Election Laws

In a possible violation of state election laws, at least a half-dozen Old Court Middle School employees were recruited and paid $125 each on primary election day to work the polls for state Senate candidate -- and current school board member -- Robert Fulton Dashiell.Dashiell, who was soundly defeated in his primary bid to unseat 10th District Democratic state Sen. Delores G. Kelley, confirmed that the $125 checks were given out at Dashiell's election night ++ headquarters at the Forum, a catering hall in Northwest Baltimore.

The brother-sister political team of Del. Clarence M. Mitchell IV and Lisa Mitchell opened their campaign office in downtown Baltimore last night. There was only one problem: Lisa Mitchell may not be on the ballot in her race for state delegate.Clarence Mitchell, 36, a Democrat from the 44th District, is seeking to move from the House of Delegates to the state Senate seat vacated in January by expelled state Sen. Larry Young.Lisa Mitchell, 35, is one of several candidates vying for three House of Delegates seats from the same district.

CHAIRMAN Fred Thompson has the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee once again looking for fund-raising misdeeds. Now the committee is looking into the relationship between the Teamsters union and the Democrats.But there is more than mischief to learn from the Teamsters. The Senate could find a great way to reform campaign financing by examining the handling of the recent Teamsters elections.That's right. Our federal officeholders can find a way to improve democracy by emulating the Teamsters.

HONG KONG -- After a marathon 18-hour debate, Hong Kong lawmakers approved a new election law yesterday that critics say is a rollback of democracy under Chinese rule.As the sun rose yesterday morning, the 60-member Provisional Legislature voted to change Hong Kong's electoral system from the "winner-take-all" method similar to the United States' to proportional representation -- a system the government says will prevent one party from dominating the Legislature. Elections are scheduled for May.The Provisional Legislature also limited the number of people who will be allowed to choose the corporate representatives who will occupy 30 of the 60 seats, disenfranchising nearly 2.5 million residents who were eligible to vote through their companies in the last elections.

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.

Carroll County's Board of Elections lost its "detail guru" last week when Rosemary McCloskey retired as director, after 25 years of staying on top of the technological and legal changes associated with the election process.Since 1972, McCloskey has kept up with all the important policies and laws, old and new. She has been a walking encyclopedia, say her colleagues, the person who always gets paged for a quick, correct answer."She has experienced so many changes that she can rely on her experience, and so can we," said Pat Matsko, who worked with McCloskey for almost 11 years and is currently the acting elections director.

PERHAPS ONCE A DECADE, politicians get serious about strengthening state election laws. This time it took a series of missteps by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to spur reforms backed by the General Assembly's presiding officers. Yet lawmakers may still weaken these bills, leaving only the illusion that "reforms" have taken place.Advocacy groups are concerned that legislators don't really want to see sweeping changes, that they don't truly want to open their campaign finance reports to scrutiny by the public.

THE CLOSER Sun reporters look into campaign filings at the state election board, the clearer it becomes Maryland's election law apparatus has broken down. There is no systematic enforcement of donation limits, and precious little prosecution.Reporters William F. Zorzi Jr. and Walter F. Roche Jr. discovered that at least seven individuals and companies -- including Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos and bakery entrepreneur John Paterakis -- had exceeded Maryland's $10,000 limit on political donations in a four-year cycle.

At least seven individuals and companies appear to have broken Maryland's campaign finance law by contributing more than $10,000 to various candidates in the last election cycle, an investigation by The Sun has found.The list of apparent violators includes some prominent community leaders and businesses, including Orioles principal owner Peter G. Angelos and companies controlled by bakery magnate John Paterakis.Under Maryland law, an individual or company can contribute a total of no more than $10,000 to all candidates combined during a four-year election cycle.

INADVERTENTLY, Brian H. Davis may have done Marylanders a favor. By making a mockery of state campaign finance laws during a quarter-million-dollar giving binge, this little-known Baltimore businessman has become the poster child for election reform in the General Assembly.Why Mr. Davis so flagrantly exceeded donation limits in sprinkling big contributions to numerous politicians remains a mystery. What's clear is how he could get away with obvious violations of state election laws.The secret lies in the antiquated set-up at the state elections board.