Campaign Manager

WITTMAN - Apparently you can teach an old political dog new tricks. "Kasey," Joe Trippi barks at his pint-size white terrier, "would you rather be dead ... or work for George Bush?" Kasey rolls over on the floor and does his best imitation of roadkill. Only two months ago, Kasey was going belly up at the mention of John Kerry's name. But that was back when the Democratic presidential nomination was still being hotly contested, back when Howard Dean was the frontrunner and hadn't yet cut loose with his post-Iowa-caucus concession screech.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The man sitting on the aisle in Row 6 on the flight from Minneapolis to Washington is fidgety, with too much energy to be contained in one airplane seat. He is struggling to prop his book about Ronald Reagan's legacy atop the seat in front of him to take notes in the margins. He keeps pausing to read e-mail on his BlackBerry, while gripping a cup of ice water between his teeth. Ken Mehlman, President Bush's re-election campaign manager, is under pressure these days. His boss has endured weeks of bad news from Iraq, seen his approval ratings hit record lows and found himself locked in a tight race with John Kerry.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- As political novice Steve Forbes faces his first formal test of voting strength tonight in Iowa's caucuses, at his side will be a little-known political operative who literally runs the Forbes campaign out of a briefcase.He is William Dal Col, 39, a Cornell graduate in agronomy from Babylon, N.Y., who was chief of staff to former Bush administration housing secretary Jack Kemp.As the Forbes national campaign manager, he travels almost constantly with the candidate. They met when Mr. Forbes was chairman of Empower America, the conservative think tank founded by Mr. Kemp and Reagan Cabinet member William Bennett, and Mr. Dal Col was the group's president.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, widely considered to be eyeing a race for governor in 2014, has hired the Democratic campaign aide credited with turning around John Delaney's successful run for Congress last year. Justin Schall, who served as Delaney's campaign manager and worked as an aide to the congressman as he took office, will join Brown as a senior political advisor. The hire is a clear indication Brown is staffing up his political operation in anticipation of a statewide run. Schall, 39, who previously managed campaigns in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, splashed on to the Maryland political scene during last year's Democratic primary race in the 6th Congressional District.

Rep.Roscoe G. Bartlett, the Western Maryland Republican who is fighting to defend his House seat in the state's 6th District, has brought a well-known political aide on board to run what is likely to be one of the most closely watched House campaigns in the nation. Brice Kornegay, a former field director for the Republican Governors Association and field representative for the National Republican Congressional Committee, will assume the title of "campaign director. " Ted Dacey, an ally of state GOP chairman Alex X. Mooney who led Bartlett through a crowded primary election in April, will remain campaign manager but will report to Kornegay.

The Metropolitan Baltimore Council AFL-CIO has endorsed Democratic Baltimore County executive candidate Kevin Kamenetz, who defeated Joseph Bartenfelder in a spirited primary contest on Tuesday. The influential union, which had backed Bartenfelder during the primary campaign, wasted little time in switching its allegiance to Kamenetz, the 52-year-old county councilman from Owings Mills who will now face Republican Kenneth C. Holt in the general election. "We look forward to having a dialogue with Kevin and working to get him elected the next County Executive and making Baltimore County not only a great place to live but also a great place to work," Ernie Grecco, president of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council, said in a news release Friday.

John Delaney, the Potomac financier running for the Democratic nomination in Maryland's 6th Congressional District, is worth between $51.8 million and $232 million, which would make him the 9th most wealthy member of Congress if elected, according to a financial disclosure statement released by his campaign Friday. Delaney, who runs a Chevy Chase bank called CapitalSource, also drew more than $1 million in earned income last year, according to the form, which he is required to file with the Clerk of the House of Representatives next week.

The 8th District congressional campaign of Christopher Van Hollen Jr. accused his Republican rival yesterday of using her U.S. House stationery for campaign purposes. During the weekend, Rep. Constance A. Morella distributed a campaign letter to the press with the words "House of Representatives" and a rendering of the Capitol at the top. The letter asked Van Hollen to join her in an agreement to keep their campaigns free of so-called "soft money" advertising funded by political party committees and other outside groups.

In its recent editorial ("Misinformation campaign," Aug. 26), The Sun correctly identifies the theme that "gay marriage will be taught in schools" as unsupported nonsense. However, in doing so the editors overlook the sinister underlying message and its intent. First a bit of history. Frank Schubert, the public relations consultant who serves as National Organization for Marriage's campaign manager (Maryland Marriage Alliance is NOM's local franchise), came up with this attack line during California's Proposition 8 campaign in 2008.

Ken Mehlman has been an open member of the club for less than a year, but he's already made its "who's who" list. The Baltimore native who served as a campaign manager for President George W. Bush in 2004 and chaired the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007 told the world he was gay in an interview with The Atlantic in August. Now he's made New York Observer's list of The New Power Gays : NYC's Top 50. Writes one reader, annoyed that Mehlman remained in the closet as the party he led pursued an anti-gay agenda: "We could have used your help 8 years ago. Thanks anyway.