Members of the Republican minority joined the spontaneous revolt he set off among maverick Democrats.

After laboriously stitching together agreement from industry on a sweeping telecommunications bill, Senate leaders were bogged down today by a maverick Democrat who complained that they had ignored consumers.

Remember Senator Zell Miller, the maverick Democrat fulminating for the people in a turncoat stint at the Republican convention?

The maverick Democrat beat an indictment 19 years ago, disproving, until now, the dictum that only a fool has himself for a lawyer.

In the mid-80's, another term to describe maverick Democrats began to surface in Louisiana.

But it was Senator Joe Lieberman, Senate homeland security committee chairman, a foreign policy hawk and maverick Democrat, who was the most practical attack dog.

Moreover, in Mr. Zwirn he faces an unusually tough opponent, a maverick Democrat who has made his campaign into a crusade against the Republican machine.

Mr. Kerrey, a maverick Democrat who has been an insistent advocate of curbing spending on entitlements since he came to the Senate in 1989, said both changes were wise.

The Republican, Philip Foglia, has the mayor's support, as well as that of the term-limited current council member, Madeline Provenzano, a maverick Democrat.

Mr. Levy, 44 and content with his label as a maverick Democrat, possesses a mordant wit, often self-directed.