MD Congressional Race Tidbits

George Wenschhof

While Senator Barack Obama was winning the state of Maryland handily, some interesting results were occurring in two of the congressional district races involving incumbents in the 1st and the 4th districts.

In the 1st district, moderate Republican incumbent Wayne Gilchrest was upset by Andy Harris. Harris is arguably one of the two more conservative state senators in Maryland. Alex Mooney is the other. The 1st district along with the 6th district in Maryland are both districts where the demographics heavily favor Republicans. Gilchrest had been a moderate so he had been targeted by the more conservative base of the Republican party.

The Democrat opponent in November appears to be Frank M. Kratovil Jr. Pay attention to this race for some financial support may come Kratovil's way for many will not want to see Andy Harris in the House of Representatives.

Over in the 4th district, Democrat Donna Edwards beat incumbent Al Wynn. Democracy For America (DFA) provided support to Donna Edwards and had labeled Wynn as a Bush Democrat. Their support along with Emily's List and the SEIU helped propel Edwards and her populist message to victory. She is not expected to face a serious challenge from the Republican nominee in November.

In the 6th district where incumbent Republican Roscoe Bartlett is now serving his sixteenth ineffective year in office, Jennifer Dougherty with a plurality (44%) of the vote, won the Democratic nomination. Andrew Duck who was the Democrat nominee in 2006 and was favored to win the nomination again, came in second with 37%. For any Democrat to be competitive in this district they have to develop unity toward a candidate and hope for moderate Republican support as well as winning a majority of the independent voters.

Roscoe Bartlett easily won the Republican primary against four challengers with 78% of the vote and will be heavily favored to win in November.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, let's hope Democrats come together to support our candidate for it is time for a change in the 6th district.