Federal Election Commission

WASHINGTON -- Major trouble looms for all but the most well- heeled of prospective candidates for the next presidential election.The reason: The federal fund that will subsidize qualified candidates through the year 2000 presidential primaries is so meager that as of now, the recipients will be able to draw only a small portion of what they will need to make it through the first critical contests.Splitting the pieAccording to the Federal Election Commission, which doles out the subsidy from a pool based on the $3 checkoff on individual income tax returns, only $25 million will be available to be split up among as many as 10 likely candidates.

Sen. John McCain is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore this evening for his first high-profile fundraising visit to Maryland since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, the latest foray by a presidential candidate mining the state's steady supply of campaign cash. Tonight's reception at the Center Club downtown will be hosted by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and marks perhaps his most visible effort in McCain's behalf to date. Political analysts don't expect McCain to fare well against Democrat Barack Obama in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 2-to-1.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Election Commission has just received the results of three focus-group discussions on taxpayer contributions to presidential campaigns, and the politicians are not going to like what they hear.The 53 voters who took part in three cities -- Portland, Ore., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Fort Lee, N.J. -- were so bummed out on politics and government waste that the moderators of the discussions found it hard to keep them on the points raised in the focus groups. "Their anger associated with those concerns contaminated their consideration of presidential campaign funding and features associated with the program," says the report filed by Market Decisions Corporation of Portland, which conducted the discussions.

In the wide-open fight for Maryland's 2nd District congressional seat, Towson Del. Gerry Brewster continues to lead all other candidates in total money raised, with $151,000, but his most formidable opponent in the Democratic primary has made a strong, if belated start.Since she got into the race April 27, Dundalk Del. Connie Galiazzo DeJuliis has raised $70,512, and actually out raised Mr. Brewster by about $20,000 during the latest three-month reporting period, which ended June 30.The Brewster campaign reported $74,000 on hand after expenses, while Mrs. DeJuliis had $47,000.

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic National Committee said last night that it had suspended the fund-raising activities of a senior party official with long-standing ties to a prominent Indonesian family and asked the Federal Election Commission to begin an expedited investigation to determine whether he had solicited any improper donations.The decision to relieve John Huang, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee's finance arm, of his fund-raising duties amounted to an acknowledgment that reports that he had organized a fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple and had solicited an illegal contribution of $250,000 from a South Korean conglomerate were making him a political liability.

Think money doesn't talk? Try telling that to this year's GOP presidential hopefuls, whose fates are more than ever tied to a handful of wealthy donors who bankroll the super PACs that raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash on their behalf. Campaign finance reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission this week showed that just 23 big donors contributed $53 million to the super PACs supporting Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. That was more than the total amount raised by all the candidates' campaigns combined, where the limit on contributions by individuals is just $2,500.

The 1992 presidential field is more open than you'd think.According to the Presidential Address List put out by the Federal Election Commission, 112 people have already filed statements of candidacy. Here's a quick rundown of the not-so-front-runners.Mrs. Frank Stewart from Piedmont, Alabama, is outraged by the early reluctance of others to enter the fray. A retired schoolteacher who believes that we should elect a woman president -- and soon -- she declares: ''Any citizen in the United States should be interested in the position.

WASHINGTON -- Not satisfied with enactment of the strongest campaign finance reform since the Watergate years, reformers are about to launch another drive to put backbone in the election enforcement agency that for years has been a pushover for errant candidates and influence-buyers. The idea is to abolish the Federal Election Commission and create a new agency led by a strong-minded independent director with the muscle to achieve real compliance with the new law. The proposal is being crafted by a task force under the aegis of Democracy 21, a pro-reform think tank headed by Fred Wertheimer, a leader in the recently successful drive to curb the flow of unregulated "soft" money into federal elections.

WASHINGTON -- While President Clinton awaits the verdict of the House on impeachment, he can at least breathe easier on the matter of his 1996 campaign fund raising, thanks to Attorney General Janet Reno.Ms. Reno's decision not to appoint another independent counsel to look into allegations that Mr. Clinton violated federal law in soliciting and spending funds for his re-election campaign was not unexpected, after her repeated unwillingness to do so in the past.But the evidence remains that Mr. Clinton blithely thumbed his nose at the law. A clear condition of the federal campaign subsidy that he accepted for the 1996 general election campaign was that he not raise or spend any additional money for his own election.

The World Three suicide bombers drove a vehicle packed with explosives into an Israeli-owned resort near Mombasa, Kenya, killing themselves and 13 other people. Just before, two shoulder-launched missiles were fired at a nearby airport in an unsuccessful attempt to bring down an Israeli airliner flying to Tel Aviv. Likud Party voters overwhelmingly picked Ariel Sharon over Benjamin Netanyahu to run for prime minister in next month's Israeli elections. Six voters died when two Palestinian gunmen - who were also killed - opened fire on a polling place in the northern town of Beit Shean.