Election Laws

Dozens of Maryland's most prominent corporations or individuals have violated a state law limiting political campaign donations, an analysis by The Sun has found. Almost a year before the next statewide general election, a review of records filed by campaign and political action committees last month shows that almost 40 companies or individuals have surpassed donation limits through ignorance, sloppiness or indifference to the law. The list includes such notable figures as Baltimore Ravens owner Arthur Modell, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos and Manekin Corp.

Maryland Democrats and Republicans traded charges yesterday over allegations that one party is trying to buy African-American voters while the other is trying to suppress them. The exchange of accusations came as both campaigns and outside advocacy groups have stepped up their advertising, recorded phone calls, mailings and other efforts to reach voters in the final days of Maryland's tight contest for governor between Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Johanna L. Olson is deferring her ambitions for a year to volunteer in the Refugee Disaster Program at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor."I have had so much luck and so much devotion throughout my life," said Ms. Olson, 23, a Wautoma, Wis., resident who moved to the Carroll County town in September to work at the center. "It is time to focus on something greater than me."An art historian and a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., she has found that "entering the volunteer world is a precarious existence."

WASHINGTON -- Defying the Justice Department, a Senate committee investigating campaign fund-raising abuses voted yesterday to grant immunity to four Buddhist nuns who attended a 1996 fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple that featured Vice President Al Gore.The four nuns are officers at the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, the site of the fund-raiser. It is illegal to raise political money at a religious site, and Gore has said his attendance was a mistake.The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee wants to question the monastics, who have taken vows of poverty, about the source of the money they contributed to the Democratic Party at the event, arranged by controversial fund-raiser John Huang.

Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey told Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. yesterday that she intends to file suit today in state court challenging the Nov. 8 general election and asked that he exclude himself from the state's defense.At a private meeting in Mr. Curran's office, set up at her request, Mrs. Sauerbrey told the attorney general that she was contesting the governor's race because of certain irregularities in the election and "very questionable practices" by the state election board, she said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A late-night deal over blank ballots ended Haiti's latest political crisis yesterday, leaving Rene Preval as president-elect of this troubled Caribbean nation after a week of mass protests over mismanaged elections. The 1:30 a.m. agreement between the United Nations-backed interim government and election officials gave the presidency to Preval by allocating blank ballots proportionally to each candidate. That pushed Preval over the 50.1 percent mark needed to avoid a presidential runoff that many feared would erupt into violence.

MOSCOW -- Four years after the collapse of Soviet communism, Russian voters, in a sour mood over the costs and disruptions of democratic reform, are expected to vote heavily in favor of Communists in parliamentary elections today.That the elections are even happening is historic. It's only the second time in Russian history that there has been a peaceful, democratic transfer of legislative power.And that, observers say, is remarkable against the chaotic backdrop of today's Russia, where the new market economy has created glittering wealth alongside devastating poverty, where fear is stoked by high-profile murders almost weekly, where a war on the southern border has yet to be settled, and where the only certainty seems to be snow in winter.

Just sign your name right there, Mr. Transportation 0) SecretaryNewly installed Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer was taken aback recently when his driver asked for his autograph.When a flattered Mr. Lighthizer quickly agreed, the state employee whipped out a copy of "The Lighthizer Years," the 96-page, color-glossy book that has been a source of continuing embarrassment to the former Anne Arundel County executive.The book, estimated to have cost the county more than $100,000, is a fairly shameless tribute to Mr. Lighthizer and his eight-year tenure.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Iraqi elections offer a hope that the conflict may begin to shift from the era of car bombs into an era where violence is undercut by politics. Previous elections didn't stem the bloodshed because they failed to address the problem that underlies the violence. The alienated Sunni minority, which ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein and produces most of the insurgents, felt it had no role in the new Iraq. Sunnis refused to take part in legislative elections in January. But this time, Sunnis crammed the polls, even in violent towns like Ramadi where the insurgency is potent.

The lunar calendar has dropped a Jewish High Holy Day into the politics of Baltimore. In response, the General Assembly has decided to yield to a Higher Authority and reschedule Election Day.This September, Baltimoreans who want to vote in the primary will have to go to the polls on a Thursday instead of a Tuesday, which has been Election Day in Maryland for as long as anyone can remember.Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, falls this year on Tuesday, Sept. 10, the day the primary would normally have been held.