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Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Clerk Robert P. Duckworth plans to file legal papers today to become a defendant in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit aimed at overturning Maryland's prohibition of same-sex marriage.

The ACLU lawsuit names five local clerks in Maryland, but not Duckworth, a Republican running for Congress in the 3rd District against Democratic incumbent Benjamin L. Cardin.

Duckworth said he wants to be added to the case so he can offer his arguments. An opponent of same-sex marriage, Duckworth says he wants the case dismissed because he doesn't think judges should decide the matter. He says the debate should be settled by the electorate, either through referendum or by the decisions of elected officials.

"I'm not a supporter of same-sex marriage. I find it to be an oxymoron," said Duckworth.

Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Cardin, said the congressman voted for the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the 1990s, but does not support limiting the rights of citizens for judicial review of the issue.

Duckworth said that he was being aided in the case by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group founded to help restore religious values to the judicial system, and which counts Campus Crusade for Christ among its "founding ministries."

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun

Citizens of Maryland's 2nd District have a real opportunity this election to elect a congressperson who truly represents them.

Jane Brooks, challenger to first-term U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, is a lively, determined individual who cares about preserving the American Sound and understands the importance of respecting human dignity.

With a son serving in Iraq, Jane understands the need to support our troops and provide mandatory funding for our veterans. Jane is both a fiscal and social conservative whose votes in Congress will promote our national and economic security while showing a determination to protect individual worth at all stages in life.

Dutch Ruppersberger's votes in Congress have done none of this. He has been given an 11 and 18 percent voting record, respectively, from the Americans for Tax Reform and the Citizens Against Government Waste. He voted to restore the estate tax and against a $350 billion tax package that included reductions in the capital gains and dividend tax. The tax package has led to the largest growth in our economy in 20 years and significant increases in dividend distributions to shareholders.

Congressman Ruppersberger has also proven to be a foe of free enterprise by opposing a bill to allow small businesses to band together to buy health insurance for their employees while voting against another bill to create a tax deduction for new medical savings accounts, something small businesses have grown to depend on.

The congressman showed that he is a foe of fiscal restraint and decency by supporting grants assisting American Indian transgender research and a study on San Francisco prostitutes/masseuses. He also voted against an amendment prohibiting our tax dollars from assisting the United Nations Population Fund, an effort intended to fund China's population control program, which relies heavily on coercive abortion.

Despite our Second Amendment rights being at constant risk and our growing need to protect ourselves, Congressman Ruppersberger failed to see the need for legislation intended to prevent gun manufacturers from being driven out of business by petty lawsuits.

This election year, I encourage everyone to vote for Jane Brooks, someone with a strong core who will selflessly seek to preserve the strong values we share in the 2nd District that have made this country great.

Kevin Bruffey
Warren Lodge Court
Cockeysville

I am dismayed that there are people who believe that the opposition of the governments of Germany, France, and Russia to the US led war in Iraq has been based on or caused by some failure of diplomacy or behavior of the US or our president.

Is it not obvious that those nations were criminally responsible for illegitimate "oil for food" deals with the "Butcher of Baghdad?" Is it not obvious that they desperately sought to perpetuate those arrangements regardless of their moral obligation to support their erstwhile "friends" or the fate of the tormented Iraqi people?

When will the citizens of Britain and the US fully awaken to the lessons of history that teach that the corrupt, morally and economically bankrupt governments of continental Europe will choose appeasement whenever they are threatened? Like Spain, France and Germany are terrified of the significant number of possibly militant Islamists resident in their countries. These numbers exist because cheap immigrant labour was greedily sought by those nations to bolster their threatened, sinking, socialist economies, and now those policies have come home to roost. (There would appear to be a lesson here for those in this country who refuse to deal effectively with our own issues of immigration.)

When will we learn that true "leadership" consists of pursuing a just cause regardless of the lack of courage and support of others? If, in the 1930's and '40's, news and entertainment media had existed and functioned as they have since the l960's, I believe the United States and United Kingdom would have lost WW II.

