Running Mate

WASHINGTON -- The near-inevitability of Gov. Bill Clinton's nomination as the 1992 Democratic presidential candidate, almost certainly enhanced Tuesday by easy primary victories in Nebraska and West Virginia, is heightening speculation in and ,, out of the Clinton campaign about his selection of a running mate.Staff deliberations to formulate recommendations to Clinton are said to be centering on the wisdom of picking somebody who will counter his lack of experience in Washington, although he has made being a Washington outsider a selling point for his candidacy.

WASHINGTON -- The near-inevitability of Gov. Bill Clinton's nomination as the 1992 Democratic presidential candidate, almost certainly to be further enhanced Tuesday by easy primary victories in Nebraska and West Virginia, is heightening speculation in and out of the Clinton campaign about his selection of a running mate.Staff deliberations to formulate recommendations to Clinton are said to be centering on the wisdom of picking somebody who will counter his lack of experience in Washington -- although he has made being a Washington outsider a selling point for his candidacy.

I REALIZE that it's a bit early for me to be making a fearless forecast about next year's presidential campaign. But now that the cream of the Republican congressional leadership has decided that Texas Gov. George W. Bush will be the GOP presidential nominee -- skipping over the fact that he hasn't yet announced and the Iowa caucuses are still nine months away -- we professional political prognosticators must act now.I predict that Mr. Bush will choose a...

As Ellen R. Sauerbrey prepares for her second run for governor, she is debating whether to follow the advice of many top Republicans and replace her 1994 running mate, Paul H. Rappaport.Rappaport, a former Howard County police chief, is regarded as loyal, solid and well-connected in Maryland's law enforcement community.But many Republicans argue that he brought few votes to the ticket in 1994. They say that a younger, better-known running mate - preferably from the Washington suburbs - would improve Sauerbrey's chances for her likely rematch against Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey has reached across ideological lines to pick Richard D. Bennett, a former U.S. attorney popular with GOP moderates, to be her running mate in her bid for governor, sources said last night.In choosing Bennett, 50, she passed on Paul H. Rappaport -- her 1994 running mate favored by many grass-roots supporters -- and Prince George's County GOP Chairman Michael Steele, an African-American who might have bolstered her efforts to reach out to black voters.Bennett differs from the 60-year-old Sauerbrey on some key issues, supporting abortion rights and some gun control.

TRY AS she might, Ellen R. Sauerbrey is having no end of headaches getting the small-but-growing Republican Party in order for November. Blame it on Howard County.First, Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker shuns overtures to join her ticket -- first as running mate, then as a comptroller candidate -- choosing instead to keep up a campaign for governor that even longtime supporters consider quixotic.Now, Paul H. Rappaport -- the former Howard police chief who Sauerbrey put on the political map as her 1994 running mate -- is shunning her efforts to put together a full ticket for the September primary election, when Rappaport is running for Maryland attorney general.

Two hundred of Maryland's most enthusiastic Republicans gathered this weekend for their state convention to schmooze, swap war stories and pledge unity for the election ahead.Some party leaders blame Ellen R. Sauerbrey's narrow loss in the 1994 governor's race on the divisiveness that spilled over from a bitter primary election battle against Helen Delich Bentley, who did not endorse Sauerbrey.L But this year, there seems little danger of a similar split.At the BWI Sheraton yesterday, yellow-and-black Sauerbrey stickers were even more prevalent than the red ties and elephant jewelry favored by GOP faithful.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening has the early edge in fund raising over his likely opponent in the November election, but Ellen R. Sauerbrey has made a strong showing by raising what is believed to be a record amount for a Republican candidate in Maryland.Glendening has raised nearly $3.9 million and has $2.1 million of it on hand for his re-election bid, while Sauerbrey has pulled in almost $3 million, with about $1.4 million still available to spend, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday at the state election board in Annapolis.

With a critical deadline looming tonight, Maryland politicians are scrambling to find a successor to the late Louis L. Goldstein as state comptroller from a wide open field that includes Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and former Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Also today, Democrat Ray Schoenke is expected to abandon his bid to become governor after showing scant progress in the polls, said sources familiar with his thinking.But the day could be dominated by Gov. Parris N. Glendening's choice to fill the comptroller's post, held for almost 40 years by Goldstein.

NEW YORK -- In 1984 Walter Mondale, trailing Ronald Reagan, chose as his running mate an Italian-American Catholic woman. Mr. Reagan carried Italian-Americans, Catholics and women. Mr. Mondale carried Minnesota and Washington, D.C. Geraldine Ferraro carried on.For several years the former three-term congresswoman from Queens represented "the left" on CNN's "Crossfire." Now she is favored to win the nomination to run against Sen. Al D'Amato, who was re-elected in 1992.She is a liberal. He seems to stand foursquare for whatever this morning's focus group endorsed.

