Primary Campaign

The last major fund-raiser in the primary campaign for two seats on the county Circuit Court bench comes tomorrow, with a pair of contenders expecting to draw 250 contributors to a bull roast at the Turf Valley Country Club.The $60-a-plate event is the second big fund-raiser by the Committee to Elect the Best, the political organization for attorney Jonathan Scott Smith and District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman, two challengers in the race."We said we were going to have one major fund-raiser, and this is going to be it," said Chevy Fleischman, the campaign spokeswoman.

Candidates for governor in Maryland's June primary spent a record of almost $25 million - paying roughly $35 for every voter who showed up at the polls. Campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections this week show that the primary's cost exceeded the total spent during the primary and general election four years ago by more than $2 million. As Democrat Anthony G. Brown continues to raise money apace and Republican Larry Hogan has $2.4 million in public financing, they appear on track to shatter the record $33 million spent on the gubernatorial contest in 2006.

Eager to dispel any notion that his mayoral campaign i foundering, Clarence H. Du Burns is featured in a series of television ads reminding people that Monday is the last day to register to vote in the Sept. 12 primary.The ads are aimed at raising the profile of the Burns campaign as much as they are aimed at raising voter turnout. Burns, a Democrat, said one of the ads began airing yesterday and will have been shown 31 times by Monday."Is this something that a candidate with no money can do?"

BOSTON -- In the end, the most memorable line of the primary season may belong to Bill Clinton. He told a church group last month: "I've been waiting all my life to vote for an African-American president. I've been waiting all my life to vote for a woman for president. ... I feel like God is playing games with our heads and our hearts." He might have added that God, or some more earthly force, was also playing games with his party. Sen. Hillary Clinton had barely celebrated her victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island before worries began to appear like a crawl across the screen during the victory party.

EILEEN M. Rehrmann has clarified the election for Democratic voters by ending her primary campaign for governor.Party faithful can now try to heal their self-inflicted wounds and support the incumbent, Parris N. Glendening, against likely Republican challenger Ellen R. Sauerbrey -- or not. There is no third way.For four years, some voters in both parties had hoped to avoid a rerun of the close 1994 contest. That one left a bitter aftertaste, with Ms. Sauerbrey graceless in defeat and Mr. Glendening bumptious upon taking office.

WASHINGTON -- As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has ramped up her presidential campaign, a number of fundraisers long associated with her and her husband have shifted their loyalties to Sen. Barack Obama. Among the biggest fundraisers for Obama's campaign are as many as a half-dozen former guests of the Clinton White House. At least two are close enough to the Clintons to have slept in the Lincoln bedroom. At minimum, a dozen were major fundraisers for President Clinton. At least four worked in the administration and one, James Rubin, is the son of a former Clinton Treasury secretary.

With just two elections under his belt, Christopher P. Fiotes Jr. has experienced both the heights and the depths of life in the political arena.In September's primary, Fiotes captured the GOP nomination for the 6th District congressional seat, beating Kenneth W. Halsey of Garrett County, and former Cumberland Mayor Frank K. Nethken.But in 1986, the Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, resident and businessman experienced the nadir of vying for political office. He finished last in a field of 10 candidates running for the 15th District seat in the House of Delegates.

With just two elections under his belt, Christopher P. Fiotes Jr. has experienced both the heights and the depths of life in the political arena.In September's primary, Fiotes captured the Republican Party nomination for the 6th District congressional seat, beating Kenneth W. Halsey of Garrett County and former Cumberland Mayor Frank K. Nethken.But in 1986, the Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, resident and businessman experienced the nadir of vying for political office. He finished last in a field of 10 candidates running for the 15th District seat in the House of Delegates.

It was early in the campaign, as Kweisi Mfume remembers it, a private moment shortly after Benjamin L. Cardin joined him in the race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. It would be the first time in their long political careers that the old friends and collaborators would be running against each other. "I said to him and Myrna [Cardin's wife], `This is probably the most awkward thing you and I are going to do,'" Mfume recalled. "`But we've got to do it, now that you're in.'" They entered Congress together, the black City Council member from West Baltimore and the Jewish former speaker of the House of Delegates from Baltimore County.

CRAWFORD, Texas - With more than $40 million in his re-election campaign coffers, President Bush feted his most prolific fund-raisers yesterday at a private barbecue just four miles down a country lane from his ranch. Because the gathering technically was not a fund-raiser, the White House barred reporters from the event. Other than the bustle at the nearby Hickey Broken Spoke Ranch, the only other public hint of the electioneering powwow was the dozens of private jets lined up on the tarmac of the normally quiet Waco airport.

