Pac

Will Maryland voters see super PAC money spent here to influence the outcome of an election in 2012? If a certain congressional race gets close - say, the general election in the reshaped Sixth District - it's possible, even likely. Only two of the state's eight House seats are Republican. With the new Sixth in danger of slipping to the Democrats, some fat-cat super PAC might decide to throw money into advertising on behalf of the Republican candidate. Vice-versa if the Democrat needs an edge.

My response to your editorial "Citizens United II" (May 22) is get real. Do you really think that the justices "fail to grasp that spending by a super PAC on behalf of candidates amounts to something little different than giving them money directly," or, "surely the justices are capable of recognizing their mistake"? Citizens United is no mistake; the justices knew exactly what they were doing. Michael Brown, Columbia

There's not that much in common between downtown Baltimore and Maryland's rural Eastern Shore. But when it comes to politics and a mutual admiration for Gov. William Donald Schaefer, the kinship between city and country folk can be downright chummy.For instance, when the dogged but cash-poor political action group Peoples Choice needs a transfusion of money to help candidates in the city and surrounding areas, who does it turn to for the biggest handout?None other than Citizens for Schaefer '90, a relatively well-heeled political action committee based in Chestertown that is set up ostensibly for the re-election of the governor.

Maybe what this country needs on the Supreme Court is a real politician or at least a sensible political scientist or two. Perhaps they would help the court's majority understand how it has allowed unlimited big-donor money to contaminate and almost destroy our politics. The infamous Citizens United decision -- which permits corporations and individuals to flood election campaigns with torrents of cash through super PACs as long as they are independent of candidates' formal organizations -- has invited some of the worst abuses of negative campaigning.

Suddenly on March 12, 2005, KELLY EBRITE PAC; beloved mother of Lauren and Michael Pac; wife of Matthew Pac; special friend of Dave Fusting; devoted daughter of Maryl Ebrite and the late Wayne Ebrite; sister of Jason Ebrite and his wife Beth. Family will receive friends at the family owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, Inc., 1050 York Road (beltway ext 26A), on Wednesday from 6 to 9 P.M., where a memorial service will be held on Thursday at 1 P.M. Interment private.

PAC-MAN, that popular hunter-prey computer game from the '80s, is making a comeback. This time, it's a virtual reality game that lets the player in headgear and controller glove become PAC-Man (or Ms. PAC-Man, as the popular sequel was named). "He never really went away," said a cyber-developer of the new version.Indeed, the games of PAC-Man and Ms. PAC-Man have seen an enormous growth over the past two decades. Only in political circles they are played with real money instead of energy cells.

The state prosecutor is investigating charges of mismanagement in the Maryland Classified Employees Association's political action committee, which has dispensed tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions over several years.The investigation began this summer after disgruntled members the PAC, known as The Employees Action Movement, charged that money was being spent without proper authorization by the PAC's board, according to sources."There is an inquiry into the administration and operation of TEAM," said Lance Cornine, MCEA's executive director.

WASHINGTON -- When Western Maryland Democrats unseated Rep. Beverly B. Byron last year, the seven-term incumbent wasn't the only one left in shock.Her defeat also dealt a blow to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., which lost a friend in Congress. Mrs. Byron, who sat on a committee that oversees a range of energy issues, including nuclear energy, was a pro-industry vote that BG&E and other electric power interests had come to rely on.To make matters worse, from the utility's point of view, the man who upset Mrs. Byron in the March primary and the favorite to take her place, Del. Thomas Hattery, was regarded as an industry foe. His campaign manager was a lawyer on leave from the Maryland People's Counsel, an agency that often opposes rate increase requests by utilities and whose authority Mr. Hattery wanted to strengthen as a member of the state legislature.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Raymond F. Schoenke Jr., who is paying for his campaign largely with his personal fortune, declared yesterday he would accept no money from "special interest" political action committees in general and the gambling industry specifically.Calling on his opponents to do the same, Schoenke said the move was necessary to assure the public that he would not be beholden to such interest groups."We have to make a statement that we will return the government back to the people," Schoenke said during a news conference in downtown Baltimore.

