Buying a Congressional Seat in Maryland’s First District

Jack Lynch

Coming to the Sixth District?

Western Maryland should watch carefully what transpired recently across the state in other Congressional Districts, because our situation may embolden similar electoral actions on behalf on candidates for the seat of incumbent republican representative Roscoe Bartlett.

Baltimore Sun: Outside groups swayed Md. vote

"This is going to put people on notice," said Michael J.G. Cain, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland. "The days of independent congressional voting, if this is any indication, are numbered. Outside groups are going to amass a lot of money and come after you in the primaries."

The Capital - Annapolis: PACs played large role in Gilchrest defeat "Almost $1 million was used by those committees, or PACs, for "independent" expenditures on behalf of or against candidates in the 1st Congressional District's Republican primary, according to Federal Election Commission records.

About $727,000, or 74 percent, of the total independent expenditures in the campaign came from a single organization supporting Republican nominee and State Sen. Andy Harris: the Club for Growth, a conservative group based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for tax cuts, lower government spending, privatization of Social Security and expanded free trade. Individual contributions sent through the Club for Growth also accounted for about 25 percent of Dr. Harris' $1.5 million fundraising total…

Mr. Gilchrest also received some of the same help from PACs, albeit far less substantial. The Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, which gave $5,000 to the congressman's campaign, also used $50,000 for a radio ad in January against Dr. Harris. About $209,000 was spent to support Mr. Gilchrest by several other groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, Inc."

Given the Sixth District's conservative tendencies, Bartlett's solid conservative Republican support, and the likelihood that challengers in the mold of national conservative special interest fundraiser Alex Mooney(R - state senate, district 3) will emerge in the race – holds portent of things to come here in Frederick County. The result being more failure to address the real constituency of the county on vital home issues.

An American perspective on Iraq

Gilchrest…"I was in Vietnam. I was a grunt, up close and personal to what a bullet does to a human being, what a grenade does, what mortars do. We craved someone in Washington who sounded like they knew what they were talking about."

It was his stance against the Iraq war that brought out the Harris financial supporters. It was his moderation and environmental stances that won him support across the aisles and in his District for eighteen years. In my opinion, there were no comparable independent voices in Congress, just as there are so few viewpoints grown from the economic and social perspective of the local electorate. When we lose such voices on either side of the aisle – we all lose in the end.

Speaking before the Baltimore County Young Democrats in Towson this evening, congressional candidate and State's Attorney Frank Kratovil (D-Stevensville) said his opponent in Maryland's First Congressional District, state Sen. Andy Harris (R-Cockeysville), was "divisive" and would be "one of the most conservative people in Congress." And was asked by Robert Johnson Jr., a state delegate for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), for his thoughts on the presidential race. "The chances of drawing out the super right base (of the Republican Party) are greater with (Clinton)," Kratovil said.

Lynn Caligiuri, who has worked for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Kennedyville) for some 15 years, issued a statement explaining her decision to join the campaign of Frank Kratovil (D-Stevensville) in Maryland's First Congressional District…""Obviously many of us were disappointed in the Republican primary results, but we now have an opportunity to send someone to Washington to continue to represent our values and end the partisan attacks and divisiveness that has rendered Congress ineffective and unresponsive," Caligiuri , who will serve as a finance coordinator, said. "Frank Kratovil is the right choice.""

Elected candidates who aren't placed in office atop an ocean of outside money and advertising is the right choice for all Marylanders.