Campaign Funds

Del. Elijah E. Cummings far outdistanced the field in fund raising in the race for the 7th Congressional District seat, taking in more than $220,000 -- nearly twice that of the nearest candidate -- during the latest reporting period.Mr. Cummings spent $99,665, less than half of his total contributions for the period ending Feb. 14 covered in the report, leaving him with $121,915 in cash on hand, plenty of money for a last-minute media blitz before Tuesday's the March 5 primary.And The campaign has taken in another $40,000 since the report was filed, said Julius Henson, Mr. Cumming's campaign manager.

WASHINGTON -- To the victors go the spoils. To the incumbent lawmakers go campaign donations -- and lots of them. A review of the most recent campaign records filed by Marylanders running for the House and Senate shows that incumbents are far outstripping their challengers in raising money for their re-election bids.Even in the two contests where the challengers are regarded by party officials as most formidable -- in Maryland's 5th and 8th districts -- incumbents are sitting on campaign funds that dwarf those of their opponents.

Baltimore state's attorney candidate Gregg Bernstein raised nearly five times as much money in campaign contributions as has incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy, giving him a strong financial edge over his opponent, according to election finance reports made available online Wednesday. Bernstein, a former federal prosecutor who has worked in private practice since 1991, has raised $217,870 since June and still has most of it in the bank. Jessamy has raised $46,004 and is down to about $38,000 after spending the campaign funds she had remaining from past years along with cash she brought in this summer.

Another Maryland politician has broken the law and is, nonetheless, trying to hold on to elected office. Del. Tiffany Alston this week agreed to a plea deal that allowed her to avoid trial on charges that she misused money from her campaign funds to pay for her wedding and resulted in a one-year suspended sentence for an earlier conviction on charges of misconduct in office related to her theft of $800 from the General Assembly to pay expenses in...

WASHINGTON -- Common Cause, a citizens' lobbying group, has asked the House ethics committee to investigate reports questioning Rep. Dan Rostenkowski's rented campaign office space and postage-stamp purchases.The group asked the committee to look into whether any of Mr. Rostenkowski's activities violated House rules prohibiting converting campaign funds to personal use. Common Cause did not raise any new allegations against Mr. Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, but it cited newspaper reports in calling for the investigation.

Is The Sun's news department or its editorial staff aware that a former Democratic presidential candidate and vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, is being tried in criminal court in Greensboro, North Carolina for using campaign funds he raised to pay off the woman he was having an affair with and who bore his child? You must not, because The Sun has carried few (brief) stories and no editorials about it. Look it up. It's true. Did you just miss it? J. Shawn Alcarese, Towson

Just minutes after former Baltimore County Councilman Gary Huddles was acquitted of misusing campaign funds, his attorneys issued a press release.Huddles' attorneys, the release said, "left the courtroom victorious."The attorneys, Robert B. Schulman and Joshua R. Treem, were so confident of victory that they had prepared the press release before Circuit Court Judge Barbara K. Howe rendered her verdict yesterday after a two-day trial in Towson."We were correct when we originally stated that he was the victim of a vindictive, biased and ill-conceived prosecution by Stephen Montanarelli, state prosecutor," the statement read.

What does the article, "House passes bill to widen uses of campaign funds" (March 8) convey to us? Maybe we need a new bill passed which would allow candidates to use campaign funds to pamper themselves with new hair styles and to clothe themselves with new outfits to wear when attending these professional conferences that they've now entitled themselves to. Maybe Del. Carolyn J.B. Howard and the other 109 delegates who voted in favor of...

It's amazing that Sen. John Edwardshad the audacity to divert campaign funds for personal use. It's also unfathomable that he basically turned his back of his supportive wife, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Even more mind-boggling is that Senator Edwards took some of that campaign money to cover up his relationship with his mistress, who bore his illegitimate child. He somehow thought he could wriggle through this morass of missteps and become President of the United States.

ANNAPOLIS -- U.S. Senate candidate Alan L. Keyes has defended his decision to draw an $8,500-a-month salary from campaign contributions, calling himself a workingman trying to make ends meet."