Party Chairman

DEARBORN, Mich. -- As the Reform Party seeks to revive its waning influence in presidential politics, members voted yesterday to ditch its old leadership and embrace a candidate endorsed by former wrestler turned populist sensation Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.Delegates at the third annual Reform Party convention elected former financier Jack Gargan as party chairman. Gargan, who grew up on a chicken farm and talks about government reform with a country drawl, was seen by some as a repudiation of another twangy Reform Party personality, founder Ross Perot.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican National Committee turned to one of its own yesterday, electing little-known Colorado conservative Jim Nicholson as the party's new national chairman.Nicholson, a 58-year-old land developer, succeeds Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who stepped down after four highly successful years in the job.The choice of Nicholson, a West Point graduate and decorated Vietnam veteran, means that both of the nation's major party chairmen will come from Colorado. Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado will formally take over as Democratic national chairman next week.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's most prominent political opposition figure, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was ousted yesterday from her party's leadership by rival members, leaving her supporters uncertain over their next move.With the blessing of the Indonesian government, the rival members reinstated Megawati's predecessor as party chairman at a meeting in the city of Medan, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with her supporters, who continued to occupy the party headquarters in Jakarta.

At 83, George Aloysius Meyers of Govans remains a big man with a big, wry, ironic laugh that punctuates his memories like the exclamation point at the end of the Communist Manifesto."

WASHINGTON -- Bill Brock, a former Republican national chairman and onetime senator from Tennessee, is considering a campaign for governor of Maryland next year."

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Bill Clinton's choice of David Wilhelm, his savvy 36-year-old campaign manager, as chairman of the Democratic National Committee means the DNC will be the political command post in the new administration.It has not always been thus. For years, the job of party chairman for the party in control of the White House was regarded as almost a backwater. The rule of thumb was that the post was worth having only in the "out" party, when its occupant could speak for the party in the absence of a presidential voice.

WASHINGTON -- After every election, says David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, "the losing party always has an obituary written over it." While this year is no exception, there is a notable shortage of crepe-hanging among prominent Republicans as they assess Tuesday's results beyond President Bush's loss.Mr. Keene points to a party that basically held its own in the congressional elections and made gains in state legislatures as evidence that reports of the GOP's demise are greatly exaggerated.

WASHINGTON -- Efforts to unify the Democratic Party behind Bill Clinton suffered a minor setback when Democratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown abruptly canceled an appearance he was to make today before a group of party fund-raisers headed by Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Nathan Landow.The group, called IMPAC, has resisted Mr. Brown's call to rally around Mr. Clinton as the apparent presidential nominee. Mr. Landow supported Paul E. Tsongas, who dropped out of the race.

WASHINGTON -- It is notable that when soon-to-depart Republican National Chairman Rich Bond released a statement in effect chastising Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice for labeling the United States "a Christian Nation," he got most of the Republicans seeking to succeed him as party chairman to sign on.The message behind the message was clear: the next leadership of the GOP was not going to pursue exclusionary policies, but instead would embrace the "big tent"...

As an accomplished political fund-raiser, Nathan Landow suavely courts presidential candidates, charms senators and sweeps congressmen off their feet. But when, as state Democratic Party chairman, he tried to court the state's local elected officials and party functionaries, Mr. Landow often seemed to bumble, stumble and fall flat on his face.So some Democrats quietly exulted yesterday when Mr. Landow announced he was resigning. "The long ordeal is over," said one, a onetime ally turned bitter foe. "He was the most destructive and negative and divisive state party chairman in the last two decades."

More than two weeks after Maryland Republicans met behind closed doors and voted to express "no confidence" in leader James Pelura, the state GOP chairman insists he's not going anywhere. And, he says, he has the votes to ensure that he isn't forced out. "I am not resigning," Pelura declared in an interview. While the executive committee, made up of 30 statewide and county officers, voted against Pelura during a July meeting, the only way to remove the party chairman is by a two-thirds' vote of the much larger state convention.

