Campaign Workers

In an expanding probe, two campaign workers for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. were indicted yesterday on charges they conspired to violate a state law barring the payment of Election Day workers for so-called "walking around" services. Charged in the two-count indictment by a Prince George's County grand jury were Steven P. Martin, 31 of Capitol Heights and Rashida S. Hogg, 23, of Silver Spring. Both were paid workers for Ehrlich's campaign. In addition to the conspiracy charge, the two were accused of "knowingly and willfully" incurring an obligation to pay persons "known and unknown" for performing Election Day services.

On York Road near the entrance to St. Joseph Medical Center, the blue-and-yellow sign promoting Todd Huff for Baltimore County Council is teetering on wobbly two-by-fours. The Ehrlich sign nearby toppled two days ago, but at least the name of the Republican gubernatorial candidate is face up in the grass. Pity the incumbent judges, whose sign also fell but landed against a brick retaining wall, their names obscured. Voting finished Tuesday and the results are in, or mostly in, and the roadside campaign signs now resemble litter.

Maryland Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, by refusing to pay Social Security taxes and unemployment insurance for his campaign workers last year, displayed a serious lack of judgment.The 6th District congressman can blame the Republican National Committee for bad advice all he wants, but as a former employer he should have known better. He and his campaign deliberately avoided payroll taxes that other United States employers regularly pay.Internal Revenue Services rules are pretty clear on who is an employee and who is not. The tests to determine whether a person is an independent contractor are simple: Does the person work on the employer's premises?

It was one of the unfortunate ironies of primary election day: A campaign worker for the underdog candidate for city state's attorney was held up at gunpoint as he was posting signs. Though Stephan W. Fogleman lost later that day, the mugging has continued to have the ring of his talking points - that prosecutors are too quick to abandon cases and that state's attorney Patricia C. Jessamy "fights cops, not crime." On Oct. 4, prosecutors dropped charges against the person arrested in the crime, prompting a snippy e-mail from Fogleman to the state's attorney's office.

"I'm confident we can win and I'm still out there having fun," Clarence H. Du Burns said of his campaign to unseat Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.About 55 Burns supporters showed up yesterday at the Preston Room in midtown for a $500-a plate fund-raiser for the former mayor. Burns told them:"I listen to the people out there, not to the polls, and the people tell me they're for Du."Allen Quille Sr., Burns' campaign manager, said the breakfast fund-raiser should bring in about $50,000 which will enable the campaign to pay for the television political advertising it couldn't afford in 1987, when Schmoke unseated Burns, who was seeking his first full term as mayor.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury deliberated just 40 minutes yesterday before finding state Del. Tony E. Fulton not guilty of stealing money during his 1990 re-election campaign.Mr. Fulton, 40, was acquitted of two counts of felony theft and misdemeanor misconduct."It was obvious that the charges were bogus, and given the fact that the jury only stayed out a half-hour or so, it seems they were convinced, too," said an elated Mr. Fulton after the verdicts."This shows that the system works. My family and I still have a lot of healing to do, but I'm happy in knowing that today I got justice," he said.

Del. Tony E. Fulton -- accused of misconduct and pocketing $3,000 in campaign funds -- told a Baltimore Circuit Court jury yesterday that he did not steal campaign money during his 1990 re-election bid.The case has begun to turn somewhat in the delegate's favor, with three of the six charges against him now dismissed and several of his campaign workers taking the stand to corroborate his story."

When speaking from the GOP mountaintop, Ronald Reagan handed down his Eleventh Command- ment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any other Republican."But the axiom seems to have lost something in the translation for two GOP candidates for governor, Maryland House Minority Leader Ellen R. Sauerbrey and U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley.Delegate Sauerbrey assailed Mrs. Bentley's voting record again yesterday, charging that the 2nd District congresswoman consistently votes against "the Republican agenda."

Del. Tony E. Fulton -- accused of misconduct and pocketing $3,000 in campaign funds -- has told a Baltimore Circuit Court jury that he did not steal campaign money during his 1990 re-election bid.The case has begun to turn somewhat in the delegate's favor, with three of the six charges against him now dismissed and several of his campaign workers taking the stand to corroborate his story."

Bush to appear at fund-raiser for Sauerbrey on Sept. 18Former President George Bush will appear at a breakfast fund-raiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey on Sept. 18, three days after the primary election.The high-gloss, big-ticket event -- $4,000 for those wishing to have their picture taken with the former president, $1,000 for general admission -- will be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel at Tyson's Corner, Va."We're thrilled, of course," said Sauerbrey spokeswoman Carol Hirschburg.

