Political Campaigns

City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III, who has compiled the largest war chest in Baltimore's mayoral race, received his strongest support from contractors, unions and gambling and entertainment interests.According to reports filed this week, contributors to Bell range from the Club Pussycat on Baltimore's Block, which gave $500, to the production company of boxing promoter Don King, which gave $4,000.Among the labor organizations was the International Union of Electricians, which gave $6,000; among the business people was contractor Pless Jones, who contributed $7,000 through two of his companies.

IT'S HARD to know who are the worse hypocrites these days. Is it the Democrats, who pretend to want to limit campaign contributions while their party does everything it can to skirt current laws? Or the Republicans, who won't admit to the American public what they know to be true -- that limits never work because clever people will always find ways around them?Last week, for example, the Washington Post reported that the Democratic National Committee has engaged in an unprecedented effort to swap funds with its state affiliates to avoid federal spending limits.

For Maryland politicians with a need to fill their campaign coffers, there's no better source of wealth than health.Locked in annual battles in the General Assembly over managed care and professional turf, special-interest groups in the health-care field have poured millions of dollars into statewide political campaigns and legislative races in the four years since Maryland's last general election.Campaign finance reports at the state elections board show that health-care interests are well on their way to repeating their 1994 role as the leading industry sector for political contributions.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- For the first time in U.S. history, nearly half of the population lives in suburbs, and that simple fact is changing the nation's political priorities. If you live in a major city, your concerns are no longer at the top of the heap.While the number of Americans living in cities stayed a flat 31 percent from 1975 to 1995, the number residing in suburbs grew from 37 percent in 1975 to 47 percent in 1995, according to U.S. Census Bureau reports.Growing trendMeanwhile, cities are losing their political clout.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The five Democratic candidates for governor were sitting around a table at the local public radio station the other night debating. One of the debate's sponsors was the Minnesota Nurses Association. Among the candidates was the eventual winner of the party primary, state Attorney General Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey.At the first commercial break, the sound was turned off in the studio and the five chatted amiably, not realizing that the station was running a paid political advertisement endorsing Mr. Humphrey.

As the November elections near, candidates are planting thei virtual battle flags in record numbers across cyberspace.While 1998 is the first election year in which the Internet is widely regarded as a mass medium, it's still uncertain what effect these powerful new digital tools will have on individual campaigns, or more broadly, on the country's future political course."

WASHINGTON -- As voters continue to demonstrate their disdain for the tone of political campaigns by staying away from the polls in droves, the debate goes on within the political community about who's to blame.Alex Castellanos, a Republican consultant involved in the Bob Dole campaign in 1996, told CNN recently that "coverage of politics has been very cynical" and that the news media is "the most negative institution in American politics today."He is not alone in that view. A recent survey of 196 professional political consultants active in national campaigns in the last three election cycles provided this not too surprising answer about whose fault it is that politics is held in such low regard: Don't look at us.The poll of 200 consultants, slightly more Democrats thanRepublicans, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, pointed a collective finger instead at the news media, the voters themselves and, in some cases, at the candidates.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger is one of Maryland's leaders in political fund-raising with a cool half-million in the bank -- but guess who else is flush with campaign cash?Donald P. Hutchinson.That's right. The man who left that same county executive's job more than 11 years ago boasts a campaign fund of just over $200,000 -- more than most state legislators and county executives have on hand.Like Hutchinson, some Maryland politicians have retained five-figure campaign funds long after leaving office.

An article on Page 1A Thursday about Fred Tuttle's run for a U.S. Senate seat in Vermont incorrectly reported the political affiliation of the state's governor. Vermont's governor, Howard Dean, is a Democrat.The Sun regrets the errors.GRANVILLE, Vt. -- When it comes to political campaigns, this one is surreal.The candidates for the U.S. Senate seat here dine together with their wives. They campaign together, like they did in this postcard-perfect mountain town yesterday. And by the time this topsy-turvy campaign is finally over, they might even vote for each other.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger is one of Maryland's leaders in political fund-raising with a cool half-million in the bank -- but guess who else is flush with campaign cash?Donald P. Hutchinson.That's right. The man who left that same county executive's job more than 11 years ago boasts a campaign fund of just over $200,000 -- more than most state legislators and county executives have on hand.Like Hutchinson, some Maryland politicians have retained five-figure campaign funds long after leaving office.

