Campaign Literature

The winners in the race for county school board will not be official for days, but one candidate already says that dirty campaigning could cost her a seat. Diane Butler, who finished fourth in the contest for three seats, said campaign literature distributed by third-place finisher Allen Dyer was taken out of context and distributed without her permission. "This is dirty politics," said Butler, who finished about 1,000 votes behind Dyer. "I was very nice with Allen, and this is how he repaid me."

It's cop against cop in a standoff over the use of a police badge in a race for the Baltimore County Council. Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson has sent a cease-and-desist letter to council candidate Charles "Buzz" Beeler of Dundalk over the retired officer's use of a police badge in campaign literature. The chief threatened legal action in the Aug. 11 letter to Beeler, a veteran of the county force for more than 30 years, if he did not immediately stop using the badge and retrieve any fliers or mailers with the symbol.

ELBERT RAY Henderson, the brave soul who's decided to run as a Republican for mayor of Baltimore, had no problem when he did a little electioneering at the city's Greek-American festival. It was the same when he passed out his campaign literature at the Italian-American and Polish-American festivals. But when Henderson, an African-American, tried the same thing at the African-American Heritage Festival last month, he had people all up in his grill telling him to pack up his fliers. Two of those people were security guards.

The winners in the race for county school board will not be official for days, but one candidate already says that dirty campaigning could cost her a seat. Diane Butler, who finished fourth in the contest for three seats, said campaign literature distributed by third-place finisher Allen Dyer was taken out of context and distributed without her permission. "This is dirty politics," said Butler, who finished about 1,000 votes behind Dyer. "I was very nice with Allen, and this is how he repaid me."

USUALLY, WHEN reporters call an aspiring politician with just $400 in the war chest, the candidate is eager to slam the opposing party and boast about his professional contacts - that is, unless the candidate is a federal employee. Gilbert Renaut, 58, a community leader and lawyer at the Department of Energy, is running for mayor of Annapolis - as an independent. And his day job is certainly cramping his campaign style. When reached at work, Renaut could not take the call. The Hatch Act prohibits him from campaigning on government time.

Two candidates for president of the Baltimore Teachers Union have raised concerns about next week's election, saying the process favors incumbents and isn't fairly run. Three teachers are running against union President Marietta English. Two of the challengers - Clarice Herbert-Brown, a languages teacher at Walbrook High Uniform Services Academy, and Kojo L. McCallum, a fourth-grade teacher at Charles Carroll Barrister Elementary School - said they have become increasingly frustrated with the process.

Two lawsuits have been filed in city Circuit Court seeking to void the results of the House and Senate elections in the 40th Legislative District, which encompasses a large portion of West Baltimore.Contractor Robert Clay, an unsuccessful candidate for the House, accuses the incumbents in his race of promoting numerous acts of election fraud, including urging election judges to pull the lever for them.Mr. Clay's attorney, David B. Shapiro, said the main allegation is that Dels. Howard P. Rawlings, Salima Siler Marriott and Tony E. Fulton were responsible for campaign literature circulated throughout the district that called Mr. Clay a "deadbeat dad, a carpetbagger and an indicted murderer."

As Election Day nears, the heated race for Howard County's Circuit Court bench is drawing to a close with voters being inundated by a flood of campaign literature.This week, tens of thousands of pieces of campaign literature are being mailed by both sides -- and more will be handed out this weekend -- in the last-minute rush to reach voters.As has been the case throughout the bitter race, this week's campaign literature is replete with half-truths, mudslinging and passionate appeals.The literature is aimed at swaying the many county voters who -- according to a round of Sun interviews two weeks ago -- remain undecided among the four candidates for the two judicial seats.

WASHINGTON -- With soaring rhetoric in praise of the political pamphleteer in American history, the Supreme Court cut back yesterday on the government's power to ban anonymous campaign literature.The 7-2 decision settled one aspect of anonymous leafletting, saying the Constitution protects it when it is done by individuals in local elections. But the ruling left in doubt whether other forms of political literature that omit their source will get such protection.If lower courts note the broad language used by the majority, and apply it literally, the ruling could threaten laws in all but one state and several federal laws, which require those who pass out campaign materials or advertise to identify themselves.

