Demagogue

Maryland, Arizona and Rhode Island were among the states that held primary elections on Tuesday. A few observations of the odd, the interesting and the trivial:

* In its election issue highlighting primary races in the District of Columbia, the underground weekly City Paper made this endorsement in the Ward 1 race for City Council: "Jim Graham’s challenger, Chad Williams, pleaded guilty to simple assault during the campaign. Let’s just leave it there. Graham has earned another term."

* There are more precincts in the Bronx (945) than there are in the entire state of Rhode Island (577).

* As the president drones on about the "war on terror," let us not forget that many critical local concerns were on Tuesday's ballot. Example: Can a patron at a strip bar get a lap dance? Voters in Scottsdale, Ariz., appear to have struck a powerful blow for sexual filth and degradation -- the lap-dance ban appears to have gone down (pardon the pun) to defeat.

* There were 18 -- count 'em, 18 -- candidates to choose from in the Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.

* Guillaume de Ramel was not a 16th century French baron. He was one of the two Democratic candidates on the ballot for Rhode Island's secretary of state.