Virginia’s three gubernatorial candidates are still debating how many debates will be held, and who will attend.
Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, the Republican nominee, will meet at a Virginia Bar Association debate in West Virginia on July 16. State Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., Winchester Republican running as an independent, will not be able to participate.
The same is true for a debate scheduled for Sept. 13, sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and to be moderated by Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Kilgore said in June he will not debate Mr. Potts.
Mr. Potts has started an e-mail campaign asking his supporters to take action and demand he be able to participate in the debates. His campaign also noted that the bar association allowed two independents to debate the Republican and Democratic candidates in the 1994 U.S. Senate race.
Two proposed televised debates accepted by Mr. Kaine and Mr. Potts were canceled by organizers when Mr. Kilgore declined to attend.
However, a WTOP Radio and George Mason University debate for Sept. 23 will go on as planned, regardless of who is attending, radio host Mark Plotkin said.
Mr. Plotkin said both Mr. Potts and Mr. Kaine have agreed to attend. Mr. Kilgore’s campaign has not yet given an answer to the invitation, he said.
“There is no way we won’t have it,” Mr. Plotkin said.
• Vote against aliens?
A fundraiser last week for Delegate Patrick L. McDonough, the Maryland General Assembly’s most outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, drew more than 300 supporters and netted more than $20,000 in campaign cash.
Mr. McDonough, a Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, said the event at Overlea Hall in Baltimore County was the area’s largest political fundraiser for a delegate.
He said the turnout reflects deep concern about illegal immigration in the community.
“From a grass-roots point of view, we are the only politicians who are responding to this concern that people have” about illegal aliens, Mr. McDonough said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and announced candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, was the keynote speaker at the event. He was a fitting choice because the congressman’s top priority is cracking down on illegal immigration.
Though Mr. Tancredo plans to make illegal immigration a dominant issue in the 2008 presidential race, Mr. McDonough intends to inject immigration politics into Maryland elections next year.
• Pipkin staying put
Maryland state Sen. E.J. Pipkin has joined the list of politicians making their intentions for 2006 known early. Mr. Pipkin said last week that he will seek a second term in the seat he won in 2002, representing Queen Anne’s, Kent, Cecil and Caroline counties.
“I’m looking to go back. I love this job. I really do,” Mr. Pipkin told the Easton Star Democrat. “I’ve been honored and privileged to represent the 36th District, and I’m looking forward to continuing to do so. There is still work to be done.”
When U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, Maryland Democrat, announced earlier this year he would not seek re-election, Mr. Pipkin’s name surfaced as a possible Republican candidate. He was the party’s nominee in 2004 against U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, also a Democrat. But Mr. Pipkin said he is not considering another race for the U.S. Senate, in deference to the expected candidacy of Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.
Mr. Pipkin also has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., if Mr. Steele isn’t there, but he said he has “no control over that kind of discussion,” and that “it has not even come up.”
• Cardin’s war chest
U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin announced last week that he has raised more than $1 million since he announced April 26 that he would run for the Maryland seat in the U.S. Senate that will open up with the retirement of Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.
A second Democratic candidate, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, said he did not have an exact figure, but estimated he would report collecting about $250,000 for the campaign-finance reporting period that ended June 30.
A third potential candidate, Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, reported having more than $1 million in his campaign treasury and said he has raised more than $700,000 since Mr. Sarbanes announced his retirement March 11. Mr. Van Hollen has not said whether he will seek the nomination for the Senate seat or run for another term in Congress from his Montgomery County district.
Mr. Cardin said his money came “from across the state from old friends and from people who have never given to a political campaign.”
“We are clearly pleased that we have been able to raise more than $1 million in a two-month period,” he said.
Mr. Van Hollen also said his money has come in despite the fact that he is not yet a candidate for the Democratic senatorial nomination.
• Lobbyist leaving
Virginia Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Stephen D. Haner is leaving his position to open his own government-affairs and public relations consulting firm.
Mr. Haner, vice president of public policy at the chamber for three years, will leave July 31. Before working at the chamber, he was an independent lobbyist. He also served as executive director of the Joint Republican Legislative Caucus from 1988 to 1992 and director of administration for the Attorney General’s Office. He started his career as a reporter at the Roanoke Times.
No replacement has yet been identified.
• Primary turnout low
The Virginia State Board of Elections has confirmed a low turnout in the June 14 Democratic and Republican primaries.
The board said Tuesday that only about 316,000 people cast ballots for Democratic or Republican candidates from a total of 4 million registered voters in Virginia. That tally puts turnout at 7.2 percent — a Republican turnout of 4.3 percent and 2.9 percent for Democrats.
