Campaign Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. - By that Sunday in November, when he huddled with advisers in his Boston townhouse, John Kerry's high-flying candidacy had plunged to earth. Money was drying up, and Howard Dean was relentlessly grinding Kerry into the rocky soil of next-door New Hampshire. With his presidential dream looking nightmarish, the Massachusetts senator shook up his staff, retooled his message, dug deeply into his personal wealth and launched a last-ditch try to turn his campaign around. That effort to "change the dynamics" of his candidacy, as Kerry put it then, has radically altered the shape of the 2004 presidential race.

WASHINGTON -- With only 16 days before Election Day, President Clinton and Bob Dole now confront the high-stakes choices that face a national campaign in the sprint to the wire: what to say, where to say it and whether they can help candidates below them on the ticket.In political parlance, these three considerations are known by three simple words: message, schedule and coattails."We have to make decisions all year, but they become crucial at this point in the campaign," says White House political director Douglas B. Sosnik.

Kevin Kamenetz's county executive campaign has spent about $81,000 on salaries and other compensation dating to 2009, although campaign filings don't make clear who was paid and how much, as state law requires. Kamenetz's last three campaign finance reports, filed with the State Board of Elections, show the payments, but lists them all as lump-sum payments to a payroll company in White Marsh, rather than to individuals. The campaign released the names of paid staffers on Friday in response to media inquiries.

Paul Tsongas plunged into Maryland's political waters first, getting the electronic jump on his Democratic opponents in the state's March 3 primary with a television advertisement that began airing Sunday.The spot, which his campaign calls "Swim," shows the presidential candidate approaching a large indoor swimming pool. After jumping into the water, Mr. Tsongas does a butterfly stroke as a voice-over intones various challenges the former Massachusetts senator has tackled in his personal and political life.

WASHINGTON -- Buffeted by what one adviser called "Bush mania," Republican presidential candidate Lamar Alexander is laying off campaign workers and scaling back his national campaign effort in response to money problems, campaign aides said yesterday.Alexander plans to concentrate his limited resources on the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, aides said, rather than run a full-fledged national campaign. The layoff of four senior aides, out of a full-time payroll of 38, amounts to about a 10 percent staff reduction.

Back when John R. Leopold was running for a seat in the House of Delegates, his no-frills campaign style — holding a "Leopold & You" sign on the side of the highway — was appealing and effective. It captured the nature of his appeal as a no-nonsense, independent-minded politician. Since then he has climbed the political ladder to become executive of Anne Arundel County, yet his style of running a campaign has remained small-time, and it is no longer serving him or the voters well.

Two nonprofit organizations have made campaign contributions to the Committee to Elect Carl O. Snowden for Mayor of Annapolis, an apparent violation of federal tax laws.Kunta Kinte Celebrations, Inc. and Banneker-Douglas Museum Foundation, which contributed a total of $315, are registered tax-exempt organizations that are prohibited from participating in any political activity, according to the Internal Revenue Service.A third contributor, the Anne Arundel branch of the NAACP, is a nonprofit group that is not prevented by law to participate, but is discouraged by its national organization from endorsing or contributing to any political candidate, said Dennis Courtland Hayes, general counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Whether they're warning constituents of impending storms or posting pictures of their kids eating ice cream, social media is a growing part of the political world, four politicians said Thursday night. "Politics is being turned on its head," said Dan Bongino, a former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who is now a "semi-official" candidate for Congress. Bongino - a heavy user of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Vine and other social media - told a small "Tweetmasters" gathering in Annapolis that social media is a crucial way for politicians to make their voices heard to voters and constituents.

Bob Dornan shook up his campaign staff in quest of the Republican presidential nomination, which was the first most Americans knew that there is someone called Bob Dornan.Studies show that, in the aggregate, SAT scores rise when the questions are made easier.

Capital News Service reporter Stacy Jones reports from Crofton: Republican gubernatorial challenger Brian Murphy says he'll give former Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. his endorsement -- but only if he's willing to accept it. "He's made it pretty clear that he doesn't want much to do with me," Murphy said after conceding the GOP primary to the former governor. "Of course I thought I was the better candidate, but somebody's got to beat [Democrat Martin] O'Malley. " The Sarah Palin-endorsed tea party favorite conceded the primary late Tuesday after nearly three hours of waiting anxiously for the votes to be tallied.