If the political chameleon "Hanoi John" Kerry, staunchly supported by "The hero of Chappaquiddick" and the man who “invented the Internet,” could influence the French, German, and Russian governments to abandon their attempts resurrect and preserve their despicable and profitable arrangements with "The Butcher of Baghdad," I would unstintingly support his candidacy for president of France.

Sincerely

Harry J. F. Korrell, Jr.

ONE BY ONE, public information officers for various state agencies arrived at the second floor of the State House on Wednesday for an unusual meeting. The governor's communications office wanted them together to discuss "creating a statewide communications, marketing and advertising effort that will improve how we communicate with Marylanders about what the governor and state agencies are doing to deliver services that will make their lives better," according to a memorandum from Paul E. Schurick, head of the governor's communications office.

The Ehrlich administration is launching an effort, in effect, to "brand" Maryland, with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as the face of the campaign. State agency Web sites should look more alike, with a cohesive and distinctive feel, officials said. And the agencies should be looking for promotional opportunities that bring different divisions together and include the governor as a headliner.

"In order to get maximum exposure, the governor has agreed to aggressively increase his availability to appear at agency events in order to gain wider exposure and thus helping promote state agencies to their constituencies," Schurick wrote.

Schurick announced in the memo that two state staff members will be taking on new roles to help in marketing. Ed Blakely, a marketing specialist now in the Department of Business and Economic Development, will be head of a newly created department of strategic communications.

"Ed has years of experience in the private sector working on large branding and communications efforts as well as serving as a television and radio producer/director for an advertising agency," Schurick wrote.

Dennis M. Castleman, who worked in the business department's tourism, film and arts office, has been named state marketing officer. "Dennis, and his team, will be managing selected communications, marketing and advertising projects -- drawing from the database of statewide talent that we will be identifying within all state agencies," he wrote.

"This is exciting because we are not creating a new bureaucracy but rather reaching out to those in state government who are currently promoting their agencies and asking them to join us and become part of a statewide talent pool to help market the state."

The effort comes as Ehrlich is receiving exposure as the voice and image of the state's regional tourism effort. "Seize the day off" radio and television advertisements, featuring Ehrlich offering to mow your lawn or clean your gutters while you enjoy your day off in Maryland, are flooding the airwaves during Orioles games.

Maryland Democrats have seized on a new way to register voters: solicit them at theaters before and after they've seen Fahrenheit 9/11, the much-ballyhooed Michael Moore film that critiques the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

Democratic activists have been dispatched to theaters across the region, armed with voter registration forms that state party Executive Director Josh White says are eagerly filled out.

"This is a grass-roots effort," White said. "Probably five or six people came up with the same idea at the same time."

White said the effort is proving successful: 75 voters were registered in a single night at the Old Greenbelt Theater in Prince George's County, he said. "It's really easy to register people to be Democrats at these theaters," he said.

The Baltimore County Republican Party has hit upon a novel way to spread the Bush re-election message and evade campaign finance limits, while helping a GOP-owned business. In a recent letter to supporters, county party Chairman Chris Cavey said he had a goal of raising "$5,000 for Bush 2004 supplies to be used right here in Baltimore County."

"The new FEC regulations only allow our local party to spend $4,999 toward the president's campaign," the letter continues. "However, we Republicans are resourceful and motivated. We are allowed to act as a clearinghouse for your checks to purchase materials."

The party is asking supporters to mail it checks made out directly to The GOP Shoppe, an Elkridge business owned by Brian Harlin, a Republican activist who sought appointment to a House of Delegates vacancy in Howard County last year.

"We will then collect all checks and deliver them to the GOP Shoppe, our supplier," Cavey wrote.

For every donation of $25 or more, donors will get two lawn signs and four bumper stickers.

This page last updated August 14, 2004