November 10, 2005

Johnny Lechner, in his 12th year as student at University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, has parlayed life as perpetual student into lucrative personal brand; his genius for self-promotion has gotten him on several television programs to describe roisterous campus lifestyle of beer and merrymaking; he is endorsing various products and reality television series based on his life at college is in the works; he has respectable grade point average and has accumulated more than twice number of credits required for graduation, but he has failed to complete senior thesis; his parents helped pay tuition his first two years, and he has paid his own way since then, working part time and taking out student loans; he received tuition subsidy given to all in-state students until last year, when state Board of Regents imposed hefty surcharge on tuition for students exceeeding certain number of credits; photo (M)

Mayor Michael R Bloomberg drew roughly half of New York's black voters and about 3 in 10 Latinos to Republican line, even though he faced Hispanic challenger; results seen as sign that blacks and Latinos no longer vote reflexively as bloc, and that middle-class coalition can trump traditional ethnic-based appeals; analysts are struck by depth of Bloomberg's support among blacks and Hispanics, whom he aggressively courted in running against city's first major-party mayoral nominee of Hispanic heritage, Fernando Ferrer; Bloomberg's 59-percent-to-39-percent victory over Ferrer defies conventional political calculus in what was projected as first mayoral race in which non-Hispanic whites would be a minority of electorate; analysts caution that it is too early to draw long-term implications from vote results; cite fact that Bloomberg spent more than $70 million on campaign, and that he is lifelong Democrat who became Republican to run for mayor in 2001; photo (M) victory, citing fact that he spent more than $70 million on campaign

THOUGH it was the celebrity decorator Jed Johnson who died in the explosion of T.W.A. Flight 800 in 1996, it is his twin brother, Jay, who is in a sense the man who fell to earth. Jay Johnson, 56, the shy, private brother, for whom Jed was not only a best friend but his ''public half,'' was suddenly the director of Jed Johnson & Associates, a multimillion-dollar interior design firm whose clients included Pierre Bergé, then the manager of the Yves Saint Laurent empire, as well as Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Barbra Streisand and Richard Gere.

A string of Democratic victories across Long Island show it is no longer a Republican stronghold. Page B1.

Jack Abramoff, once one of most powerful lobbyists in Washington, asked Pres Omar Bongo of Gabon for $9 million in 2003 to arrange meeting with Pres Bush, and directed that fee be paid to GrassRoots Interactive, Maryland company now under federal scrutiny; Bongo met with Bush in Oval Office 10 months later in visit that White House and State Dept describe as routine; government of Gabon is regularly accused by US of human rights abuses; there is no evidence in public record that Abramoff played any role in organizing meeting or received any money or signed contract with Gabon; his offering letter is released by Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which has conducted yearlong investigation of his lobbying for Indian tribes; Abramoff's three-page letter to Bongo suggested he had unusual influence to arrange meeting with Bush; photo (M)