Why the midweek rendezvous in Annapolis?

Friday, Sept. 29, 2006

Kweisi Mfume offered his long-awaited and pivotal endorsement of Ben Cardin’s U.S. Senate bid on Wednesday, but what was he doing the day before in Annapolis?

Meeting with his former congressional colleague and friend, Bob Ehrlich, at Government House. The men discussed the primary elections and the upcoming general election campaign for about an hour.

Mfume’s message to the more than 1,000 Democrats in College Park on Wednesday was that he supports Cardin, but the Democratic Party has some problems with diversity. Later that evening, the guv headlined the Republican Party’s Red, White and Blue dinner in Baltimore, where the GOP touted its racially and geographically diverse statewide ticket.

The fact that the Democratic Party’s top ticket is all male and mostly white (except for Martin O’Malley’s running mate, Anthony Brown) means the Dems really need to reach out to African Americans, said Mfume, who hammered Cardin among black voters in the primary and fell 18,000 votes short despite being heavily outspent by the 10-term congressman.

Paul Schurick, Ehrlich’s top comm guy, confirmed Thursday that Ehrlich and Mfume met, which he says isn’t unusual: The two have a relationship going back to their years in Congress and ‘‘talk frequently.”

Schurick didn’t pass up the chance to link Mfume’s warning to Dems. ‘‘The Democrats have a real problem,” he said. ‘‘The party leaders did not support their top-tier African-American candidates this year.”

Top Dems like Steny Hoyer and Mike Miller backed Cardin over Mfume. Hoyer and Miller did support Stu Simms, who is black, in his unsuccessful primary for attorney general.

— Thomas Dennison

Breaking bread

Speaking of interesting meetings, our spies tell us that House Speaker Mike Busch had dinner with former Anne Arundel state senator and county executive Bob Pascal and Baltimore business magnate John Paterakis at Boccaccio’s in Baltimore on Monday.

Seeing Paterakis, a political mover-and-shaker who has been linked to slots, at dinner with anti-slots Busch, prompted our spy to give us a call.

Busch told us he has had a long friendship with both Paterakis and Pascal and they only talked about the upcoming political campaigns — not slots. Dinner was great, he added.

— Thomas Dennison

Lining up? Not!

With Minority Leader Lowell Stoltzfus giving up his leadership slot, Senate Republicans seem to be cooling their heels about replacing him.

Minority Whip Andy Harris told us that he would be ‘‘honored to be considered by the caucus” for the top job. Alex Mooney, who heads the GOP Senate slate committee and has money to spread around, plans to wait until after the election before deciding whether to go for one of the leadership slots.

E.J. Pipkin and David Brinkley are also frequently mentioned as leadership timber, but Pipkin says he, too, is focused on his re-election.

— Thomas Dennison

Dodged the teachers’ bullet

Here’s the good news for Bob Ehrlich: He is not one of the NEA’s top two targeted incumbent governors.

That honor, or perhaps ignominy, belongs to Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty and California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The bad news — and this should be no surprise — is that he’s not among the top five faves of the national teachers union.

Neither is Martin O’Malley, who has the backing of the Maryland State Teachers Association. Only Ohio congressman Ted Strickland is listed under the ‘‘One to Watch” category.

‘‘I don’t know anyone who can take a sober look at Baltimore city schools and call that a success,” said Ehrlich aide Henry Fawell. ‘‘I don’t think people are lining up around the block right now to get Mayor O’Malley’s advice on how to improve education.”

Hizzoner’s camp fired back — natch.

‘‘We understand that Bob Ehrlich’s losing, but that doesn’t justify lying to the people of Maryland,” said campaign aide Hari Sevugan. ‘‘While Bob Ehrlich has a record of slashing school construction by $200 million, increasing college tuition by 40 percent and no new ideas, Martin O’Malley has a record of increased student achievement, rising graduation rates and detailed plans for progress. That’s why Maryland’s teachers resoundingly voted for change and endorsed Martin O’Malley.”

— Alan Brody

When is less more?

