Political Groups

National independent political groups that played a significant role in last year's midterm elections are beginning to engage again in competitive House districts in Illinois, Florida and other states, though so far they've pulled their punches in what could be Maryland's most closely watched race in 2012. The 1st Congressional District was a high-profile battleground in the past two elections — Democrats captured it in 2008, and Republicans won it back in 2010. But political analysts say uncertainty over the state's redistricting process along with incumbent Rep. Andy Harris' double-digit win last year may be giving some national Democratic groups pause.

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.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- President Frederik W. de Klerk announced yesterday that he is ending all secret funding of political groups in an effort to rebuild confidence in his troubled government.Mr. de Klerk also said he was launching a review of all covert operations of the South African government in the wake of a major scandal involving secret funding of the black political group Inkatha.The announcement came one day after Mr. de Klerk removed two powerful Cabinet ministers who were linked to the scandal and to other controversies involving alleged government support for enemies of the African National Congress.

With a bit of math and a few clicks of a mouse, state Democrats transformed a once-sleepy congressional district in Western Maryland last week into one of the most closely watched political battlegrounds in the nation. Hours after Gov. Martin O'Malley signed his controversial redistricting plan into law, potential candidates and powerful third-party groups began jockeying for position in the redrawn 6th District, which now stretches from the state's western border to the suburbs of Washington.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi leaders worked yesterday to solve their impasse over who will rule the country, with a secular coalition proposing an emergency government that would supersede election results and Shiite clerics conferring on how best to preserve their sect's newfound power. Politicians remained deadlocked over Sunni Arab and Kurdish opposition to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the main Shiite coalition's nominee for prime minister. The crisis has created a political vacuum, stalling critical reconstruction projects and contributing to the country's security woes.

President Bush said yesterday that he wants to pursue court action against political ads from "shadowy" outside groups that have bankrolled more than $60 million in attack ads against him since March, the latest development in a bitter campaign dominated by heavily financed, sharply partisan and largely unregulated outside groups. The thicket of political intrigue and accusations surrounding so-called 527s has effectively overwhelmed the campaign discussion of the economy, health care and the war in Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- A member of the Federal Election Commission is proposing to force public disclosure on an emergent class of political groups that fly beneath regulatory radar without having to identify their donors or what the money is spent on. The commissioner, Karl J. Sandstrom, a Democrat, said his proposal was needed to address the increasingly active organizations that flout the intent of post-Watergate reforms by taking advantage of a loophole in...

The practice by public broadcasting stations of selling the names of their contributors to political organizations is widespread, according to testimony yesterday before a congressional subcommittee.Robert T. Coonrod, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said 30 of 75 Public Broadcasting Service stations in the nation's largest markets, "appear to have exchanged names with political organizations" -- buying or selling their lists to such groups as the Democratic National Committee.

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Almost a year after Nigeria's military government announced the latest plan for a transition to democracy, many civilian politicians are back on the streets organizing for national elections scheduled for 1998.The previous transition, by another military government, ended abruptly in 1993, when the country's military rulers annulled a presidential election widely believed to have been won by Moshood K. Abiola, a businessman now imprisoned.Ignoring those who are skeptical that the current leader, Gen. Sani Abacha, wants a genuine transition to civilian rule, 18 political groups have responded to the lifting of a three-year ban on party politics in June by organizing political meetings, complete with songs and slogans about democracy.

Elbridge Gerry was one of those eminently forgettable figures of history whose distinction rests on having served as vice president of the United States. Before he attained that office, Gerry served a couple of terms as governor of Massachusetts in the early part of the 19th century, and in that capacity drew up an election-district plan so grotesque that the state looked like one of those 1,000-footed insects, the salamander. Noticing this similarity, someone dubbed the plan a "gerrymander," and ever since the term has been used to define the drawing of election-district lines for unfair political advantage.

