Cummings seemed to coast toward tomorrow's special election for the 7th District congressional seat formerly held by Kweisi Mfume, Republican Kenneth Kondner was having a bad candidate week.The weather for most of last week had not cooperated with Mr. Kondner's street-corner sign-waving campaign -- the only kind he can afford. He was the victim of a drive-by insult, when a guy threw a nickel at him and told him to "get a job." And finally his 7-year-old Chevy pickup had back-to-back flat tires -- just before the starter went up."

Four Baltimore County Council incumbents easily won their primaries and a state delegate became the first council member to be elected for the next term.In the 7th District, colorful and controversial state Del. Louis L. DePazzo trounced rival Jean Jung in the Democratic primary and faces no opposition in the general election from Republicans.Mr. DePazzo, a lawyer, won with 77 percent of the vote.With most of the votes counted, incumbents winning were Republicans Berchie L. Manley in the 1st and Douglas B. Riley in the 4th and Democrat Vincent J. Gardina in the 5th. Republican William A. Howard IV was unopposed in the GOP Primary in the 6th.Unlike 1990, when a wave of anti-incumbency feeling washed out five of the seven incumbents, there were no burning issues in the primary facing the incumbents.

The first gathering of Democrats seeking Rep. Kweisi Mfume's 7th Congressional District seat was held yesterday -- but not all the candidates were invited, the session was closed to the public, and the meeting might have been an effort to pare the number of aspirants.The hastily called meeting with some of the candidates in the 28-person Democratic primary was sponsored by Marylanders Organized for Responsibility and Equity (MORE), an organization with roots deep in the city's black power structure.

The State Administrative Board of Election Laws announced yesterday that there will be two separate filing deadlines for candidates entering elections next year for Maryland's 7th District congressional seat.The first deadline is 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 26, for candidates seeking the 7th District seat in the next two-year term of Congress, which begins in January 1997. The date of that primary election -- the state's regularly scheduled federal primary -- is March 5.The second deadline, which has yet to be set, will be for candidates entering the special elections to complete the last 11 months of the term of Rep. Kweisi Mfume, the 7th District congressman who is stepping down in February to head the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

One of the first to throw his hat in the ring for the Anne Arundel County Council, South County resident and tree farmer Peter M. Perry is expected to announce his candidacy for the 7th District seat at a reception in Harwood today. Perry, who served on the Small Area Planning Committee that created a long-term development map for South County, is a Democrat and longtime resident of Harwood. He is president of the South County Coalition, a collection of civic and neighborhood groups, and has worked to preserve and protect the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary.

Candidates for the 7th Congressional District seat appearing at an NAACP-sponsored forum last night outlined their plans for improving the economy, education and health care.The Randallstown forum, sponsored by the Baltimore County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was attended by more than 100 people.Nearly all of the candidates agreed that creating jobs is the key to economic revitalization of the district, which includes inner-city neighborhoods in West and East Baltimore and portions of Baltimore County stretching from Catonsville to Randallstown.

HIS BACKGROUND suggested that Elijah E. Cummings would be a good choice to succeed Kweisi Mfume as the congressman from Maryland's 7th District, and he has not disappointed. Elected in April to complete the remainder of Mr. Mfume's term after the incumbent resigned to take overleadership of the NAACP, Mr. Cummings hasn't used the time merely to acclimate himself to the national legislature.He quickly educated himself on major issues in Congress and has spoken out when necessary to represent the views of his largely inner-city district.