Campaign Workers

Candidates' answers in this guide appear as submitted in response to a nonpartisan questionnaire. All candidates in a town were asked the same questions.Our thanks to candidates who submitted answers to the questionnaire. This information may be taken into the polling place, but it may not be reproduced or marked and distributed by organizations, candidates or campaign workers.The voters' guide for the Manchester election will appear next week.

While city police said yesterday that they had no leads in the May 16 burglary of mayoral candidate Mary Pat Clarke's campaign headquarters, two of Mrs. Clarke's staff members are offering a $1,000 reward for the return of a computer taken during the break-in.Police said the burglary took place after an 8-by-15-inch plywood panel anchoring a window air-conditioning unit was removed from the third floor of Mrs. Clarke's headquarters, located in a rowhouse at 2511 N. Charles St.A laptop computer worth $6,000 that contained a detailed analysis of voting patterns in Baltimore was stolen along with $40 in cash, a television, a videocassette recorder and a telephone, said Cheryl Benton, Mrs. Clarke's campaign manager.

Baltimore County's first black Circuit Court judge, Judge Alexander Wright Jr., who was defeated in a bid to keep his seat in the March 7 primary election, may be appointed to a District Court judgeship by Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Glendening, who has emphasized a need for more black and female judges, considers Wright a "stellar" judge and has been deluged with questions about him since Wright finished third among three judges running for two seats on the county Circuit Court two weeks ago. Glendening discussed Wright's loss with the county's Senate delegation March 9, reviewed Wright's record and discussed his career in a telephone chat with the judge last week, according to Michael Morrill, a Glendening spokesman.

The defeat of a sitting Baltimore County judge in Tuesday's primary -- the first since 1938 -- has prompted a review by the state prosecutor, a spat between two lawmakers in Annapolis and regret in the courthouse where the new judge will work. Judge Alexander Wright Jr. lost on both the Democratic and Republican ballots to Judge Kathleen Cox, a recent appointee to the Circuit Court, and District Judge Robert N. Dugan, who decided to run after he was passed over with Cox's appointment. State prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli is investigating reports that some campaign workers in Baltimore County were paid to distribute fliers in Tuesday's primary, in violation of state law. Montanarelli said yesterday that he is reviewing reports that campaign workers at polling places in predominantly African-American neighborhoods on Baltimore County's west side were paid up to $25 each to distribute fliers printed by state Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV's campaign committee.

Baltimore mayoral candidate Carl Stokes paused briefly on the campaign trail yesterday to formally open his campaign headquarters downtown.Stokes, a former 2nd District city councilman, dashed into the headquarters, on Guilford Avenue at Mount Royal Avenue, after appearances at two church services and a meeting with Bolton Hill residents -- and on his way to another event.He stood amid blue and gold streamers in front of large "Stokes for Mayor" banners and spoke to a group of about 30 campaign workers.

A political committee organized three years ago to defeat the 1988 referendum to restrict the types of guns sold in Maryland has filed suit against Baltimore State's Attorney Stuart O. Simms, alleging that he used his office to intimidate their campaign workers and interfere with their efforts to defeat the measure.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, alleges that Mr. Simms and Deputy State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy directed 12 police officers to serve a subpoena on the Baltimore campaign headquarters of the Maryland Committee Against the Gun Ban on the night before the election with the intention of interrupting the committee's electioneering efforts.

WASHINGTON -- Political appointees are turning government public relations offices into propaganda machines for the Bush administration.Scores of appointees have moved into top federal PR jobs formerly held by career civil servants, personnel records indicate. Hundreds of Republican campaign workers have been rewarded with the jobs since 1988."It's an ominous development because it can only lead to more distortion, more skewing of the information that gets to the public," says David Wise, who has written widely on government secrecy and deception.

Former Baltimore County Councilman Douglas B. Riley has become the first candidate to file for the office of county executive. Joined by his wife, his parents and a few campaign workers, the Towson Republican handed over his $25 filing fee at the county Board of Elections on Friday while pledging to campaign for more open government. "I think Baltimore County is a good place," Riley said. "But I think it can be better." Riley, 48, stepped down from the council in 1998, keeping a pledge to limit himself to two terms.

County Executive John G. Gary has named Joel Dan Lehman, a retired supervisor and senior analyst with the General Assembly's Department of Fiscal Services, to the county ethics commission.Lehman, 63, will serve the remainder of a four-year term left vacant by H. William Gardner, who resigned in December after Gary's office pointed out to him that he could not serve on the commission if he did not live in the county, said Lisa Ritter, Gary's spokeswoman.Gardner, formerly of Severna Park, moved to Queen Anne's County, she said.

Few politicians in modern memory have been mourned as steadfastly as Robert Kennedy, whose death 30 years ago todayconstituted one of the greatest wastes of the 20th century. "Robert F. Kennedy: A Memoir" (8 p.m.-11 p.m. tomorrow, repeats midnight-3 a.m., Discovery) lets his associates,campaign workers and family members explain why. The result is extraordinarily moving, especially his eldest daughter, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who reads a letter her father wrote to her upon her uncle John's assassination.