As Prez Seeks Haven, A.A. Dems Party in Rose Haven

Below, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, right, with Democratic activist Louise Dunlap. Gov. Parris Glendening, far below.

You wouldn't have known that their president was in hot water as 300 Democrats gathered at Herrington Harbour in Southern Anne Arundel last week for their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.

They may have been whispering about President Bill Clinton's peccadilloes but not a word was uttered publicly at the gathering, just days after another woman alleging improper behavior by the president.

Instead, Democrats seemed intent on the next big prize - holding the governor's office for Parris Glendening - and beefing up party registration.

"If we do not win the governorship in 1998, we are all in trouble," exhorted U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, intoning a party strategy of painting Republican aspirant Ellen Sauerbrey as an extremist. "Our state is in trouble. Our families are in trouble. Our children are in trouble."

State Comptroller Louis Goldstein, ever the pragmatist at 85, fetched a dog-eared clipping from his baggy coat and admonished Democrats to hasten voter registration efforts. The clip showed that Republicans had out-registered Democrats two to one in Anne Arundel since Glendening took office three years ago - and nearly three to one statewide.

"You Democrats had better get busy and get all of these new people to register as Democrats," Goldstein said.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski recalled Goldstein reminding her of the correct pronunciation of Calvert County as she made her first statewide rounds. "'Calvert is the whisky; Culvert is the county. Enjoy them both'," she recalled.

The theme of the event was: Democrats on the Bay - an Old Maryland Tradition. As Glendening and Mikulski made the rounds, Democrats feasted amply on rare roast beef, oysters on the half-shell, bite-sized ham biscuits and pumpkin puffs. Herrington Harbour's cozy setting provided relief from a pelting rain - not to mention news of the president's travails.

"My women friends and I talk about it all the time," said Del. Virginia Clagett of Clinton's latest problems. "He's been a good president " she said, her voice trailing off.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller shook his head in wonderment in recounting how the president's rating in polls spiked upward again last week - to mid-60 percent approval ratings - in the days after the CBS "Sixty Minutes" interview with a woman alleging impropriety by the president.

Miller suggested that it would take a truly serious scandal or a plummeting stock market for people to lose faith in Clinton. "I think it says that if you speak up for people, they're willing to forgive," Miller said.

Glendening said that he doesn't pay much attention to Clinton's personal life and he believes most people don't either. "I think there's a concern about [Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth] Starr. Most Americans wonder what he's doing," Glendening said.

Glendening was behaving like an officeholder intent on keeping his job; he was up and down Herrington Harbour's two floors more than some of the staff. Of course one of his primary challengers, Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann was working the crowd herself.

Glendening, a former college professor, never was regarded as a natural when it comes to the chit-chat and glad-handing that is the currency at such events. Asked about campaigning, Glendening replied: "I like it. I like being governor."

Most Anne Arundel Democrats are hoping that the Glendening will be saying the same words in the present tense at the Jefferson-Jackson Day bash a year from now.