The ghost of a 1990 scandal involving Nazi salutes by county sheriff's deputies made a last-minute encore yesterday, this time haunting Richmond Laney, the Republican challenger in the sheriff's race.With some of the county's leading Republicans and a Columbia rabbi supporting him, Sheriff Michael A. Chiuchiolo, a Democrat, charged yesterday that Mr. Laney's campaign was being helped by two former deputies Sheriff Chiuchiolo fired for delivering Nazi greetings and Nazi-style straight-arm salutes on the job.Mr.

It's early, really early, but here is City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. standing at a corner in West Baltimore, a bevy of mostly young volunteers waving Mitchell for Mayor signs all around him. Such is the life of an underdog candidate for mayor whose campaign is marked by an old-fashioned, grass-roots strategy that includes door-knocking, phone banks and that most inglorious of all things, sign waving. A week later, Mayor Sheila Dixon appears at a Southwest Baltimore neighborhood with an entourage -- 50-people strong, including some of the city's high-level officials, as television cameras and reporters trail her. This is door-knocking, mayoral style.

Political campaign literature will seldom be mistaken for the gospel truth, but last November's "sample ballots" indicating former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele were Democrats and that they had been endorsed by a number of prominent black leaders crossed a line. Various versions of these handouts, which were widely distributed on Election Day in Baltimore and Prince George's County by African-Americans bused in from out of state, didn't change the outcome for either candidate, but in terms of sheer brazenness, it set a new - low - standard.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin isn't letting this flier thing go. In the end, the "Democratic sample ballot" distributed by his Republican opponents last Election Day had little effect on Cardin's campaign for Maryland's open Senate seat. He rolled up 3-to-1 margins in the predominantly black precincts where the fliers were distributed on his way to a 10-point victory over Republican Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele. Still, Maryland's junior senator seems to be making it his mission to outlaw a broad array of campaign abuses.

It was 10 in the morning outside the elementary school in northern Baltimore County where I vote, and the usual gaggle of smiling volunteers was working the sidewalk, thrusting campaign literature into the hands of people coming in and encouraging them to vote for their candidate. This is a weird phenomenon you see only on Election Day. But it makes you wonder: What if this sort of thing happened in other walks of life? What if every time you went to the supermarket, there were people at the entrance thrusting fliers into your hands and murmuring, "StarKist Chunk Light Tuna, appreciate your support" or "Thomas' Original English Muffins - can we count on you picking up a package?"

Rosapepe worked hard for Clinton The Sept. 3 article about the 21st District state Senate race quoted Jim Rosapepe's opponent criticizing his service in the Clinton administration with no response from those of us who served with him. The truth is that, as U.S. ambassador to Romania, Jim was a hard-charging advocate for President Clinton's foreign policy agenda. No one should be surprised that he ruffled some bureaucratic feathers. The bottom line is that he successfully served Clinton and did a great job. John Podesta Washington, D.C. The writer is a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

USUALLY, WHEN reporters call an aspiring politician with just $400 in the war chest, the candidate is eager to slam the opposing party and boast about his professional contacts - that is, unless the candidate is a federal employee. Gilbert Renaut, 58, a community leader and lawyer at the Department of Energy, is running for mayor of Annapolis - as an independent. And his day job is certainly cramping his campaign style. When reached at work, Renaut could not take the call. The Hatch Act prohibits him from campaigning on government time.

What the three Republican candidates for mayor lack in money, lawn signs and supporters, they make up in gumption.In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 9-to-1, where a Republican hasn't been mayor in nearly three decades, Victor Clark Jr., S. Scott McCown and Arthur W. Cuffie Jr. are almost absurdly upbeat about their candidacies. Each says he has the answer to the city's ills and can run government better than Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and his opponent, City Council President Mary Pat Clarke.

Noting approaching Baltimore city elections and the need for a definitive statewide ruling, the state prosecutor is appealing a circuit judge's decision striking down the ban on Election Day "walk-around" money. State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli filed formal notice yesterday in Prince George's Circuit Court to appeal the April 24 decision by Judge Richard H. Sothoron Jr., who declared unconstitutional a state law barring the payment of Election Day workers. "We need a statewide opinion," said Montanarelli, noting that technically Sothoron's ruling applies only to Prince George's county.

ELBERT RAY Henderson, the brave soul who's decided to run as a Republican for mayor of Baltimore, had no problem when he did a little electioneering at the city's Greek-American festival. It was the same when he passed out his campaign literature at the Italian-American and Polish-American festivals. But when Henderson, an African-American, tried the same thing at the African-American Heritage Festival last month, he had people all up in his grill telling him to pack up his fliers. Two of those people were security guards.