The need for publicly financed campaigns for seats in the General Assembly has seldom been greater. With record sums likely to be spent on Senate and House of Delegates races next year, the influence of big donations on the legislature never more obvious, and some high-profile Maryland politicians under criminal investigation, one might assume support among legislators would be overwhelming. But the chronically delusional are not so easily swayed. Public financing died late in the last legislative session through a combination of tactical error (a Senate bill that was fatally amended by opponents on the floor)

Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney was right to reject the attempt by Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's attorneys to throw out perjury charges against her through an overly expansive interpretation of the legal principle that protects her legislative acts from prosecution. The notion that votes and debate, specifically, would be exempt from prosecution speaks to our values about the separation of powers in government. But the idea that any act Ms. Dixon commits while an elected official - standing at a ribbon-cutting, for example - should be exempt would eliminate any possibility that she or any other politician could be held to a standard of ethics.

On its face, the victory State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh secured Monday looks modest indeed. Developer Ronald H. Lipscomb pleaded guilty to exceeding the contribution limits for political campaigns, something he's been caught doing in the past, often on a much grander scale than the $6,500 he paid toward a poll for City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton. Mr. Lipscomb's attorney, Gerard P. Martin, portrayed the deal as a fair settlement, saying the state's attempts to prove the contribution amounted to a bribe would have failed but that the campaign violation would have been inevitable.

WASHINGTON: Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin proposed Tuesday. He introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements, but could report on all issues, including political campaigns. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage could be tax-deductible. The Maryland Democrat said the bill is aimed at preserving local newspapers, not large newspaper conglomerates.

Whatever the ultimate dispositions of the criminal cases against Mayor Sheila Dixon, City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton and developer Ronald H. Lipscomb, it is clear that something needs to be done to diminish the corrosive combination of development, money and politics. While it may be impossible to prevent developers from secretly lavishing cash and gifts on politicians or paying for political polls - as Mr. Lipscomb is alleged to have done for, respectively, Ms. Dixon and Ms. Holton - steps can be taken to counter the widespread pay-to-play perception when it comes to major city real estate and construction projects.

Key senators gave a favorable reception yesterday to legislation designed to limit the influence of campaign contributors in Annapolis, but the state's budget crunch may still stymie the chances for reform this year. Some Senate leaders, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, remain opposed to the most ambitious of the proposals, which would establish public financing of campaigns. But members of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue, appeared receptive to the idea.

When a political party that has been a minority suddenly gains power, the change can be intoxicating. After Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in 1994, you didn't need a Breathalyzer to detect the effect. It became obvious the instant they started batting around ideas for amending the Constitution - everything from banning flag desecration to inventing new rights for crime victims. None of these went anywhere. Even the hyperkinetic Newt Gingrich soon realized he had his hands full with the normal business of legislating.

Political campaign literature will seldom be mistaken for the gospel truth, but last November's "sample ballots" indicating former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele were Democrats and that they had been endorsed by a number of prominent black leaders crossed a line. Various versions of these handouts, which were widely distributed on Election Day in Baltimore and Prince George's County by African-Americans bused in from out of state, didn't change the outcome for either candidate, but in terms of sheer brazenness, it set a new - low - standard.

In an early campaign gaffe that initially rankled some political insiders and fundraisers, City Councilman and Baltimore mayoral candidate Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. distributed a list of financial supporters that included people who are undecided or who support his opponent in this year's election. Mitchell, a three-term City Council member who officially announced his candidacy in January - and who appears to be Mayor Sheila Dixon's leading opponent - said the e-mail, which included several members of Dixon's transition committee, was a mistake.

Every so often, the national body politic awakens from its slumber, yawns, stretches, surveys the landscape in horror and swats aside the prevailing power structure. That's what happened in unusually high turnout congressional elections yesterday that apparently returned control of the House to the Democrats for the first time since a similar swat-out in 1994, and at least narrowed the GOP Senate majority to a sliver. Widespread opposition to the Iraq war, disgruntlement about an economy that rewards some but leaves many others out, and disgust at former Republican revolutionaries who abandoned their principles of fiscal restraint and seemed oblivious to corruption and abuse of power within their ranks - all took a mighty toll on the party in power.