State prosecutors abruptly dropped theft, embezzlement and perjury charges against a former campaign worker for City Councilwoman Paula Johnson Branch yesterday because, they said, Branch's testimony conflicted with earlier statements she made to a grand jury. Branch was the key witness in the case in city Circuit Court. The defendant, Momoh Abu Conteh, 49, was charged after the state prosecutor's office reviewed Branch's campaign records and discovered $2,000 missing. Branch told prosecutors that Conteh stole the money, but Conteh said the councilwoman told him to give it to the campaign of state Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden.

The man at the center of an emerging controversy over Internet postings about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's personal life is a Baltimore County native, longtime political operative of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and unpublished novelist who writes horror and science fiction in his spare time. Joseph F. Steffen Jr., 45, who resigned yesterday after word spread that he was the author of Internet messages on the subject, is divorced and lives in Rosedale. He grew up in Reisterstown, graduated from Franklin High School and said he bypassed college for the world of politics.

The Kerry campaign is promising guest stars and musical acts for an election-night victory party in Boston's Copley Square, where John Kerry and running-mate John Edwards are set to appear against the backdrop of the Boston Public Library, a cheering crowd and a panoramic skyline. President Bush's Election Day is scheduled to start in Crawford, Texas, where he and the first lady will vote, but ends at the Reagan Building in Washington, a stately setting in the seat of power where the Republicans will hold their victory celebration.

It's 10:40 Wednesday morning, and Chris Stets, a 22-year-old volunteer at John Kerry's campaign office in Annapolis, is placing a cold call to the next name on a computer-generated list of Anne Arundel County voters. Another answering machine. He leaves a message urging a vote for Kerry in Tuesday's presidential primary, his voice upbeat and earnest as he reads from a script prepared by the campaign. It is one of about 400 calls he will make before going home, exhausted, more than 10 hours later.

IN THAT smoky back room in the heavens where late, great political bosses retire to talk about Bawlmer days, quite a few must have chuckled about the recent rehabilitation of walk-around money. It's legal again, as if that pronouncement would have changed the way campaign workers were paid to get out the vote during city elections last week. "So what?" James H. "Jack" Pollack, the former boxer and legendary Northwest Baltimore political leader, might have muttered. "I'm shocked," Thomas J. "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro Jr., the former mayor and 1st District domo would have offered in his best Claude Rains imitation.

Acting hours after hearing arguments and just days before a key city election, the state Court of Appeals yesterday swiftly and unanimously struck down a nearly 25-year-old state law barring the payment of Election Day campaign workers. The brief order issued late yesterday clears the way for candidates and their committees, as soon as Tuesday's city elections in Baltimore, to pay so-called walk-around money to people hired for the day to distribute campaign literature. The unanimous ruling will eventually be followed by a formal written opinion.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury deliberated just 40 minutes yesterday before finding state Del. Tony E. Fulton innocent of stealing money during his 1990 re-election campaign.Mr. Fulton was acquitted of two counts of felony theft and misdemeanor misconduct. Had he been convicted, Mr. Fulton would have faced up to 30 years in jail and expulsion from office."It was obvious that the charges were bogus, and given the fact that the jury only stayed out a half-hour or so, it seems they were convinced, too," said an elated Mr. Fulton after the verdict.

IN THAT smoky back room in the heavens where late, great political bosses retire to talk about Bawlmer days, quite a few must have chuckled about the recent rehabilitation of walk-around money. It's legal again, as if that pronouncement would have changed the way campaign workers were paid to get out the vote during city elections last week. "So what?" James H. "Jack" Pollack, the former boxer and legendary Northwest Baltimore political leader, might have muttered. "I'm shocked," Thomas J. "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro Jr., the former mayor and 1st District domo would have offered in his best Claude Rains imitation.

Paul W. Chesnik Jr., a World War II Navy veteran and political activist, died Friday of bone cancer after an illness of about six weeks. The Dundalk resident was 77. Born in Cannonsburg, Pa., Mr. Chesnik served in the Pacific from 1944 to 1948 on submarines, said his son, Paul D. Chesnik of Willards. He settled in the Baltimore area after the war, working briefly at Bethlehem Steel, then running a tavern in Edgemere for about five years. He was a part owner of the now-defunct Madison Vending company until he went on full disability about 20 years ago because of hip and knee injuries suffered in an automobile accident with a drunken driver.

Marie C. Henderson, who played key campaign roles for two Baltimore mayors and for many years held jobs in city and Baltimore County government, died of breast cancer Sunday at Mercy Medical Center. The Randallstown resident was 62. A political consultant, fund-raiser and event planner, she was well known in city and county circles for the past three decades. Born Marie Catherine Wilson in Baltimore and raised on Calhoun Street, she was a 1959 graduate of Douglass High School and attended Howard University in Washington.