Delaney Cruises to Victory in Maryland 6th District, will face Bartlett

George Wenschhof

In what many believe was the marque race yesterday in the elections across Maryland, Democrat John Delaney easily won the primary with 54% of the vote. Rob Garagiola, at one time the favorite to win this contest, received 29%.

Twenty year incumbent Republican Roscoe Bartlett, facing seven opponents, received 43% of the vote with state senator David Brinkley finishing a distant second with 20%.

The newly drawn district, to favor Democrats, drew plenty of media attention and with a 43,000 voter registration advantage, Democrat John Delaney will be the favorite to unseat Representative Roscoe Bartlett.

As, is often the case in hotly contested primary elections, emotions will initially be raw among supporters of candidates who lost.

The challenge now for both the Delaney and Bartlett campaigns will be to unite the various camps within their political party and to win the support of the unaffiliated voter. Voter registration numbers for the district show Democrats - 183,000, Republicans 140,00, and Unaffiliated/Other 90,000.

For, Democratic voters who now comprise the new sixth district, John Delaney has demonstrated he will campaign hard to win in November and the silver lining for supporters of Democrat Rob Garagiola is he will continue to serve as state senate majority leader.

After, a primary which displayed many of the ugly sides of politics, it is likely more of the same can be expected in the general election campaign.

This seat has been targeted as a pick-up for Democrats in their "Drive for 25" to regain a majority in the House of Representatives. You can expect Republicans to battle to retain the seat.

John Delaney has shown by winning a solid majority in a tough Democratic primary, he is up to this challenge. After, twenty years of ineffective representation by Republican Roscoe Bartlett, it is time for a change.

Stay tuned...

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