In the early days of The Movement, as we ground-zero feminists were calling it then, we tried without much success to explain to the white men who were running things how affirmative action was supposed to work. "You don't run out and hire the first woman or the first black person you find on the sidewalk and call it a day," we said. "You spend the extra 10 minutes and the extra 10 bucks recruiting and interviewing until you find a woman or a minority who has the qualifications to do the job. "Trust us," we said.

The National Guard should have a seat at the table with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Sen. Joe Biden told a convention of National Guard members at the Baltimore Convention Center yesterday. With a presidential debate on foreign policy set for Friday, the Democratic nominee for vice president focused his remarks to Guard members on national security, military resources and veterans benefits. But speaking to the group a day after Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, addressed them, Biden threw in some barbs for his opponents, as well.

Barack Obama received a minor fundraising bump after he named Joe Biden as his running mate but raked in huge sums after Republican rival John McCain named Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. Obama raised $66 million in August, to McCain's $47 million. Obama's receipts included $22 million in contributions of $200 or less, virtually all of it sent via the Internet, Obama's latest report to the Federal Election Commission shows. Obama also outspent his Republican rival in August, shelling out $53.5 million on everything from television advertising and mass mailings to polling, food and lodging.

So. This is what being pandered to feels like. John McCain picked Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and mother of five, to be his running mate to woo women like me. He seems to think that my girlfriends and I are so disappointed that an utterly qualified woman is not going to be president that we will jump at the chance to vote for an utterly unqualified woman for vice president. You gotta love a guy who thinks things are that simple. Women already outvote men in this country, and it isn't because we like voting for all those women on the ballot.

WASHINGTON, Pa. - Republican John McCain showed off his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania yesterday as Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign aired a new TV ad urging voters not to be distracted by McCain's putting a woman on the GOP ticket. About 10,000 people filled Southwestern Pennsylvania's 3,200-seat Consol Energy Park - home of independent baseball's Washington Wild Things - to see McCain introduce his running mate.

Expect all students to respect teachers I was frustrated by the stance taken by Donna Ford of Vanderbilt University, who argues in effect that the solution to the problem of student violence against Baltimore teachers is to pander to students' inflated sense of entitlement ("Respect called key to school safety," Aug 21). When did it become acceptable for a teacher to be required to earn a student's respect before receiving respect in kind? Teachers and students are not peers. It is imperative to the functioning of a free society that people holding positions of authority (i.e.

GREENVILLE, Del. - Two or three times a week, a jovial, silvery-haired man walks into the Brew HaHa! cafe and orders a medium or large coffee, sometimes leaving room for cream, sometimes not. "Good morning, sweetie!" he often says to Jessica Oliver behind the counter. "How are you?" "Hi, Joe!" she replies. "How's everything?" Then Sen. Joe Biden heads to the train station in nearby Wilmington and rides south to Washington, a daily commute he's made since being elected to the Senate 36 years ago. Those early-morning coffee orders, fondly recalled yesterday by Oliver, have been put on ice - at least until November.

DENVER - In tapping Delaware's Joe Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama went for everything he is not: a garrulous, back-slapping, old-school pol with more Washington years under his belt than almost anyone in either party. Biden is the first mid-Atlantic candidate on a national ticket since the early 1970s, an Irish-Catholic with working-class credibility and foreign policy expertise. He could enhance Obama's appeal in places, such as Maryland, where the Democrat is already strong.

IT AIN'T worth a pitcher of hot spit!" This is how John Nance Garner described the office of the vice president of the United States. But these days it seems to mean more. I feel the long primary process, running up to the Democratic and Republican conventions, has exhausted potential voters and many are disillusioned. There is definite "buyer's remorse" over Barack Obama's nomination and in New York he has dropped more than 10 points in his lead. John McCain was never a big favorite of conservative Republicans and as he swerved to the right, he erased his attractive maverick image and irritated middle-of-the-road and independent voters.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama has all but settled on his vice presidential running mate and set an elaborate rollout plan for his choice, beginning with an early-morning alert to supporters, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, and then a trip to swing states by the new Democratic ticket, aides said. Obama's deliberations remain remarkably closely held. Aides said perhaps a half-dozen advisers were involved in the final discussions in an effort to enforce a command that Obama issued to staff: that his decision not leak out until supporters are notified.