National independent political groups that played a significant role in last year's midterm elections are beginning to engage again in competitive House districts in Illinois, Florida and other states, though so far they've pulled their punches in what could be Maryland's most closely watched race in 2012. The 1st Congressional District was a high-profile battleground in the past two elections — Democrats captured it in 2008, and Republicans won it back in 2010. But political analysts say uncertainty over the state's redistricting process along with incumbent Rep. Andy Harris' double-digit win last year may be giving some national Democratic groups pause.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi government has had contact through intermediaries with several rebel groups since its announcement of a plan to offer amnesty to insurgents in return for their disarming and submitting to Iraqi law, the prime minister said yesterday. "Many people contacted me on the day I announced the reconciliation plan, and there is a lot of support even from militias and ... [insurgent] groups," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "We welcome their assistance, but we are still waiting until we can meet directly with these groups and talk to them in a civilized way in order to bring them into the political process.

The National Association of Evangelicals and the American Humanist Association might not agree on much. When it comes to abortion or homosexuality, the Union for Reform Judaism and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops find themselves on opposite ends of the debate. But when the subject is genocide in Darfur, all are on the same page. In what may be the broadest coalition of faith-based groups ever assembled for a political cause, Jews, Christians and Muslims, liberals and conservatives, evangelicals and atheists are joining with humanitarian and human rights organizations to demand that the U.S. government end the killing in Sudan.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi leaders worked yesterday to solve their impasse over who will rule the country, with a secular coalition proposing an emergency government that would supersede election results and Shiite clerics conferring on how best to preserve their sect's newfound power. Politicians remained deadlocked over Sunni Arab and Kurdish opposition to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the main Shiite coalition's nominee for prime minister. The crisis has created a political vacuum, stalling critical reconstruction projects and contributing to the country's security woes.

A group of local leaders led by a controversial campaign strategist launched a new organization yesterday aimed at supporting political candidates, assisting urban entrepreneurs and spurring debate on public education. In its state incorporation filings, Metro Political Organization Inc. describes itself as a "political pressure group" that will "support candidates for elected offices." But the city-based group, led by political consultant Julius C. Henson and Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr., issued a news release yesterday expressing goals "to promote public service and enlighten public policy to encourage positive change in the areas of politics, economics, education and multicultural opportunities."

WASHINGTON -- Counterterrorism agents at the FBI have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show. FBI officials said yesterday that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in other settings.

THE FBI spied for decades on the NAACP and other civil rights groups that J. Edgar Hoover thought had a Communist tint. Under its COINTEL program the bureau shadowed, raided and harassed Americans who opposed the Vietnam War.The memory of those abuses is strong enough, still, to make politicians wary of responding to Oklahoma City by giving the FBI carte blanche to investigate suspected terrorists.Speaker Newt Gingrich said: "No one is suggesting the kind of open-ended authority that existed 30 years ago."

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who became a symbol of opposition to apartheid when most black political leaders were in exile or jail, says he is happy to take a back seat now that the political leaders are free.The Anglican church leader, who was pictured regularly in the world press in the 1980s as he confronted white police authorities, chuckles as he remarks on "how infrequently now my name appears" in the news."We operated the way we did in order to give people space" when the church was the only route through which people could express political dissent, he said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Political groups representing Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs called yesterday for new delays in approving a national constitution, complaining that they had been cut out of final-hour negotiations between Shiite Muslims and Kurds and appealing to U.S. and U.N. officials to intervene. The nation's transitional National Assembly is scheduled to approve a final draft of Iraq's first democratic constitution today after missing last Monday's deadline, voting instead to give themselves one more week to seek compromises on key issues.

President Bush said yesterday that he wants to pursue court action against political ads from "shadowy" outside groups that have bankrolled more than $60 million in attack ads against him since March, the latest development in a bitter campaign dominated by heavily financed, sharply partisan and largely unregulated outside groups. The thicket of political intrigue and accusations surrounding so-called 527s has effectively overwhelmed the campaign discussion of the economy, health care and the war in Iraq.