Independent Candidate

After more than 20 years as the citizens' voice for sensible growth, Carolyn Fairbank wants to be heard as a county #F commissioner.Fairbank, who filed as an independent candidate in July, is encouraging voters to "think independently" and look at her background on growth issues, before they go to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 3."My views on common-sense growth and citizens' input have not wavered, but I cannot do it any longer from the outside," she said. "I am running because I have a genuine concern for the quality of life here."

THAT WASHINGTON sage, Conventional Wisdom, has been telling us for months that a third party candidate has to run for Bill Clinton to have any shot at re-election. What no one expected, however, was that the president himself might prove to be that independent candidate. Traditional Democrats complain that, in putting forth his own plan to balance the budget, President Clinton seems to be positioning himself to run against both parties in Congress. If that isn't his intention, it should be, and if he doesn't do it, or maybe even if he does, someone else is likely to.The evidence keeps mounting that the electorate's anger with Washington and politicians extends to political parties.

In a brutal Senate race that captivated the nation, Republican Oliver L. North, the Iran-contra figure who admitted he lied to vTC Congress, lost his bid for Democrat Charles S. Robb's seat in Virginia last night.With nearly all the votes tallied, Mr. Robb had received 46 percent, compared with 43 percent for Mr. North and 11 percent for independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman.Mr. North's defeat was a serious blow for conservatives and evangelicals who had championed, and heavily financed, his candidacy.

In a brutal Senate race that captivated the nation, Republican Oliver L. North, the Iran-contra figure who admitted he lied to Congress, lost his bid for Democrat Charles S. Robb's seat in Virginia last night.With nearly all the votes tallied, Mr. Robb had received 46 percent, compared with 43 percent for Mr. North and 11 percent for independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman.Mr. North's defeat was a serious blow for conservatives and evangelicals who had championed, and heavily financed, his candidacy.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The campaign staff of L. Douglas Wilder has set up shop just outside the Richmond Coliseum this weekend to seek signatures for the petitions intended to qualify the Democratic former governor as an independent candidate for the Senate in November.On the face of it, seeking signatures for a Democrat from Republicans attending their own state convention to nominate their own candidate for the Senate would seem to be a strange exercise. But in the bizarre political equation that defines the Senate campaign in Virginia this year, it makes eminent good sense.

William F. Speir doesn't apologize for the plain appearance of his campaign literature, a sheet of typewritten paper straight off the copying machine.When you've signed a state board of elections affidavit pledging that you won't spend more than $300 on your campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates, you don't have money to spare on slick, printer-quality pamphlets, said Mr. Speir, a Columbia resident.In fact, the 27-year-old law school student and 1985 Centennial High School graduate has eschewed not only the fund raising widely viewed as essential to successful campaigns, but also ties to any political party.

Annapolis Mayor Al Hopkins showed up at a debate at St. John's College a week ago just long enough to read a brief statement about his childhood in Ward 1, then left. "If you have any questions you want me to answer," he told the crowd, "I welcome you to my home. I welcome you to my office. I will meet with any of you one on one."Out the door he went, leaving challengers Dennis Callahan and Larry Vincent to levy their sometimes exaggerated criticisms at his empty chair.Mr. Hopkins' campaign managers explained that he had accepted an invitation to another event before the debate was scheduled.

WASHINGTON -- The next opinion polls you read are likely to show President Bush has improved his position in relation to independent candidate Ross Perot and Democrat Bill Clinton. Such a gain is routine when any president is engaged in highly visible foreign policy negotiations, as Bush has been with President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.Indeed, a gain in such circumstances is so automatic it occurs even when things go sour in those negotiations. Politicians with long memories have not forgotten how then President Lyndon B. Johnson shot up in the Gallup Poll immediately after a disastrous -- for the United States -- summit meeting at Glassboro, N.J., with the then Soviet leader Aleksei Kosygin.

WASHINGTON -- As his prospects continue to dim for a win in Election Year '92, independent candidate Ross Perot appears to be keeping the door open for a run for the White House in 1996.In an interview with David Frost that airs tonight on PBS, part of a 90-minute special on all three presidential candidates, the Texas billionaire was asked if he would run again. Mr. Perot said he isn't thinking that way right now, but he adds: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."Mr. Perot has been falling in the polls ever since last weekend when, recharging the image of him as a paranoid conspiracy-theoretician, he told rally audiences and "60 Minutes" that he quit the race last summer because of reports that the Bush campaign was planning to smear his daughter and disrupt her wedding.

WASHINGTON -- Ross Perot's campaign tried to quiet the furor over the independent candidate's unsubstantiated charges of Republican dirty tricks yesterday amid signs that the Texan's surge in the polls was leveling off.Although a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll and an ABC News poll released last night showed no substantial change in numbers, surveys in Wisconsin and Michigan conducted Monday night showed some movement away from the Dallas billionaire, with Gov....