A day after she appeared at a rally with thousands of supporters, Sen. Hillary Clinton adopted a more subdued campaign approach yesterday, reaching out to workers at a White Marsh auto plant to talk about ways to boost the nation's economy. Clinton's visit to the General Motors Corp. transmission plant included a candid discussion about the economy at a time when the issue has taken center stage in the election, but it capped an abridged and sometimes troubled campaign that unfolded here as Sen. Barack Obama's momentum soared.

WASHINGTON -- As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has ramped up her presidential campaign, a number of fundraisers long associated with her and her husband have shifted their loyalties to Sen. Barack Obama. Among the biggest fundraisers for Obama's campaign are as many as a half-dozen former guests of the Clinton White House. At least two are close enough to the Clintons to have slept in the Lincoln bedroom. At minimum, a dozen were major fundraisers for President Clinton. At least four worked in the administration and one, James Rubin, is the son of a former Clinton Treasury secretary.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- On his first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate, Rudolph W. Giuliani bragged that he would "win the caucus, and surprise everybody." His boast was directed at insiders, who were wondering if the New Yorker was planning to fly right past this Corn Belt state. His campaign manager had hinted that Giuliani might spend his time hunting delegates elsewhere, perhaps in larger, friendlier, coastal places, such as California, Florida, New Jersey and New York. Ever since Jimmy Carter went from nowhere to the White House by winning Iowa's kickoff caucuses, success in Iowa has been regarded as a key to gaining the presidency.

CHICAGO -- Sen. Barack Obama's announcement yesterday that he has raised nearly as much money as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton this year, bringing in $25 million for his presidential bid from a wide array of contributors, shakes up the race and makes it clear that no Democrat will attain the sort of early dominance that the former first lady had been trying to establish. Clinton, who raised $26 million in January, February and March, might re-examine her strategy for fundraising and otherwise building support, which had been based on the idea that she was the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination.

It was early in the campaign, as Kweisi Mfume remembers it, a private moment shortly after Benjamin L. Cardin joined him in the race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. It would be the first time in their long political careers that the old friends and collaborators would be running against each other. "I said to him and Myrna [Cardin's wife], `This is probably the most awkward thing you and I are going to do,'" Mfume recalled. "`But we've got to do it, now that you're in.'" They entered Congress together, the black City Council member from West Baltimore and the Jewish former speaker of the House of Delegates from Baltimore County.

The two of them, Tommy D'Alesandro III and Ted Venetoulis, only have about a thousand years of political experience between them, so what do I know? I say the biggest problem the Democratic Party has is keeping Martin O'Malley and Doug Duncan from kneecapping each other before one of them faces Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for governor. D'Alesandro and Venetoulis say: Beautiful. Let the fight among Democrats begin. They were out there Wednesday in the big throng at Patterson Park as O'Malley officially announced he's running for governor while Duncan, from a bunker somewhere in Montgomery County, lobbed another grenade at O'Malley and the city of Baltimore.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- There was probably less than met the eye in the opening of the New Hampshire primary campaign here last weekend.There were, to be sure, nine potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. There were more than 200 reporters and camera crews to record their every step down Elm Street. And there were those 1,400 Republicans who packed a stuffy hotel ballroom to hear them speak. In short, there were all the trappings of a primary campaign here.But only two or three of the nine candidates appear at this point to have any realistic chance of becoming serious competitors for the nomination -- Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and perhaps former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

BOSTON -- In the end, the most memorable line of the primary season may belong to Bill Clinton. He told a church group last month: "I've been waiting all my life to vote for an African-American president. I've been waiting all my life to vote for a woman for president. ... I feel like God is playing games with our heads and our hearts." He might have added that God, or some more earthly force, was also playing games with his party. Sen. Hillary Clinton had barely celebrated her victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island before worries began to appear like a crawl across the screen during the victory party.

CRAWFORD, Texas - With more than $40 million in his re-election campaign coffers, President Bush feted his most prolific fund-raisers yesterday at a private barbecue just four miles down a country lane from his ranch. Because the gathering technically was not a fund-raiser, the White House barred reporters from the event. Other than the bustle at the nearby Hickey Broken Spoke Ranch, the only other public hint of the electioneering powwow was the dozens of private jets lined up on the tarmac of the normally quiet Waco airport.

The 41st District Senate race became more negative yesterday, with allegations of dirty political tricks and property vandalism as the campaign moved into the final week before the Sept. 10 primary. Supporters of Del. Lisa A. Gladden's bid accused one of her opponents, Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, of spreading inaccurate reports about Gladden's record in the House of Delegates to voters in the Northwest Baltimore district during telephone poll questions Thursday and Friday. They said other poll questions, conducted by a firm they believe is in Colorado, put Hoffman in a positive light.