Opponent

A RECENT COLUMN inspired a number of telephone calls and letters of which the following are representative:Letter from Michael T. Shatterly of Ellicott City: "After pointing out that the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, carried the South in the 1884 election, you refuted the theory that Cleveland owed his success to the fact that his Republican opponent, James Garfield, had been a Union general during the Civil War, while Cleveland, a draft dodger,...

State Del. Thomas H. Hattery said his opponent for the 6th District congressional seat is running a campaign based on publicity stunts.His opponent, Roscoe G. Bartlett, attacked Hattery's record in the General Assembly and said Hattery should give up his State House seat.Hattery, who upset 13-year incumbent Beverly B. Byron in the March Democratic primary, said he will focus on economic, health care andeducation issues during the months before the November election.The 38-year-old Mount Airy farmer said he will offer concrete answersto constituents' concerns.

FREDERICK -- Maryland's 6th District congressional campaign heated up yesterday, as the Republican candidate charged his opponent with falsifying claims for reimbursement of legislative expenses as part of an "embezzlement scheme."Roscoe Bartlett said he asked the state prosecutor to investigate what he called "fraudulent entries" in expense claims made by his Democratic opponent, Del. Tom Hattery.Mr. Hattery, who called the charges "totally bogus and without foundation," said his opponent is using "dirty, desperate campaigning."

Date/Time/Opponent Nov. 13/7:35/Rockford Nov. 21/7:35/ Philadelphia Dec. 13/6:05/@Monterrey Dec. 18/7:35/Philadelphia Dec. 27/6:05/@Rockford Dec. 31/3/@Milwaukee Jan. 8/7:35/Monterrey Jan. 9/7:35/Milwaukee Jan. 17/6:05/@Monterrey Jan. 23/7/@Milwaukee Jan. 30/7:35/Milwaukee Feb. 12/7:35/Philadelphia Feb. 14/6:05/@Monterrey Feb. 19/7:35/Monterrey Feb. 21/6:05/@Rockford Feb. 28/4:05/@Philadelphia ...

Voters in Maryland's 1st Congressional District were urged to vote against Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. because he agreed to a plea bargain involving a child molester. The assumption: Voters would see the two-term Queen Anne's County prosecutor as soft on crime, a hopeless liberal Democrat. It didn't work. Mr. Kratovil's accuser, Republican state Sen. Andy Harris, lost to Mr. Kratovil in a race almost everyone thought Mr. Harris would win. Across the nation, at many levels, negative campaigning was in full stride during the last election.

Duran McCormick, the tough 119-pounder for the Carver Vocational-Technical High School wrestling Bears, is totally fearless on the mat. He wades into an opponent. If he can't grab a leg, he'll just wrestle his opponent around the arms and shoulders, completely ignoring the fact that the guy might be stronger than he is. So there he was a couple of Tuesdays ago, a 5-feet, 5-inch bundle of energy and enthusiasm, ready to take on a city champion: Tavon Williams of the Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School Mustangs.

TOKYO -- George Foreman was supposed to be too old and too fat to box. Tommy Morrison, some said, should not fight because he is infected with the virus that causes AIDS.But the two heavyweights overcame their doubters, at least for the moment, winning convincing victories over clearly overmatched opponents in Tokyo yesterday.The 47-year-old, 253-pound Foreman bested Crawford Grimsley, a 34-year-old former kick boxer, by a unanimous decision.Morrison, on the undercard, used powerful overhand rights to deck little-known Marcus Rhode three times in the first round, winning a mere 1 minute, 38 seconds after the opening bell.

THE PARTISANS HAVE declared their candidate a winner in Friday night's gubernatorial debate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and perhaps both sides are right. They might also declare the debate itself a winner. The format worked well. The questions were focused and contextual. And the responses, if not responsive, were illuminating.In case you missed it, Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey faced each other in the 1998 gubernatorial campaign's first and only debate.

I turned on my TV to watch the second scheduled presidential debate and instead saw an old-fashioned street brawl break out ("Obama takes an aggressive stand," Oct. 17). Both participants were an embarrassment. The so-called debate convinced me that the two-party system in our country is irrevocably broken and needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney aren't totally to blame for their performance. Over the years the media have bent and twisted the protocol of the debates, which were originally instituted to discuss issues, not to get into verbal skirmishes full of half-truths, embellishments of the truth and, worst of all, full-throated denigration of one's opponent.

Charlie Lynch Archbishop Spalding, senior, 145 Usually when you ask a senior who has had the good fortune to become a national champion if he ever dreamed about it as a freshman, the answer will be no. But in Lynch's case dreaming about a national title was exactly what he did. "From the minute I stepped on the mat as a freshman I said I was going to be the national champ," said Lynch, who claimed the MIAA, Maryland Independent School...