Maryland Democratic Party

The General Assembly adjourned yesterday without taking a final vote on a bill dealing with one of the nation's most contentious issues: illegal immigration. Lawmakers in the Senate were bitterly divided over a measure that would allow illegal immigrants who have graduated from Maryland high schools to qualify for in-state tuition. The House of Delegates approved the legislation last month, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights and the failure of federal immigration laws.

DON'T KEEP THE governor waiting.That's what a couple of Maryland state troopers did and now they aren't driving Gov. Parris N. Glendening anymore.A state police spokesman confirmed that two members of Glendening's security detail were transferred last week to other assignments, calling the moves "routine" personnel decisions.But sources say the transfers were made after a couple of incidents in which Glendening was not picked up as promptly as he would have liked.The final straw occurred recently when Glendening arrived on a state police plane at a Western Maryland airport expecting to be met by one of his police drivers.

THE GREAT mentioner has discovered Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.In recent weeks, the name of Maryland's lieutenant governor has been bandied about nationally as a possible running mate for Vice President Al Gore in next year's presidential election.Relying on unnamed sources in the Clinton administration, syndicated columnist Robert Novak said Townsend "might" receive "serious consideration" for the No. 2 spot with Gore, should he win the Democratic nomination.Another conservative columnist, Arianna Huffington, might as well be on the lieutenant governor's payroll, considering the glowing column she wrote about Townsend.

The recently elected head of Maryland's Republican Party said yesterday that he wants to open the GOP's presidential primary election next year to state voters who are registered as independents."

Maryland Republicans are continuing to make impressive gains in voter registration, putting more than twice as many voters on the books as Democrats in the past four years, the latest figures from the state election board show.At the same time, the number of voters who have declined to affiliate with either major party has skyrocketed 39 percent since July 1994, the registration numbers show."That's a staggering figure," said Tom Surock, the state election board's director of voter registration.

Democratic affiliation remains on the rise, still tops RepublicansThe March 15 article about voter registration in Maryland presented a very misleading portrait of what is happening in our state with respect to voter registration ("GOP adds more voters to rolls").Contrary to the article's headline and general impression, more Democrats than Republicans have registered and are continuing to register in Maryland. Every month during the period cited in the article, more Democrats than Republicans registered in Maryland.

Launching a new era in partisan politics in Maryland, the Democratic members of the state Senate raised about $500,000 at a Baltimore fund-raiser last night to help cement their hold on power in the State House in next year's elections.Several hundred people attended the event at the downtown Harbor Court Hotel, including business leaders, university officials and most of the State House lobbying corps.The 32 Democratic senators -- led by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller -- hope to raise as much as $1 million to help their party's incumbents and, in some cases, challengers to incumbent Republicans.

Offering herself as the strong and decisive leader she believes Maryland lacks, Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann said yesterday that she will run for governor in 1998 against her party's incumbent, Parris N. Glendening.Rehrmann announced her challenge in unusually low-key style, releasing the text of a letter she mailed to 4,000 "citizens throughout our state who are deeply concerned about Maryland's future.""Parents, teachers, business owners, volunteers, workers from all walks of life are worried.

Maryland Democrats rendezvous in Chicago this weekend to renominate their party's incumbent president and to realize long-standing personal dreams.Proud of the Clinton administration's record, they are also seeking what Mary Ellen Shine called "a culmination" of her family's reverence for the American political process. She began to understand her parents' commitment to conventions when a strict rule of daily life was suspended."It was the only time we were allowed to eat our meals in front of the television set," said the PTA member and alternate delegate from Silver Spring.

Maryland voters troop to the polls today to help elect the next president, determine the makeup of the state's eight-member congressional delegation and decide a variety of ballot questions, including six proposed amendments to the state constitution.Turnout among the state's record 2.5 million registered voters -- which is expected to be moderate among a seemingly disinterested electorate -- continues to be a wild card, though political observers in the state are predicting no surprises.

With his party's nomination finally in hand, Sen. Barack Obama urged Democratic leaders in Maryland and elsewhere to realize that an extraordinary organizational effort would be needed for him to win in November. He was young and inexperienced, and he was black. He had to be more than an inspirational speaker. We have to change the game, he said. His evolving plan required doubling and redoubling what is often called the ground game: voter registration and turnout. He would need a 21st Century version of what campaigns have always done.

