Campaign Literature

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.

C. Richard D'Amato says he has a personal stake in the rule changes approved Monday by the Federal Communications Commission allowing further consolidation of the media world. Last fall, as he ran for re-election to the House of Delegates from Annapolis, D'Amato found himself under tough scrutiny. WBFF-TV contended D'Amato had misrepresented the recognitions he received for his service in the U.S. Navy and as a naval reservist. For instance, D'Amato had cited receiving three "Bronze Stars" on his campaign literature - the name for a medal for combat valor - when he had received far less prestigious bronze stars to place on ribbons given for deployment to combat areas.

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.

Reefer Madness. Just Say No. This is Your Brain on Drugs. Take a Bite Out of Crime. Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk. D.A.R.E. to Keep Kids Off Drugs. M.A.D.D. Ecstasy: Where's the Love? Baltimore Believe. Get the messages? Or just remember the slogans and acronyms? For decades, government agencies and community groups have spent billions on anti-drug advertising - Congress alone has allocated $1 billion over the next five years for such an effort. But do anti-drug, anti-crime, anti-anything campaigns change unhealthy and illegal behavior after the stark billboards come down and the scary public service announcements stop airing?

Two of Baltimore's high-profile Democratic mayoral candidates launched yesterday a barrage of more than 320 television commercials targeting undecided voters during the final weekend of the campaign while a third is targeting African-American voters in particular by saturating certain cable television shows with more than 700 spots scheduled to run before Tuesday's primary.The blitz came on a day when a candidate for City Council president had to clarify an "endorsement" from NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, city elections officials noted a rise in absentee ballots and campaigns took to city street corners with workers waving at intersections clogged with honking drivers flashing the thumbs-up sign.

Former Annapolis mayoral candidate Carl O. Snowden agreed yesterday to settle a million-dollar defamation suit against political rival Sylvanus B. Jones after learning that Jones is willing to issue an "apology" for making what Snowden considered slanderous remarks.The two men abruptly agreed to end their dispute roughly four hours after testimony began in a civil case before Judge Martin Wolff and a six-member jury in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.In the case, filed in late 1997, longtime civil rights activist Snowden claimed Jones had "falsely accused" him of defacing Jones' campaign posters with swastikas when both were running for mayor in the summer of 1997.

Former Anne Arundel County Police Chief Larry W. Tolliver lambasted yesterday the newly elected county executive who fired him this month, saying Janet S. Owens had "slandered" and "maligned" him by claiming he used his department for political purposes.In her Dec. 4 announcement that she was replacing Tolliver with interim Police Chief Thomas Shanahan, Owens said that she was "really bothered" that photographs of uniformed county police officers had been used in the campaign literature of her opponent, John G. Gary.

It's no wonder savvy politicians are clamoring to paint themselves as a voter's ideal "pro-education candidate."A poll conducted by Anne Arundel Community College's Center for the Study of Local Issues indicates that for the first time in four years, education is the top concern of county residents.Asked what is "the most important problem facing the residents of Anne Arundel County," 29 percent of the respondents named education, 26 percent said growth, 19 percent said crime, and 5 percent said taxes.

An anonymous mailing to Ward 1 residents alleging personal and professional improprieties by Democratic Alderman Louise Hammond and her husband, Anne Arundel County Financial Officer John Hammond, has Annapolis voters and politicians reeling with shock.The three letters received yesterday in a single mailing accused Mrs. Hammond, who is up for re-election Nov. 4, and her husband of involvement in a hit-and-run accident and other alleged offenses.They also criticized Republican mayoral candidate Dean L. Johnson for being "a mole" for County Executive John G. Gary and John Hammond.

Stymied in her gubernatorial bid by low name recognition among Maryland voters, Eileen M. Rehrmann is taking her show on the road.Rehrmann, the two-term Harford County executive, yesterday kicked off a monthlong statewide tour to meet voters one-on-one and increase her exposure as a challenger to Gov. Parris N. Glendening in the Democratic primary in September.Conceding that such a battle against a sitting governor "won't be easy," Rehrmann told a group of more than 100 supporters on Main Street in Bel Air: "I'm sure we can win this campaign for governor."