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Defenders of the state's Dream Act say voter education will be key to their success in November, when Marylanders weigh-in on a new law that lets some illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition. "Our goal will be be education about what the Dream Act really does," said Travis Tazelaar, campaign manager for Educating Maryland Kids, the ballot committee defending the law. He estimated that "millions" would be needed to fund a state-wide campaign. The ballot committee was created in December 2011, and reported $75,000 in donations in April when they last filed financial disclosure forms with the state board of elections.

In an article in Friday's editions of The Sun, a condensed quote altered the meaning of comments by Scott Arceneaux, campaign manager for Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, speaking about a fund-raiser for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. at the Elkridge Club in Baltimore. The quotation: "We're not going to comment on what is clearly a family matter for the mayor. We simply made a request for the mayor to join us in calling for the governor to apologize. "

Henry S. Baker Jr., a retired banker and community leader, died Saturday from complications of a tumor at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The longtime Monkton resident was 86. The son of Henry S. Baker Sr., treasurer of the Johns Hopkins University, and Frances Innes Robinson, a registered nurse who worked for Dr. Howard A. Kelly, a founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Henry Scott Baker Jr. was born in Baltimore and raised on St. Georges Road in Roland...

We have to assume that, once again, The Sun somehow missed the news story of an Obama Super PAC running a campaign ad in which Mitt Romney was for all intents and purposes accused by a man names Joseph Soper of being responsible for his wife dying of cancer. Spokesmen for the Obama Administration, including President Obama's deputy campaign manager, denied that the administration and the campaign had any knowledge of Mr. Soper, the ad, or Mr. Soper's story, which turned out to be rife with untruths.

CAN YOU spell "conflict of interest"? Sheila Dixon can't. Or won't. Or maybe it's that her colleagues in city government have yet to spell it for her. Ms. Dixon, you'll remember, was the public servant who insisted upon keeping her taxpayer-subsidized job with the state even after she was elected president of the Baltimore City Council, another taxpayer-subsidized job. You could say she likes to have two hands on your wallet. Now we learn that Ms. Dixon is even more ethically challenged: Since her election, she has arranged for her campaign manager to make more than $100,000 off the city in no-bid contract work.

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.

It may be true that Kgosie Matthews is an arrogant jerk. He's been widely reported to be one. But even a jerk should have the right to confront his accusers.If you follow politics, you probably know that Kgosie Matthews was Carol Moseley Braun's campaign manager. Now they appear to be significant others, or some such things.Matthews has also achieved prominence by being the target of accusations that he sexually harassed two or three women who worked in Braun's campaign.This became big news because Braun is a senator as a direct result of the most notorious case of alleged sexual harassment of our time: the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill controversy.

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.

Although all the Democratic presidential candidates thought they did well at last night's debate at the University of Maryland at College Park, only the state Democratic Party could claim unquestioned success.That the debate took place at all was proof that party officials had succeeded in getting candidates to pay more attention to the state than they did four years ago.At the party's behest, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly had moved the primary date to March 3, tomorrow, to make Maryland a stepping-stone between the New Hampshire primary Feb. 18 and the big round of mostly southern contests on March 10.And though Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska virtually ignored Maryland, four other candidates felt that Maryland was important enough to appear.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Allan J. Lichtman lost his four top campaign staffers this week, a result of a difference of opinion about long-term campaign strategy, according to those involved. Lichtman's campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, communications director and deputy field director resigned Tuesday. "These are kids who have a lot of unrealistic ideas that could not be implemented," Lichtman said yesterday, adding that one paid worker -- a finance director -- remains.