SALISBURY - The eagerness echoed with each door knock. At the first stop on Church Street, no one answered the door, and the man in the backyard said he didn't speak English. So Chuck Cook, hungry for a score, gave brief chase after a car stopped at a traffic light. Nearby, at the home of Tina Moore, the woman who answered the door didn't mince words: Moore had passed away. "Well," said Cook, a Wicomico County Democratic Club worker, after a pause. "Are you registered to vote, ma'am?" The persistence of Cook and scores of other volunteers from both parties has been on display as they try to enroll as many new voters as possible before next week's Maryland registration deadline.

Alexander Ovechkin, one of the greatest hockey player in the game today, and certainly the best paid, decided to get spruced up the day he signed a 13-year, $124 million deal with the Washington Capitals. He swung by Hair Cuttery for a $14 cut. And so, an endorsement deal was born. The NHL superstar began shooting ads for the discount salon yesterday in Baltimore. The campaign - "What he is to hockey, we are to hair" and "Most Valuable Hair" will appear on Washington-area billboards and bus shelters - is the work of TBC, a Fells Point agency that represents Hair Cuttery.

Decision day looms this week for undeclared superdelegates from Maryland and other states, whose fence-straddling could end soon and help close out the protracted Democratic selection process. Final presidential primaries will be held tomorrow in South Dakota and Montana, and pressure is building for remaining superdelegates to announce their choice of a candidate. Many are expected do so within hours or days, effectively delivering the Democratic nomination to Sen. Barack Obama. In Maryland, that means that several high-ranking political officials, including Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, could finally make their intentions known.

The General Assembly adjourned last night after an annual session that saw the passage of new protections for homeowners against foreclosures and new funding for consumer energy efficiency incentives but the failure of legislation authorizing statewide speed cameras and banning the use of hand-held cellular phones while driving. Lawmakers worked nonstop yesterday, negotiating 11th-hour compromises on a number of bills in conference rooms and lounges. Gov. Martin O'Malley worked behind the scenes to ensure passage of his priorities.

Democrats are surging in voter registration in Maryland leading up to the presidential primary, outpacing Republicans by a more than 3-to-1 margin since the 2004 contest. With tomorrow's deadline to register to vote in Maryland's Feb. 12 primary at hand, Democrats have accounted for 51 percent of registrations in the past four years, while Republicans garnered 15 percent. That split is a contrast to the period leading up to the 2004 presidential primary, when Democrats got 37 percent and Republicans 30 percent.

Because a union plans to picket a downtown hotel, the Democratic National Committee is moving its fall meeting from Baltimore to Virginia, disappointing local and state leaders who had anticipated the spotlight of a presidential campaign landing briefly on the city. The event would have brought leading candidates to Baltimore between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1 to appeal for support from undecided national committee members -- those party leaders sometimes called "super delegates" because they can vote for whomever they choose at the summer nominating convention.

Now we know. You can't live politically on talk alone. We learn this from former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a talk-show guy as well as a politician, who has sent out a fundraising letter. He says he needs cash to keep his campaign office in trim. He needs a little operating scratch, a few bucks to keep the grass-roots watered. Is he running for something? Won't say exactly. Join me, he says, in a struggle against "ultra-liberal bosses in Annapolis." This is known as the red-meat line, guaranteed to get right-wing juices flowing.

The General Assembly adjourned yesterday without taking a final vote on a bill dealing with one of the nation's most contentious issues: illegal immigration. Lawmakers in the Senate were bitterly divided over a measure that would allow illegal immigrants who have graduated from Maryland high schools to qualify for in-state tuition. The House of Delegates approved the legislation last month, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights and the failure of federal immigration laws.

When the Maryland Democratic Party needed a voice to lead its get-out-the-vote efforts, it looked no further than five-term Rep. Elijah E. Cummings. He was not only willing, but available. On the July 3 election filing deadline, Cummings drew no opponents, securing a sixth term representing Maryland in the 7th Congressional District. Rather than quietly assume his post, Cummings has been anything but silent. Cummings has raised about $27,000 for Democrats in Maryland, and more for Democratic causes in fiercely contested races around the country, throwing his weight behind such candidates as Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee for Senate.