Despite scoring low in the Maryland Business for Responsive Government legislative ratings, Johnny Wood owns bragging rights — kind of — over his Southern Maryland colleague Tony O’Donnell.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Wood was toting a copy of the MBRG’s Roll Call newsletter after a debate at St. Mary’s College on Wednesday. O’Donnell thumbed through to see Wood as one of two delegates pictured inside (Warren Miller’s 100 percent score also earned him a snapshot).

Pointing at Wood, an incredulous O’Donnell exclaimed, ‘‘76 percent!” With his hands outlining himself, he boomed, ‘‘94 percent!”

‘‘And he gets the picture?” O’Donnell guffawed, as he stood next to St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Tommy McKay, who’s running for state Senate.

‘‘Democrat,” responded a smiling Wood, who scored highest among majority party lawmakers.

— Alan Brody

Reverso!

Ben Cardin could make history if he defeats Michael Steele in November, NPR columnist Ken Rudin writes in this week’s ‘‘Political Junkie.”

Cardin would become the person with the longest tenure in the House (20 years) to move to the upper chamber.

One of Rudin’s readers wrote that Alabama congressman Oscar Underwood came within several months of the 20-year mark. He served from 1894 to 1896, but lost his seat for nine months after his election was successfully contested. His replacement, Truman Aldrich, did not seek re-election, and Underwood resumed his House career until he was elected to the Senate in 1914.

Cardin, however, would not be the first to switch chambers after two decades, Rudin notes. Missouri’s Thomas Hart Benton served 20 years in the Senate before spending a single term in the House.

— Alan Brody

Moonlighting?

If the weather is right, thousands of Baltimoreans flock each Sunday to buy fruits, vegetables, produce and crafts at the Farmers Market near City Hall. Such crowds are irresistible to political candidates, who scoot by as part of their Sunday campaign routine.

Two elected officials have even set up a shop at the market. One is Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell Jr., who says he’ll will run for Baltimore mayor next year. From a stall he has had for the past three years, the scion of a notable civil rights family sells $2 and $3 cups of juice that he presses from fresh oranges. ‘‘I make enough to pay for the diapers,” the father of two quipped.

Knowing who he is, many of his patrons drop by to shoot the breeze or to complain about city services.

Mitchell exhibits no political signs. But on most Sundays, his father and campaign treasurer, Keiffer J. Mitchell Sr., hangs around with his camera, snapping pictures of his son with supporters. When they receive a copy, the photo indicates it was paid for by the Mitchell campaign.

Baltimore County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, a former state delegate, has been selling produce from his family farm at the market for more than two decades. Most patrons don’t recognize him, and Bartenfelder is far too busy to glad-hand.

During the primary campaign, only one vendor displayed election posters. She was artist Lisa Dungee, who ran for the Democratic Central Committee.

She lost. Lucky for her, her custom jewelry seems to sell briskly.

— Antero Pietila

Ooops!

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the MoCo elections office, they best themselves again.

On Wednesday, County Councilman Howie Denis unveiled another ineptitude. As a hearing on election glitches neared its end, an aide handed Denis a copy of a letter sent to an election judge by the elections board. The letter was a request for election judges, now required to undergo retraining before the Nov. 7 election, to CALL the elections office and schedule a training session during October.

The new glitch? No phone number.

Elections administrators at the hearing quickly put their heads together and determined that the original letter probably included a phone number at the very bottom of the page in the small-print address line on the letterhead.

Needless to say, that didn’t impress Denis, who called the omission inexcusable.

— Janel Davis

But are they ours?

Prince George’s County Council members were briefed Tuesday on the possible benefits of the federal government’s impending base realignment and closure procedures.

Preliminary estimates call for an influx of 400 new jobs at Andrews Air Force Base and more than 5,700 at Fort Meade.

Several council members asked what effect the new jobs will have on county residents.

‘‘Yes, we want the jobs,” Councilman David Harrington said. ‘‘But to what extent do these jobs benefit Prince Georgians and not people who’ve relocated here.”

—Lester J. Davis

Did you know?

Comptroller candidate Anne McCarthy is the niece of Edward J. Derwinski, a 12-term Republican congressman from Illinois, who served as a high-level official in the Reagan administration and as a Cabinet member under President George H. W. Bush.

— Antero Pietila