Conservative Democrats

When Sheriff Robert G. Pepersack Sr. assesses his chances in the November election, he takes on the tone of a football coach trying to rally his team.The Republican incumbent barely survived a primary challenge from a little-known and poorly financed challenger, John E. xTC Moran IV, a 30-year-old former deputy suing the sheriff's office over his dismissal."That one is over. It's like the game we played last week. We have to move on to the next one," Sheriff Pepersack said.Mr. Moran got 11,024 votes to the sheriff's 12,156.

Richard N. Dixon, a conservative Democrat who served as Maryland's state treasurer for six years, died Thursday after suffering a stroke Tuesday, Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp announced. He was 74. Mr. Dixon was the first African-American to win election by the General Assembly to the powerful post of state treasurer, which gave him a seat on the Board of Public Works and led to his election as chairman of the state pension system. Before being chosen as treasurer in 1996, Dixon served 14 years in the House of Delegates — the last Democratic legislator to be elected from conservative Carroll County.

The eight-month campaign in Maryland's 2nd Congressional District could strain political relationships in Baltimore County, where many Democrats have backed Republicans for elective office in recent years.With the Republican incumbent running against a former Dundalk legislator, the situation could get touchy by November.Competition for conservative Democratic votes in the eastern part of the county -- the political heart of the district -- should be fierce. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said he is wooing those votes and expects to win them, as he did in 1994.

The Democrats trying to reform the nation's health care system have met the enemy, and it is them. With few, if any, Republican votes up for grabs, leaders in the House and Senate have been forced to accept a series of compromises that weaken some of the bill's key attributes. The public health care option to compete with private insurers is in danger; subsidies to help the poor afford health care are being slashed; and, at the same time, provisions to control the rates at which medical procedures are reimbursed are being softened.

Moderate Republicans are joining ranks with conservative Democrats and possibly other oxymorons like jumbo shrimp and public interest lawyers.The House Judiciary Committee has decided not to pursue the fund-raising end of President Clinton's activities. Money -- unlike sex -- hits a little close to home.Pub Date: 12/10/98@

Omar Burleson, a former U.S. representative known for his tremendous influence over conservatives from both parties during his 32 years in Congress, died Tuesday at the age of 85 in Abilene, Texas. Mr. Burleson, a Democrat, was elected in 1946 and retired in 1979. During the 1960s he headed the "Boll Weevil Club," a small group of conservative Democrats and Republicans who met informally behind closed doors to determine how votes would be cast on close bills.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats in the House of Representatives united last night to give the first big boost to President Clinton's painful prescription to shore up the nation's economy.By a 243-183 vote that included no Republican support, the House approved a budget resolution that authorizes federal spending of $1.5 trillion in fiscal 1994 and contains the five-year .. blueprint for Mr. Clinton's program to cut the deficit and finance new investment by sharply raising taxes.House support was almost as strong for the $16.3 billion dollar stimulus package, a short-term element of Mr. Clinton's program that became unexpectedly controversial because it calls for new spending that adds to the budget deficit.

Murphy running for council, seeking to unseat HollandShirley Murphy, a Pasadena businesswoman, has announced her bid for the 3rd District County Council seat.Mrs. Murphy, a security and fire alarm supplier, said she was asked by conservative Democrats to challenge Republican incumbent Carl G. "Dutch" Holland for the seat. Mr. Holland unseated Democrat Edward "Buddy" Ahearn in 1990.Mrs. Murphy kicked off her campaign Sept. 9 with a fund raiser at her Riviera Isles home.She is one of two Democrats who have announced their plans to compete in the September 1994 primary.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Jesse Jackson heads to New Hampshire today positioned once again to be a major power broker and a potentially divisive force in Democratic presidential politics.With the withdrawal of Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, Jackson, who won 7 million votes in 1988, regains his undisputed role as the nation's most influential black politician.When he speaks at a homeless shelter here today, his every word will be scrutinized by Democratic strategists, party leaders and the presidential candidates themselves.

Democrats who eye Tuesday's election with dread, fearing the loss of the House for the first time in 42 years, were given a bit of comfort this week. Rep. Bill Paxon of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said his party "is unlikely to win control of the House" unless some Democrats switch parties. He later backed away from that prediction, but those Democratic leaners still will be pivotal next year.Some Republican representatives say they know of six to 10 Democrats who would switch if that would change control of the House.

