Party Chairman

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.

DEMOCRATS in the House of Delegates didn't shoot the messenger, but they want him to work on his message. In a strategy meeting last week, some delegates expressed concern about the state of the Maryland Democratic Party under the chairmanship of Isiah Leggett, the former Montgomery County councilman. Attending the closed-door session, Leggett briefed lawmakers on his party-building travels and fund raising. Some delegates said they were troubled that the party has not developed a stronger message to counter Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his popular no-new-taxes pledge.

The South Carroll Democratic Club will gather election pointers tomorrow from the party's state leader. Isiah Leggett, chairman of the state Democratic Party, will be the guest speaker at the recently revived club's monthly meeting at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of Carrolltown Center in Eldersburg. "We are hoping Leggett can help us to build up the party in Carroll County," said Nimrod Davis, who helped re-establish the Eldersburg club about six months ago. Leggett, a law professor at Howard University School of Law and a four-term Montgomery County councilman, spoke at the Carroll County Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner this year.

Annapolis businessman Wayne L. Rogers will not seek a second term as state Democratic Party chairman, and is expected to be replaced by former Montgomery County Councilman Isiah Leggett when local party officials convene tomorrow to pick new leaders. Rogers' decision comes in the wake of criticism of his recently disclosed involvement with a racing company that wants slot machine gambling at its horse track in Prince George's County. In October, at a time when Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was campaigning against slots, Rogers reached agreement with Centaur Inc. to become a financial partner in Rosecroft Raceway in southern Prince George's.

Some influential Democratic lawmakers criticized yesterday the involvement of their state party chairman in helping an Indiana-based casino company pursue a racetrack casino venture in southern Prince George's County. Michael E. Busch, the incoming House speaker, said he is concerned about Wayne L. Rogers' role as an adviser and prospective partner in Centaur Inc.'s project at Rosecroft Raceway. The effort by Rogers to assemble a group of investors and find a lobbyist for Centaur was reported yesterday by The Sun. Rogers is concluding a four-year term as state Democratic party chairman.

MOVING company owner John M. Kane's first task as chairman of the state Republican party will be to revise the GOP's 10-year strategic plan, which is suddenly obsolete. The optimistic blueprint of how to rebuild a perpetual minority party was the handiwork of former chairman and now Lt. Gov.-elect Michael S. Steele. It was Steele's experience in creating the document that the party used to justify the $5,000-a-month consulting fee it began paying him immediately after Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. picked him as a running mate.

The Maryland Republican Party is paying Michael S. Steele $5,000 a month in consulting fees under an arrangement that began shortly after his selection as gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s running mate. Although the payments appear legal, Democrats said the GOP's contract with Steele raises ethical questions and suggests the party might be subsidizing the living expenses of a candidate for statewide office. "It looks to me like they've hired themselves a candidate," said David Paulson, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

WASHINGTON - Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, slated to be elected chairman of the Republican National Committee when it meets in Austin next week, has suddenly experienced an improvement in his eyesight. He says he can now see that continuing to be a paid lobbyist for clients who have business before the federal government might conceivably be viewed as a conflict of interest. His solution is to vow that "I will not represent the interests of clients before the Congress or the administration."