The numbers were announced last week when the elections board certified the results from the primaries.
Voters cast ballots for nominees for three state offices — governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Some districts also featured legislative-nomination races.
• Another O’Connor exit
Sandra O’Connor, Baltimore County’s state’s attorney for more than three decades, will retire at the end of her term, her staff said Wednesday.
Mrs. O’Connor, a Republican, said she will retire in December 2006, when her eighth term ends. She wants to spend more time with her husband, Harold Rose, who has been retired for three years. She also plans to spend more time with her two grandchildren.
“I would just like to do things old people do,” said Mrs. O’Connor, 62, who looks forward to a more flexible schedule that will allow her to travel.
She said she will continue teaching criminal law at Catonsville Community College and Villa Julie College.
• Union backs Steele
If Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele runs for the U.S. Senate, he will have the support of the union that represents Baltimore police officers. The union lodge made its endorsement last Monday at a meeting that Mr. Steele did not attend.
“We wanted to be one of the first to show our support to him,” Frederick Roussey, president of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, told the Baltimore Sun.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. did attend the meeting, but there was no official endorsement of his bid for a second term from the union that endorsed him in the 2002 campaign.
“We want to give the mayor a chance to see what he has to offer,” Mr. Roussey said, referring to Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat who is weighing a run for governor, “but I can tell you, we love the governor.”
• O’Malley’s green side
Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley criticized the environmental practices of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s administration, especially on the issues of protecting air quality and preserving undeveloped land.
“It seems to me that the Ehrlich administration is not moving us forward,” Mr. O’Malley said in a speech Thursday.
The Democratic mayor has not officially declared his candidacy, but he is laying the groundwork for a 2006 race against the Republican governor.
The Ehrlich administration has tried “to sell off our forests and parks for short-term gain,” Mr. O’Malley said. The mayor alluded to “a secret plan” to sell off state woodlands, a reference to an Ehrlich administration proposal to buy 838 acres of St. Mary’s County timberland for $2.5 million and then sell it for the same amount to Willard Hackerman, owner of a Baltimore construction company.
Mr. Hackerman promised that, in return, he would give 120 acres to St. Mary’s to build schools and would donate to the state a conservation easement on most of the rest of the property, preserving it from development. Donation of an easement would have provided tax breaks that potentially were worth more than the purchase price for the property.
The deal was dropped after sharp criticism from environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers.
Mr. O’Malley also said the governor is allowing Maryland to slip back from a position as a national leader on Smart Growth, in which priority is given to redeveloping older areas over sprawling new development in rural communities.
Mr. O’Malley spoke at the redeveloped Tide Point office complex with the city’s Inner Harbor as a backdrop. The site is a former Procter & Gamble plant.
• Nader aide pleads
The Virginia campaign coordinator for Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign last week pleaded guilty in Virginia Beach Circuit Court to election fraud.
James Polk, 47, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $2,500. He will serve his time under house detention.
Prosecutors withdrew nine of 10 counts of election fraud against Mr. Polk, who was accused of illegally certifying petitions to get Mr. Nader, an independent candidate, on the ballot.
Mr. Nader’s name was not on the ballot in Virginia.
• Politician pulled over
Ocean City Police arrested the president of the Seat Pleasant Town Council on charges of driving an uninsured car on a suspended license.
Officer Joseph Melena pulled over Brian K. Shivers, 37, about 1:30 a.m. last Monday on 49th Street, according to police reports. A random registration check of the license plates had shown the gold Mercedes-Benz station wagon was uninsured and its plates were recorded as stolen.
Mr. Shivers told police he “needed to have a vehicle to come to Ocean City with because he was in town for a political convention,” according to a police report filed documenting the arrest.
The four-day Maryland Municipal League conference had kicked off the day before in Ocean City, and an administrator at Seat Pleasant’s City Hall said the town’s mayor and seven council members were attending the meeting. Mr. Shivers is one of 13 elected officials nominated this year for 10 seats as members-at-large on the league’s governing board.
Records on police computers showed Mr. Shivers’ driver’s license was suspended in February 2004, the police report said. Mr. Shivers told police he had been in contact with the Motor Vehicle Administration about the suspension and believed his license papers were in order, according to the police report.
Mr. Shivers was released on his own recognizance later Monday after a hearing before a district commissioner.
• Christina Bellantoni and S.A. Miller contributed to this column, which is based in part on wire service reports.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.