WASHINGTON -- House Democratic leaders unveiled legislation yesterday to start withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq as soon as July 1 and conclude their removal no later than August of next year. Troops could remain, but they would be restricted to engaging in counterterrorism activities, training Iraqi troops and protecting Iraq's borders. Maintaining order in Baghdad and other cities embroiled in sectarian violence would be off-limits. As long as U.S. troops are present, the Democratic bill would provide President Bush with the funds he seeks to equip them.

With a potential filibuster looming over stem cell research, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller had a warning for his fellow senators when they wrapped business yesterday: "Try to keep your calendars clear for the next couple of days." Miller's caution comes as the Senate takes up today the politically charged stem cell research bill, which lawmakers believe could ignite the chamber's first extended filibuster in seven years. Last year, a stem cell research funding bill died before it could get to the floor, the result of a filibuster threat that Democrats would have been two votes shy of stopping.

The leader of the Maryland Senate yesterday declared a $670 million House of Delegates tax proposal doomed unless it achieves an improbable veto-proof House vote this week, while House Speaker Michael E. Busch promised a unified Democratic push to convince voters of the plan's merits. "It's a nonstarter unless there are enough votes to override the governor's veto," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, striking a far more pessimistic tone on the Busch tax package than when it was released a day earlier.

ROBERT L. Ehrlich Jr. of Arbutus is just the man to cure Maryland of its "pre-existing antagonism." No doctor can do it. O'Malley can't do it. Nor Sarbanes. Nor Mikulski. Nor Mfume. Not even Ripken. But the state's first Republican governor since Spiro T. Agnew could lead the way on regional big-think, and the sooner he realizes it the better. He has a choice - to be a statesman who unites modern Maryland across jurisdictional, economic, class and racial lines, or go down in history as "Bobby Slots."

WASHINGTON - Saying the "nation remains at war," President Bush released a budget plan yesterday that calls for hefty increases for defense and national security and forecasts a record deficit this year of $521 billion, alarming even conservatives in Bush's own camp. The proposal envisions an additional deficit next year of $364 billion - a figure that even the Bush administration concedes could easily top $400 billion once new costs of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are included.

WASHINGTON - House Democrats made history yesterday, electing Baltimore-born Rep. Nancy Pelosi as their leader - the first woman to take charge of her party in either chamber of Congress - and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer as whip, the No. 2 leader and the highest post attained by a Marylander in the House in more than two centuries. Elected to serve with them were Reps. Robert Menendez of New Jersey as third-ranking leader, the first Hispanic to hold a leadership post; and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, an African-American who will fill the party's No. 4 position.

WASHINGTON - Prominent Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York have helped lead the charge against the Navy's bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. But behind the scenes the national party is bitterly divided over the issue. Moderate and conservative Democrats from around the country are beginning to complain that the party, under pressure from its liberal wing, has gone too far in trying to stop the training operations.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's $16 billion economic stimulus proposal is facing growing resistance from moderate and conservative Democrats whose support is critical to its approval.Many Democrats are reluctant to oppose openly a key element of the Clinton program, but they say the spending package sends the wrong signal at a time when voters are asking for budget cuts.The stimulus bill "puts me in a very tough position," said Rep. Charles W. Stenholm, a Texas Democrat who is chairman of the 50-member Conservative Democratic Forum in the House.

In an unusually passionate debate, Maryland's black senators took the floor yesterday to urge their colleagues to pass a bill that would restore voting rights to many of the state's convicted felons. The Legislative Black Caucus has made the bill one of its top priorities, saying the law disfranchising people convicted of two or more crimes is part of a racist legacy that sought to keep African-Americans out of the voting booth. "We don't want to go back to Jim Crow. We don't want to go back to poll taxes.

WASHINGTON - Prominent Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York have helped lead the charge against the Navy's bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. But behind the scenes the national party is bitterly divided over the issue. Moderate and conservative Democrats from around the country are beginning to complain that the party, under pressure from its liberal wing, has gone too far in trying to stop the training operations.