The ex-wife of lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano told a jury in Baltimore yesterday that he gave her money to make political contributions so he could get around legal limits.Prosecutors in U.S. District Court allege that the donations were part of her husband's scheme to defraud his lobbying clients of thousands of dollars.Mr. Bereano, the highest paid lobbyist in Annapolis, is fighting for his livelihood in a trial that reveals the tangled relationships between lobbyists and state legislators.Prosecutors say he gave employees and relatives the money to make donations to candidates and to his own political action committee, Bereano PAC. He then billed clients for the contributions, which were falsely labeled as "legislative entertainment" expenses, they contend.

The more I read about John Edwards' shenanigans during the 2008 presidential campaign, the more I'm convinced he is a mirror-gazing, fork-tongued, tramp-chasing weasel. But the more I read about the federal case against him, the more sure I am that he does not deserve to go to jail. The trial to determine if Mr. Edwards broke campaign finance laws has begun, and it promises to be as lurid and titillating as Ken Starr's vivid account of President Bill Clinton's fling with Monica Lewinsky.

Three Maryland lawmakers are leading vastly different approaches in Congress to address the growing influence of so-called super PACs and other political nonprofits that have poured money into campaigns, raising concerns about the outsized influence of special interests. As the impact of federal court decisions rolling back campaign finance restrictions continues to play out in this year's presidential election, proposals by Maryland Reps. Chris Van Hollen, John Sarbanes and Donna Edwards - all Democrats - are aimed at overhauling the system.

A political action committee supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will spend $464,000 on television advertising in Maryland, the first instance of a major third-party television buy in the state and the first ads supporting any candidate in the race for the GOP nomination.Restore Our Future PAC spokeswoman Brittany Gross said the ad will appear statewide in Maryland. The ad, titled "Values," has run in other states and criticizes former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum for his voting record in Congress, including to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

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I agree wholeheartedly that the Supreme Court should revisit the Citizens United decision and put the brakes on the outrageous amount of money being spent on presidential campaigns by supposedly "independent" Super PACs ("Buying the presidency," Feb. 24). When politicians never stop chasing the money needed to get elected or re-elected, it's time to do something about it. There is something truly wrong when all those millions of megabucks are being spent on negative ads while the country is facing an enormous debt and millions of people are without jobs, homes and a decent quality of life.

Walt Handelsman's Jan. 11 cartoon captured the irony of President Barack Obama's embracing the use of Super PACs while simultaneously crusading against them. To some readers, the image of President Obama cheerfully utilizing Super PACs may reinforce an unfair criticism that his decision to accept Super PAC money is hypocritical. In fact, for the president to do otherwise would have been foolhardy. President Obama has often spoken for the average American in denouncing Super PACs as a mechanism for allowing corporations and wealthy individuals to purchase undue and unlimited electoral influence.

Politics, quite simply, is about money and the power it buys -- a field traditionally dominated by white men.But spurred by the success of the 1992 referendum on Maryland's abortion-rights law, a group of Democratic women has formed a political action committee to raise money for other women seeking to break into the world of elected office.Harriet's List -- a PAC named for Harriet Tubman, the one-time Dorchester County slave, Underground Railroad conductor and feminist social reformer -- was launched last February when 50 women from around the state gathered at a Mount Washington home.

Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of U.S. mortgages, filed papers to form a political action committee, allowing the company to boost its donations to members of Congress as they consider legislation to increase government oversight over the company. Through its political action committee, Washington-based Fannie Mae will be able to give $5,000 per election - primary or general balloting - to fund the campaign of any member of Congress or presidential candidate. Individuals are limited to $2,000 per election.

How many billionaires does it take to buy a presidential election? We're about to find out. The 2012 campaign is likely to be a battle between one group of millionaires and billionaires supporting President Barack Obama and another group supporting his GOP rival. Perhaps this was the inevitable result of the Supreme Court's grotesque decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, which opened the floodgates to unrestricted campaign money through so-called "super PACs.

"One of the worries we have, obviously, in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it's gonna be negative. " -- President Barack Obama, in an interview on Super Bowl Sunday. "President Barack Obama -- in an act of hypocrisy or necessity, depending on the beholder -- has reversed course and is now blessing the efforts of a sputtering super PAC ... " -- from a story on Politico the next day. We've seen this movie before.