Candidates

The partisan media madness started early Tuesday on the "Fox & Friends" morning show with host Steve Doocy somehow turning a report on midnight voting in Dixville Notch, N.H., into an attack on President Barack Obama for his handling of the September attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. "Appalling" was the word U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) used to describe the president's behavior. And, with Doocy priming the pump of vitriol, she was only warming up. Meanwhile, on the other side, former Democratic National Party chair Howard Dean was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" minutes after the polls opened in Pennsylvania, already alleging voter suppression in Philadelphia based on hearsay.

The realities of the 2012 presidential campaign season: 23 million unemployed or underemployed Americans, soaring gas prices, mounting debt, a controversial national health care law about to take effect, unrest overseas, and a fiscal cliff looming. Historical precedent — since FDR, no president has been reelected with unemployment hovering around or above 8 percent — and polling showing most people felt the country was on the wrong track pointed to a "change election cycle" and a resounding Mitt Romney victory.

I was struck recently by an op-ed in The Sun that proclaimed "Voting is an exercise in futility" (Oct. 17). I disagree. It can be an exercise in frustration, maybe, but not futility. I learned this in 1956, when I was seven years old. My grandmother lived with us and greatly admired President Eisenhower. During the Republican National Convention, while my sister and brother were out playing, I sat with her and watched the entire even — from gavel to gavel. While we were watching she said something that caught my attention more than anything else.

The field of college quarterbacks in the running for the 2012 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award has been narrowed to 10.  There were 29 quarterbacks competing for the award at the start of the football season. The 10 remaining candidates are Matt Barkley, USC; Landry Jones, Oklahoma; Collin Klein, Kansas State; EJ Manuel, Florida State; AJ McCarren, Alabama; Aaron Murray, Georgia; Denard Robinson, Michigan; Geno Smith, West Virginia; Tyler Tettleton, Ohio; and Tyler Wilson, Arkansas.

As President Barack Obama recently headlined the last of a record-breaking number of fundraisers for his reelection bid, it is important to understand that the extraordinary rise in presidential fundraising efforts in recent decades is an unintended consequence of our campaign finance system and that these dynamics are changing the ways that presidents allocate their most precious resource for both campaigning and governing: their time. President Obama's 220 fundraisers for the Obama Victory Fund, a joint committee benefiting both the Obama-Biden reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, exceed the combined total of 208 fundraisers headlined by his five immediate predecessors for their reelection campaigns and national committees in their third and fourth years in office: 86 by George W. Bush; 70 by Bill Clinton; 24 by George H.W. Bush; three by Ronald Reagan; and 25 by Jimmy Carter.

Republican state Sen. Nancy Jacobs, running a long-shot campaign to oust Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, stood in a cold wind along York Road waving a big purple sign along with a dozen supporters. Money is scarce. There's been little help from her party in Washington. But there was Jacobs on a Ravens football Sunday, waving away as if one more smile at a passing motorist would put her over the top. "You know what? I'm enjoying myself. I love campaigning," she said. As the last weekend hours before Tuesday's election dwindled down, candidates for office and advocates for several high-profile ballot questions seized one of their last opportunities to persuade Marylanders to get to the polls and vote their way. At the Baltimore farmers market under the Jones Falls Expressway, there were no signs of campaign activity on behalf of President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

On a day that the storm Sandy kept most of the region indoors, Howard school board candidate Robert Ballinger saw an opportunity. With Election Day about a week away, he figured he'd reach out via email to Howard residents who were likely at home surfing the Web. He and his campaign supporters set out to contact 5,000 registered voters, reminding them about early voting and conveying his vision for the county's school system. Ballinger is one of a field of six candidates, including two incumbents, vying for three seats on the school board in Tuesday's election.

MEET THE CANDIDATES   When Marylanders head to the polls Nov. 6, they will elect members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in addition to casting their ballots for president. Dozens of people are running for a chance to represent the state's voters in Washington. The Baltimore Sun asked all major and third-party candidates to answer questions about pressing policy issues facing the country.   [ 1st Congressional District ] The 1st District was a political bellwether in the past two elections, but was redrawn by the Maryland General Assembly last year and is now more solidly Republican.

Every four years, presidential candidates tell the American people that this election is a turning point for the country. This year they might actually be right. To be sure, there are always differences between candidates. On a range of issues, from health care to tax reform, voters face a real choice about two different approaches to governing. But the most profound turning point in this election may be the fact that the neither candidate is talking about one of the most critical issues of our time.

The city of Baltimore has lost its case against the wife of former mayoral candidate Otis Rolley, who it claimed owed the city $26,100 for taking months of paid leave she hadn't earned while working for City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young. Charline Rolley said Thursday that the victory is "bittersweet, but definitely a weight off my shoulders. " City Solicitor George Nilson said in a statement that taxpayers will now be left footing the bill. The city had sued Rolley for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and asked the court to force her to repay the city for the salary she earned while on paid leave to give birth, take care of her sick infant and work on her husband's campaign.