Campaign Staff

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend paid her gubernatorial campaign staff almost twice as much in defeat as Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. did in victory, campaign finance records show. Townsend, whose campaign was criticized by her political mentor as one of the worst in the country, paid more than $1.5 million in salaries and other compensation during her losing Democratic effort. Ehrlich's main campaign committee paid its staff a little less than $800,000 to help him capture the State House for the GOP for the first time in 36 years.

The United Way of Central Maryland met its $41 million campaign goal for 1999 yesterday -- minutes before it was scheduled to announce the year's results. Fresh off the phone with owner Peter G. Angelos securing a last-minute, $350,000 pledge from the Baltimore Orioles, campaign chairman J. Scott Wilfong gave the news to a relieved campaign staff that rewarded him with a standing ovation. It was the first time the United Way of Central Maryland -- which covers Baltimore City and Baltimore, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Howard and Harford counties -- passed the $40 million mark, an important psychological goal, said Wilfong, president of the Maryland region of Crestar Bank.

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.

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.

At first glance, the Howard County Circuit Court race looks like a potential blowout: The sitting judges have political muscle, a professional campaign staff and cash. Their challengers are short on all three.But District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman, attorney Jonathan Scott Smith and their revamped campaign of volunteers are counting on something they hope proves more powerful -- old-fashioned retail campaigning.As incumbents Diane O. Leasure and Donna Hill Staton forgo street-level campaigning for fear of violating judicial decorum, Gelfman and Smith have been knocking on doors, waving from street corners and, increasingly, talking tough on crime -- a top issue for suburban voters.

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.

Lt. Gov. Melvin A. "Mickey" Steinberg put a shot over the bow of the Democratic front-runner for governor yesterday, calling Parris N. Glendening "the $300 million man" because of his promises to spend more for state programs.Mr. Steinberg, who has fallen sharply from first to fourth place among candidates in the Democratic primary, criticized Mr. Glendening, the Prince George's County executive, at a news conference at the Steinberg campaign headquarters in Owings Mills.The lieutenant governor warned of the "devastating" $1 billion deficit the state faces over the next five years, calling it an "impending fiscal nightmare."

Two Republicans have entered the race to become Maryland's next comptroller.GOP National Committeeman Richard P. Taylor of Montgomery County filed his candidacy for the office this week, as did Timothy R. Mayberry, a banker from Washington County.They will square off in their party's primary Sept. 13.Mr. Taylor, 65, of Darnestown is a partner in the Washington law firm of Steptoe and Johnson and a longtime GOP fund-raiser.He helped raise money for Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign and later served as the Maryland finance chairman for the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984 and for Bush-Quayle in 1988.

If Republican gubernatorial candidate Helen Delich Bentley has avoided the messy staff problems that have afflicted the campaign of a Democratic counterpart, Lt. Gov. Melvin A. Steinberg, one reason may be that until recently she barely had a campaign staff.Mrs. Bentley has finally hired a campaign manager, six months after she announced her candidacy for governor and just four months before the Sept. 13 primary election.Jacqueline L. Phillips, a veteran political operative but never before a campaign manager, has taken over the Bentley operation, run largely by Washington consultant Gordon Hensley since January.

For 10 months, Chuck Richards lived out of a suitcase in a strange city, 1,200 miles from his family in Ellicott City.But the sacrifices paid off last Tuesday when Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas became the first Democrat to win the White House in 16 years.And last Tuesday night, Mr. Richards, an assistant manager in the Clinton campaign, and his wife, Gale, stood with thousands of other supporters outside the old Statehouse in Little Rock, Ark., taking in the sweetness of the moment.Mr. Richards, 52, returned to his Dorsey Hall neighborhood last weekend after nearly a year of constant pressure, fast food and little sleep.