Democratic Nomination

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Declaring that voters are "ready to take the next great step" and elect a woman as president, Carol Moseley Braun formally entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday. Despite struggling to raise funds and organize a traditional campaign operation during her six-month exploratory campaign, the former senator from Illinois announced a full-fledged White House bid with speeches at the University of Illinois-Chicago and at historically black colleges in Washington, D.C., and Columbia.

Sheila Dixon easily fended off a challenge from a City Council colleague to win the Democratic nomination for council president last night, as Baltimore voters overwhelmingly gave the incumbent's political future a major boost. "Despite our differences and despite the criticism that I have received, [the election] made me stronger," said Dixon, who defeated her closest rival, first-term Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh, and two other Democrats, Carl Stokes and James Hugh Jones II. Citywide support for Dixon, who beat Pugh by about a 5-to-3 margin, translated into a good day for most fellow incumbent Democrats running in the first primary since the council was restructured earlier this year.

Sheila Dixon easily fended off a challenge from a City Council colleague to win the Democratic nomination for council president last night, as Baltimore voters overwhelmingly gave the incumbent the chance at a second term in the city's second-highest elective office. "Despite our differences and despite the criticism that I have received, [the election] made me stronger." said Dixon, who defeated first-term Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh and two other Democrats, James Hugh Jones II and Carl Stokes.

WASHINGTON - Dennis J. Kucinich for president? Carol Moseley-Braun? Al Sharpton? Howard Dean and Gary Hart, for that matter? On paper, anyway, none of these five presidential hopefuls stirs visions of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR or even Bill Clinton. Yet each has either jumped into the race for the 2004 Democratic nomination or is poised on the brink - this political season's versions of Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes and all the other forgettables of previous presidential years.

To Baltimore voters, next month's Democratic primary for Prince George's County executive may seem familiar. That's because it looks a lot like the race in Baltimore three years ago, when voters had to choose a successor to Kurt L. Schmoke, the city's first African-American mayor. As in that race, when the city elected Martin O'Malley, Prince George's voters must select a replacement for the county's first black executive, Wayne K. Curry, at a time when crime is rising, schools are failing and a general malaise has taken hold.

James G. Fitzgerald got only 826 votes - 21.5 percent of the vote - when he ran four years ago for the Democratic nomination for the District 2 seat on the Howard County Council. It seemed a pitiful showing then, but if the 48-year-old software engineer does just as well in the primary election this September, he could win the race in a redrawn district that covers most of east Columbia and parts of Elkridge and Jessup. That's because another low-turnout election is expected, and if the four Democrats running this year have to split the fewer than 4,000 votes cast in 1998, anyone could win the nomination.

Sounding like a candidate for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley criticized state Democratic leaders last night for their reluctance to delay the last phase of a planned income tax cut. O'Malley, speaking at the Carroll County Democratic Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, mocked plans to go ahead with the last phase of a five-year, 10 percent tax cut. "Here in Maryland, I fear that we've gotten so obsessed with controlling government, we stopped governing and...

LOS ANGELES - At the height of the Democratic convention, at a moment when members of the audience were trying hard to work themselves into delirium, while the band was blaring and the signs were waving and the delegates were swaying, a very odd thing happened. Not 50 feet from the podium where Al Gore and Joe Lieberman stood to address the throng, a Democratic official who shall remain nameless walked up and asked, "So who do you think is going to win in November?" Thinking that perhaps this was a subtle boast, I gave the same answer I have been giving for weeks, "Ask me in October."

WASHINGTON -- Even for those who have grown accustomed to grotesque numbers in politics, the $34 million Jon S. Corzine is spending to win a Democratic nomination for the Senate in New Jersey seems a little outlandish. It is, as you may have guessed, the new record for a Senate campaign, passing the $30 million mark established by Michael Huffington in a California campaign six years ago. But Mr. Corzine has accomplished this feat just competing in the primary Tuesday. Mr. Huffington frittered his money away in both capturing the Republican nomination in a primary and then losing the general election to Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Actor Warren Beatty sketched out the script for a liberal presidential campaign last night -- but did not say whether he would play the leading role himself.Before a huge turnout of reporters and Southern California liberal activists, Beatty offered few clues on whether he intends to launch a long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.Instead, he called for sweeping campaign finance reform, lashed President Clinton's record, and portrayed both of the current contenders for the Democratic nomination as cautious centrists in thrall to large contributors.