KENNEDYVILLE - Coaxed to reflect on his 18 years in Washington, Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest acknowledges a single regret. "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have run," he said. "I probably would have rested my days as an outfitter taking people on horseback rides in the northern Bitterroot towns of Idaho. Lived out a peaceful existence, in a log cabin that was still filled up with snow in May." It is a typically idiosyncratic answer from the Eastern Shore Republican, who spent time counting moose in Idaho between jobs as a high school history teacher and a house painter before he won his seat in 1990.

Press bias shows in executive race The bias of the press in the race for Howard County executive hit a new high in Larry Carson's Friday, Sept. 22, column. That column was headlined "Ulman Speaks Out Against Zoning" and goes on to report that the Democrat is now considering favoring an independent zoning board. Steve Wallis, the independent candidate, was the first to propose that the zoning board be depoliticized when it drew applause at the COPE forum June 12. At that time, Carson did not even mention it in his column covering that forum.

Political forum to be held tomorrow African Americans in Howard County (AAIHC) will hold a political forum for candidates for the Howard County delegation to the state legislature from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow in Agape Hall of St. John Baptist Church, 8910 Old Annapolis Road, Ellicott City. Stuart O. Simms, candidate for state attorney general, will be on hand as well to answer questions. Topics to be discussed include taxes, housing, crime, poverty, state contracts, Medicaid and affordable health care, transportation, education and the coalition's legislative agenda.

International Day slated tomorrow The Columbia Association will sponsor its 12th Columbia International Day from noon to 11 p.m. tomorrow at the Town Center Lakefront. International food and crafts are planned. Entertainment will include musical performances by Sin Fronteras (at noon); the Jow Ga Lion Dance Troupe and Village Dances of Korea (1 p.m.); Sol Y Rumba (2 p.m.); Charm City Klezmer (3 p.m.); Irish Dance (4:30 p.m.); Mystic Warriors (5:30 p.m.); Rhonda Robinson Jazz (6:30 p.m.)

WASHINGTON - Independent candidate Ralph Nader predicted yesterday that Sen. John Kerry is headed for defeat in the presidential election - and that this time at least, his own candidacy wouldn't be a factor in the outcome. The 70-year-old, anti-corporate activist described the campaign by Kerry, a one-time ally, as a blown opportunity against one of the most vulnerable incumbents in years. Nader praised Kerry not long ago as "very presidential," but he was unsparing yesterday in his critique of the Democratic nominee.

WASHINGTON - The Reform Party endorsed Ralph Nader for president yesterday, providing the independent candidate a potential shortcut onto the ballot in the contested states of Florida, Michigan and Colorado. Nader has yet to decide whether to run in those and four other states as the nominee of the party that Ross Perot founded in the 1990s. But the endorsement gives him that option. Nader has not yet qualified for the ballot in any state, but the Reform Party decision drew renewed attention to his possible impact on the race between President Bush and his presumed Democratic opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

After more than 20 years as the citizens' voice for sensible growth, Carolyn Fairbank wants to be heard as a county #F commissioner.Fairbank, who filed as an independent candidate in July, is encouraging voters to "think independently" and look at her background on growth issues, before they go to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 3."My views on common-sense growth and citizens' input have not wavered, but I cannot do it any longer from the outside," she said. "I am running because I have a genuine concern for the quality of life here."

THAT WASHINGTON sage, Conventional Wisdom, has been telling us for months that a third party candidate has to run for Bill Clinton to have any shot at re-election. What no one expected, however, was that the president himself might prove to be that independent candidate. Traditional Democrats complain that, in putting forth his own plan to balance the budget, President Clinton seems to be positioning himself to run against both parties in Congress. If that isn't his intention, it should be, and if he doesn't do it, or maybe even if he does, someone else is likely to.The evidence keeps mounting that the electorate's anger with Washington and politicians extends to political parties.

In a brutal Senate race that captivated the nation, Republican Oliver L. North, the Iran-contra figure who admitted he lied to vTC Congress, lost his bid for Democrat Charles S. Robb's seat in Virginia last night.With nearly all the votes tallied, Mr. Robb had received 46 percent, compared with 43 percent for Mr. North and 11 percent for independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman.Mr. North's defeat was a serious blow for conservatives and evangelicals who had championed, and heavily financed, his candidacy.

In a brutal Senate race that captivated the nation, Republican Oliver L. North, the Iran-contra figure who admitted he lied to Congress, lost his bid for Democrat Charles S. Robb's seat in Virginia last night.With nearly all the votes tallied, Mr. Robb had received 46 percent, compared with 43 percent for Mr. North and 11 percent for independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman.Mr. North's defeat was a serious blow for conservatives and evangelicals who had championed, and heavily financed, his candidacy.