Washington - The most heated political campaign at the moment may be the one for Republican national chairman, but it's no ordinary contest. How could it be, when one of the biggest campaign events is supposedly a Christmas party at Vice President Dick Cheney's official residence? When it takes only 85 votes to win? Or that, with the election just over a month away, the field of candidates is still murky? At least a half-dozen Republicans have been eyeing the job, which pays about $200,000 a year.

The Maryland Republican Party, battered by severe losses in November's election, meets today to choose new leadership as members struggle over how to avoid slipping into another 30-year stretch of political futility. The retirement of party Chairman John Kane after a four-year term, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s failure to be re-elected, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's defeat in his run for the U.S. Senate and the losses of several incumbent legislators have exposed a rift between those party faithful who see the need for no more than minor adjustments and others who blame the defeats on a leadership that needs a total overhaul.

Howard County Republicans are entering this unusually active election year with a new leader, after outspoken party Chairman Howard M. Rensin declined to seek a new term. Rensin said his commercial investment business is booming, taking too much time for him to continue running the party in a year when lively contests are brewing on every level of government. But the change in party leadership also comes shortly after Rensin delivered harsh, partisan remarks about Democrats' ability to retain the allegiance of African-American voters, remarks that some Republicans privately complained were too inflammatory.

WASHINGTON - With Democrats preparing to select a new national chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said yesterday he would not seek the presidency again in 2008 if he got the top party job. Dean, who ran unsuccessfully for this year's presidential nomination, has launched an aggressive, if unannounced, campaign for Democratic chairman. The competition for that post is likely to be the initial skirmish in a prolonged fight over the future of a party that has lost five of the past seven presidential elections.

Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Isiah Leggett is stepping down next month, leaving the state's Democrats with the tricky task of picking a successor who can unite the party's disparate factions for a run against Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2006. Democrats say the post is more important than it has been in decades. For more than 30 years, Democratic governors set the direction for the party and had the power to keep it unified. But with two Democratic heavy hitters - Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan - considering a challenge to Ehrlich, and with the party's liberal and moderate wings at odds over major issues such as legalizing slot machines, party loyalists say that having an effective, visible chairman is essential.

Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Isiah Leggett is stepping down next month, leaving the state's Democrats with the tricky task of picking a successor who can unite the party's disparate factions for a run against Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2006. Democrats say the post is more important than it has been in decades. For more than 30 years, Democratic governors set the direction for the party and had the power to keep it unified. But with two Democratic heavy hitters - Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan - considering a challenge to Ehrlich, and with the party's liberal and moderate wings at odds over major issues such as legalizing slot machines, party loyalists say that having an effective, visible chairman is essential.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Three weeks before Election Day, as television screens all over Ohio bombard voters with commercials for President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, unprecedented numbers of canvassers are rapping on their front doors seeking their votes. In what the political professionals call "the ground game," overshadowed in recent years by mass-appeal television, the Bush and Kerry camps are back to retail politics in a big way in the critical fight for Ohio's 20 electoral votes. Factors past and present have triggered the phenomenon.

The provocative lobbying company that joined Democratic gambling opponents this week with the promise of bringing lawmakers "to their knees" with reams of anti-slots faxes had previously told state Republicans of its plans and said it would work for the other side, for the right price. "I would consider it basically blackmail," said state Republican Party Executive Director Eric Sutton. State Republican Party officials said they left a mid-January meeting with the company Laptoplobbyist.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening called on the leaders of the state Democratic and Republican parties yesterday to refrain from political activity Wednesday -- the day after Maryland's primary election, and anniversary of last year's terrorist attacks -- and officials with both parties said they would comply. "While our electoral traditions include a day of frenzied activity after a primary, this is a date that should remain uncluttered by politically charged rhetoric," Glendening said in a letter to Democratic Party Chairman Wayne L. Rogers and acting Republican Party Chairman Louis Pope.