Party Leaders

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Texas billionaire Ross Perot greeted a room full of followers last night with his familiar rant against establishment politics and then offered some advice to his own Reform Party, now beset by brewing divisions."

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley appeared together for the first time in Campaign 2000 yesterday, with Bradley seeking to assure the Democratic National Committee that he did not intend to tear the party apart, while Gore tried to reassure his nervous supporters that he could be elected president.They both appeared to succeed.Hundreds of Democratic Party leaders and activists gathered in Washington last week, clearly worried about Texas Gov. George W. Bush's double-digit leads in the polls and anxiously eyeing the surge of support for Bradley, a former New Jersey senator.

Every morning about 7, G. Russell Walters puts on his favorite straw hat, climbs into his sport utility vehicle and drives out to a neighborhood in Howard County.At age 80, he's running energetically as a Democrat for county sheriff, hoping his service as county chief of police from 1969 to 1975 will impress voters."I know I have the qualifications, and I've been around sheriffs' departments all my life," says Walters, a North Laurel resident who was also a state trooper.But the county population has more than doubled since his tenure as police chief, and few seem to remember him -- not even Democratic Party leaders.

Anne MacKinnon, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party for less than a year, will leave her post just as this election year begins to take a newly created, $67,000-a-year job in the state Department of General Services.Her departure comes on the heels of testimony before a legislative committee this month that put her sharply at odds with Gov. Parris N. Glendening, legislative leaders and the party chairman, Peter Krauser.But Glendening and Krauser moved quickly yesterday to say that MacKinnon's departure from the party post had nothing to do with testimony before a committee in which she opposed a bill the governor supports.

WASHINGTON -- As Capitol Hill power struggles go, it may seem penny-ante. But for freshman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, the stakes are high.After just 10 months in the House, Cummings is in line to become the leading Democrat on a congressional subcommittee. There is, though, a hitch.Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont -- the lone independent in Congress -- received a letter last year from House Democratic leaders backing his bid for a top subcommittee position based on his seniority and his long support of the Democratic agenda.

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, the two principal prospective rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, displayed their wares yesterday before influential party leaders.While both were warmly received, it was Gore -- despite his fund-raising-related woes -- who seemed to come out ahead, if only because that's where he started.In speeches before the fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee, the two men differed mostly in tone and emphasis, with Gephardt being more impassioned and evoking a more enthusiastic response.

With the United States just days away from ending another presidential election marathon, intelligent Americans are complaining about the wasted time, the distraction, the spent energy and the costs of it all.Once again, we hear the perennial questions, the most famous of which is: "Why can't we do things with less fuss, the way they do it in England?"Let us see if we can give better answers this time.Q: In England, when they have a national election, the whole thing takes only three weeks.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to prevent a rerun of this year's compressed GOP primary race, a Republican task force is proposing modest changes to the party's presidential nominating system.The changes, which must be approved at the party's national convention next month in San Diego if they are to apply to the 2000 election, would offer incentives, in the form of extra convention delegates, to states that conduct primaries and caucuses later in the primary season.Because so many states rushed to hold early primaries and caucuses this year -- 25 states voted between Feb. 12 and March 12 -- the race essentially was over before millions of Republicans in other states had "an opportunity to make an informed decision, [and]

WASHINGTON -- If Democrats prevail in the cliffhanger race for control of the Congress, committee chairmanships would go to the party's leading liberals -- lawmakers who have been among the most fierce opponents of the Republican government-shrinking agenda of the past two years.House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and his Senate counterpart, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, have declared that their two years out of power has taught Democrats that they must adopt a more centrist approach if they regain power.

NORFOLK, Va. -- Eight years ago, he spurned the Republican Party and voted against Robert H. Bork for the Supreme Court. Two years ago, he rejected the party nominee for lieutenant governor, Michael P. Farris, who lost. And in last year's Senate race, he supported an independent, rather than the Republican nominee, Oliver L. North. Mr. North lost, too.To be sure, Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia is no longer the favorite son of many state Republicans. But this year, as he gears up to run for a fourth term in 1996, antipathy toward him has reached new heights, threatening to fracture the state party and deliver the seat to a Democrat for the first time in 30 years.

An admittedly nervous public speaker, Susan Turnbull addressed about 800 Democratic faithful at a swank annual gala last week. The new party chairwoman proceeded to confuse the two Mikes who lead the chambers of the Maryland General Assembly and flub the title of Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, calling him attorney general. "Whoa," Turnbull exclaimed, waving both arms as if she were teetering on an edge. "Doug has probably already gotten a message on his BlackBerry," she said, referring to Douglas F. Gansler, who actually holds the state's top legal post.

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.

Washington -- Being a superdelegate to this year's Democratic National Convention in Denver may not be so spectacular. In the past, the high-ranking elected officials and party officers, free to vote for whomever they wanted at the convention, were most notable for snagging invitations to the best receptions or securing prime seats on the floor. But it now looks as if the votes of 796 superdelegates may determine whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton becomes the party's standard bearer.

By now, it is a familiar script for Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest: Every two years, as if on cue, fellow Republicans lambaste the 61-year-old former social studies teacher as too liberal. The label never sticks. The decorated former Marine Corps platoon leader has rarely broken a sweat as he ambles through GOP primaries in the 1st Congressional District. But this year, the chorus of opposition has been much louder - and better financed - than usual. Faced with challenges in Tuesday's primary from well-known state Sens.

The 2008 primaries have quickly shaped up as the most interesting in recent memory. Both parties' races are so tight and in flux that there is a chance in each party that no candidate will have captured enough votes to secure the nomination before the convention rolls around. This may be a far greater danger for the Democrats, because of a rule enacted by previous party leaders aimed at maintaining control over their presidential choice. In 2008, the result may be a Democratic convention choosing a nominee who lacks the legitimacy of being the "people's choice."

WASHINGTON -- At the start of the week, it was unlikely that many people outside of Idaho and Washington, D.C., had heard of Sen. Larry E. Craig. But after Monday's disclosure of a guilty plea in a men's-room sex sting, Craig became the target of jokes - and a national embarrassment to a Republican Party facing a defining election next year. Craig is scheduled to announce his resignation today in Boise, Republican leaders told the Associated Press, after days of calls from high-profile Republicans that he step down.

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.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume was fielding questions on WBAL radio when the leading Republican contender phoned in. But instead of a scrap, what ensued was a cross-party love feast. Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the GOP's likely nominee for Senate, said he wanted WBAL listeners to know just how fond he was of Mfume. Steele spoke glowingly about a recent speech on economics and development given by Mfume, a former congressman and national president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

WASHINGTON -- Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have raised the bloody shirt of racism in defense of their embattled colleague Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana. I appreciate their sense of loyalty to a friend, but Mr. Jefferson hasn't given them much to work with. Mr. Jefferson's friends say he deserves the presumption of innocence. But the court of public opinion, in which all politics operates, is quite another matter. There is, for example, the embarrassing little question of the alleged bribery money that the FBI found in Mr. Jefferson's freezer.

Democratic state Sen. Philip C. Jimeno's surprise decision not to seek re-election to his District 31 seat has politicians from both parties taking a fresh look at the race. Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr., a conservative Republican from Glen Burnie, became yesterday the first candidate to step forward since Jimeno announced his retirement last month. Republicans had labeled the five-term incumbent's seat as vulnerable. Now party leaders predict the open seat might attract more GOP candidates to run in the district that represents the Marley Neck Peninsula, Pasadena, Gibson Island and Glen Burnie.