Campaign

It is not often that I find myself in agreement with former governor turned columnist Robert Ehrlich, or in sympathy with the four Republican contenders in this year's GOP presidential primary. However, I must support Governor Ehrlich's comment about cutting the candidates some slack on the stump ("Give pols a pass for verbal miscues," March 18). The risks of making embarrassing verbal mistakes while campaigning in a free society with a free press put exceptional pressure on those in the limelight.

A campaign is under way to convince Lady Gaga to visit one of her biggest fans -- the 17-year-old high school student shot Monday at Perry Hall High School. As Daniel Borowy, a special education student at Perry Hall, remained in critical condition, his classmates took to the Internet to try to cheer him up in the only way they could think of -- to get his favorite singer to come visit him in the hospital. Students started a campaign Tuesday asking everyone they knew to ask everyone they knew to Tweet "#GagaVisitDaniel" in hopes that Lady Gaga, a huge presence on Twitter, would see it and find a way to visit Daniel.

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WASHINGTON -- In the waning days of this year's closely contested midterm campaign, attacks aimed at impugning a candidate's character and morals increasingly are dominating campaigns, raising questions about the appropriate boundaries and tenor of the debate. Yesterday, James Webb, the Democratic Senate candidate in Virginia, came under harsh attack for explicit sexual passages he wrote in a novel years ago - the latest twist in his nasty race with Republican incumbent George Allen. In Tennessee, much of the week's campaign focused on a TV ad featuring a woman suggesting that she met Harold E. Ford Jr., the Democratic Senate candidate, at a Playboy party and, saying, with a wink, "Harold, call me."

For about a month this presidential campaign season, orange was the new black - at least for supporters of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Several thousand sported gaudy orange knit caps reading "Iowa Perfect Storm" during and after the Iowa Democratic caucuses. But now that the early Democratic front-runner has taken his hat from the ring and the so-called "Deaniacs" ponder what's next, what fate awaits these brightly colored bits of campaign life? Will they become musty museum pieces?

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice will be the first player featured during the upcoming season in USA's "NFL Characters Unite" campaign, the cable channel will announce later today. Rice will also announce an expanded relationship between the NFL and USA at the upfront TV presentations in New York City later today. Here's the release from USA: NEW YORK - May 16, 2012 - USA Network announced today that it is expanding its Characters Unite collaboration with the National Football League.

Add to Dan Rodricks ' "12 reasons why voters stayed home in droves" (Sept. 14) one more reason: The lack of candidates willing to campaign in some neighborhoods. I received a few mailed pieces from one of the mayoral contenders, our City Council member and a candidate challenging him. I also got a bunch of robocalls from the council member. But the only person to actually ring my doorbell was the council candidate hoping to unseat the incumbent and volunteers from that campaign.

Democrat Terry McGuire has put $500,000 of his own money into his long-shot campaign for governor in an attempt to better get his message out.McGuire, 55, a physician from Davidsonville, said last week he lent his campaign another $395,000, bringing the total he has put into the effort to half a million dollars.The "pro-life, pro-labor" candidate said lending that much to the campaign was always his intention."All along we have run a strategic campaign, directed at people who will vote for us," McGuire said.

Former Vice President Al Gore announced yesterday that he will give $4 million in leftover campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee's campaign to defeat President Bush in the fall election. The man who narrowly lost the presidency in 2000 said in a prepared statement that he would give the money to oppose his onetime Republican foe. He's giving another $2.5 million to Democratic candidates for the U.S. House, Senate and in local races in Florida and Tennessee. "The outcome of this election is extremely important for the future of our country and for all that America stands for," Gore said.

Mayor Sheila Dixon launched the first television advertisement of her campaign yesterday - an ad that focuses on her last six months in office - and campaign officials said it will stay on the air until the Sept. 11 primary election. Though short on specifics, Dixon's 30-second spot began airing yesterday on all four local network affiliates. It portrays the mayor as "a tough-minded chief executive who gets things done" and "a problem solver." The ad starts about a week after her leading opponent in the race began his own series of ads. Both ads represent an early start to the campaign's television wars - at least when compared with the 1999 mayoral elections - and demonstrate just how much money has been raised.