Maryland, we have ourselves a race.
In a district that covers some of the most conservative terrain in the state, Republican Andy Harris is fighting off surging Democrat Frank Kratovil in a race shaped by aggressive advertising, a steep drop in fortunes for Harris' party nationwide and lots of outside money.
The Eastern Shore-based district, which sent Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest to Washington nine times, was considered safe for the Republicans as recently as February. But Democrats now see a shot at picking up their seventh of Maryland's eight House seats.
Analysts say Harris, an anesthesiologist and state senator from Baltimore County, maintains a slight edge over Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County. But a pair of influential political newsletters have moved the race into the toss-up category, and Kratovil is claiming a narrow lead in internal polling.
Harris expects the finish to be close.
"If the elections were held today, I believe we'd win," he said last week. "But the election is not held today."
The intensity of the competition is apparent in both the volume and tone of advertising bombarding voters. A Harris television spot calls Kratovil "clueless, liberal and very wrong"; a Kratovil ad concludes: "Andy Harris: His ideas are just way out there."
It also shows in the amount of outside attention the race has drawn. The anti-tax Club for Growth directed nearly $1.2 million toward helping the conservative Harris defeat the moderate Gilchrest in a rancorous Republican primary, and the group is sending $310,000 more his way for the general election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, anticipates spending more than $1 million to support Kratovil.
As for the candidates themselves, Harris had raised nearly $2.6 million and Kratovil more than $1.4 million through Sept. 30. By comparison, in 2006, Gilchrest and Democratic challenger Jim Corwin raised less then $400,000 between them.
The level of investment this year is indicative of the challenge now confronting the GOP. While Republicans and Democrats alike are predicting Democratic gains in the House and Senate, Maryland's 1st District isn't one of the seats that was supposed to be in play.
Combining the Republican-leaning Eastern Shore with some of the most conservative-minded precincts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties, the 1st was the byproduct of a Democratic redistricting effort earlier this decade. Led by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening, Democrats packed as many Republican voters as they could into the district in order to dilute their influence elsewhere in the state.
