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Wal-Mart Ruling Sharply Criticized -- Too Sharply for Some
Mfume said he had hoped to swing by the Washington Convention Center to see old friends but had campaign events elsewhere and did not want to do anything to upstage his successor, Bruce S. Gordon . Mfume left the civil rights group two years ago. It remains unclear whether his departure had anything to do with allegations by a female employee that he had promoted colleagues with whom he had romantic relationships, a charge Mfume denied.
William Bowman , president of the St. Mary's County NAACP chapter, said he considered it a mistake for any candidate to have passed up the event.
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"There's a lot of votes here," Bowman said, strolling the convention floor. "It would have been easy for them to come and speak. All you really have to do is show up."
Ehrlich's South Korea Overture
Before wrapping up his remarks to a group of Asian American businesspeople in Montgomery County last week, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. made sure participants knew that he knew the difference between North and South Korea.
Ehrlich (R) announced that if he is elected to a second term this fall, his first foreign trade mission would include a stop in South Korea with his father, Robert Sr. , a Korean War veteran.
"That is going to be an incredible experience for me," the governor told the audience at the Asian American Business Conference in Rockville. "And for my dad, who over 50 years ago . . . helped guarantee freedom for the people of South Korea."
The distinction was significant because the Asian American community is still reeling from recent comments by Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D) during a state Board of Public Works meeting. The comptroller, often an ally of the Republican governor, seemed to suggest a link between communist North Korea's missile launch and South Korean immigrants learning English in Maryland's public schools.
Schaefer met with Korean American leaders last week in Annapolis, but they left without the apology they were hoping for.
Staff writer Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.