Campaign

Last year Baltimore got to know a new movement pushing for the humane treatment of animals. Called "Show Your Soft Side," the campaign featured well-known, tough role models cuddling the pets they love and saying, "Only a punk would hurt a dog or cat. " The campaign, launched in the wake of some heart-breaking instances of animal abuse in Baltimore, is easiest to spot on billboards around town. At the time the campaign rolled out, organizers promised there would be a contest where someone would be named "Baltimore Biggest Softie," with the chance to have their face, and their pet, on a billboard.

Baltimore's own Carmelo Anthony is the latest celebrity to don a milk mustache. Except his is chocolate. The Knicks star is helping launch the latest campaign for the Milk Processsor Education Program, which is famous for the "Got Milk?" campaign and milk mustaches. The new spin is  "Got Chocolate Milk?" Melo was all over the place Monday promoting the drink, first on the Mike & Mike radio show, then on to Dan Patrick. He Tweeted about both appearances. Anthony will be appearing in print and television ads touting the health and workout benefits of chugging chocolate milk.

For a pizza joint, it's a bold move to tell customers your crust tasted like cardboard and your sauce was like ketchup. But that's just what Domino's Pizza Inc. has been saying since last month in untraditional ads about the recipes it abandoned when it launched its reformulated pizza. The company's incoming CEO said the chain had no choice but to be honest about its old recipe pizza to win back customers. - Associated Press

The weather cleared for State Sen. Barry Glassman Saturday, and as expected the Harford village of Level saw its native son announce his candidacy for Harford County Executive before an estimated 1,000 supporters. Many attendees said it was the largest and most unique political kickoff they had ever attended, with demand so high that the campaign had to stop selling tickets the week before. The Level Volunteer Fire Company was transformed into a festival venue decked out in the campaign's colors of blue and green, with Glassman's bio video shown on a huge LED screen alongside a stage with 30-foot banners.

It's cop against cop in a standoff over the use of a police badge in a race for the Baltimore County Council. Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson has sent a cease-and-desist letter to council candidate Charles "Buzz" Beeler of Dundalk over the retired officer's use of a police badge in campaign literature. The chief threatened legal action in the Aug. 11 letter to Beeler, a veteran of the county force for more than 30 years, if he did not immediately stop using the badge and retrieve any fliers or mailers with the symbol.

The University of Maryland Medical Center and its R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center today kicked off a fundraising campaign for a $160 million, nine-floor building — with former Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. as honorary chairman. The trauma/critical care building, scheduled to open in 2013 at the northeast corner of Penn and Lombard streets, is one of the largest construction projects to get under way in Baltimore this year. The building will be the first major expansion of Shock Trauma since it opened in 1989 and will result in the creation of 300 construction jobs and hundreds more permanent jobs.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown's spokesman is taking a leave of absence to work on a gubernatorial campaign in ... New Hampshire. Marc Goldberg will do press for Maggie Hassan, who is running for a seat that became open when a long-serving Democratic incumbent, John Lynch, decided to retire. Goldberg says he'll be back working for his old boss in November after the election. That means he'll be just in time for the Maryland 2014 gubernatorial contest to begin -- likely a fierce fight over a seat that will be open because long-serving Democratic incumbent, Martin O'Malley, is term-limited out of office.

Democratic Howard County Executive Ken Ulman raised 20 times more cash than his Republican rival Trent Kittleman did in the latest campaign finance reports that cover most of August, continuing a pattern established in a first round of reports last month. Ulman reported raising $23,090 to Kittleman's $1,110, and the Democratic incumbent has $723,945 left on hand compared to Kittleman's $16,111. The reports were due Friday. Both candidates said money is not the most important thing in their campaigns.

Someone called to testify Wednesday before the grand jury looking into the Ehrlich campaign's deceptive Election Day robocalls tells me Towson attorney Robert B. Green was in the waiting room, offering to consult with any witnesses connected to the campaign. I phoned Green, and his partner, David B. Irwin , took the call. “My firm represents the Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee, that's what I can tell you,” said Irwin, a former federal prosecutor and white-collar criminal defense lawyer.