1st District

Frank Kratovil Jr. made history as the first Democrat elected to Congress from Maryland's easternmost district since the 1980s. Now, he's struggling against a reverse tide, one that sweeps out congressmen from the president's party in the middle of a new administration. The freshman lawmaker is probably best known for being hanged in effigy by a disgruntled Eastern Shore constituent. The incident underscored the tough challenge Kratovil faces every day. He is caught between his conservative district and Democratic leaders who'd like to have his support for their ambitious national agenda.

Despite well-known challengers and widespread dissatisfaction with Washington, most of Maryland's incumbents in the House of Representatives appear to be cruising to re-election - a result of convoluted congressional districts and large Democratic majorities in most parts of the state. From the Eastern Shore, where Republican Rep. Andy Harris is running against a write-in candidate, to Baltimore, where Rep. Elijah E. Cummings enjoys a 4-1 Democratic enrollment advantage, seven of the Maryland's eight House races have received little attention.

John LaFerla, who lost a close Democratic primary in the 1 st Congressional District to Wendy Rosen, said Tuesday that he is available to challenge Republican Rep. Andy Harris as a write-in candidate. Rosen withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she was registered and had voted in both Maryland and Florida. The Maryland Democratic Party has referred the matter to state prosecutors; elections officials in Florida say they are doing the same there. Under state law, it is too late for Rosen to remove her name from the ballot, so Democrats now are looking for someone to support as a write-in candidate.

The Maryland Democratic Party has endorsed the write-in candidacy of Eastern Shore physician John LaFerla to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Andy Harris in the 1 st Congressional District. “Dr. LaFerla has resounding grassroots support and the full confidence of the Party's Executive Committee and Democratic leaders,” Democratic State Chairwoman Yvette Lewis said in a statement Monday. LaFerla replaces Wendy Rosen, who won a party primary in April but withdrew from the race last week amid allegations that she was registered and had voted in two states in 2006 and 2008.

John LaFerla, the Chestertown physician who narrowly lost the Democratic primary in the 1st Congressional District in April, has won the party's support to challenge Republican Rep. Andy Harris as a write-in candidate, he said Friday. LaFerla would replace primary winner Wendy Rosen, who withdrew from the race this week amid allegations that she was registered and had voted in Maryland and Florida. Her name will remain on the Nov. 6 ballot because the deadline to remove it has passed.

Frank M. Kratovil Jr., Democrat Andy Harris, Republican Richard James Davis, Libertarian

Maryland's newly configured 1st District, long considered safe for Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, the Eastern Shore's folksy six-term veteran, has become a proving ground for two Washington-based political groups that are squaring off for the first time in the Republican primary. In a fight that both sides agree will be a referendum on the former civics teacher's independent voting record, Gilchrest is being challenged by 32-year-old Baltimore County lawyer David Fischer, who is angling to outflank the self-described moderate Gilchrest from the right with organizational support and $100,000 from the conservative Club for Growth, a free-market interest group that has drawn fire from party regulars for targeting an incumbent.

Seeing U.S. Representative Tom McMillen waivering, state Delegate John Astle filed for the House of Representatives yesterday.Astle, a helicopter pilot for a Washington shock trauma center, is the second Annapolis Democrat to enter the race for the new 1st Congressional District. Annapolis Alderwoman Ellen Moyer, D-Ward 8, filed last weekfor the March 3 primary.McMillen has said that he is weighing his chances in the 1st District, which links much of the county with the Eastern Shore. The Democrat also is considering the 5th District, which includes parts of Prince George's, southern Anne Arundel and Southern Maryland.

The mud has started to fly in East Baltimore's 1st District.An advertisement in the East Baltimore Guide, a weekly community newspaper, bashed incumbent Nicholas J. D'Adamo, implying that he has acted unethically by employing his father as an administrative aide and by maintaining a district office in his family hardware store in Highlandtown."

EASTON -- From Maryland's new "mignon and muskrat" congressional district, so dubbed for the con-trasting urban and rural cultures within its sprawling geography, you get to Washington by staying in the middle of the road.At least that's the route candidates Wayne T. Gilchrest and ToMcMillen are traveling through the redesigned 1st District, a political bailiwick that straddles the Chesapeake Bay.As one of only a handful of races in which two incumbents are striving for a single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 1st District contest is among the most unusual and uncertain re-election battles in the country.

John LaFerla, the Chestertown physician who narrowly lost the Democratic primary in the 1st Congressional District in April, has won the party's support to challenge Republican Rep. Andy Harris as a write-in candidate, he said Friday. LaFerla, 63, enters the race after primary winner Wendy Rosen withdrew this week amid allegations that she was registered and had voted in Maryland and Florida. Her name will remain on the Nov. 6 ballot because the deadline to remove it has passed. LaFerla said the 12 Democratic central committees in the 1st District, which includes the Eastern Shore and parts of Baltimore, Harford, Carroll and Cecil counties, had voted to support him. "We're ready to fight for every vote in all 12 counties," he said in a statement.

Wendy Rosen, the Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Andy Harris in the 1st Congressional District, withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she voted in elections in both Maryland and Florida in 2006 and 2008. It was unclear, however, whether she could remove her name from the ballot with the election less than two months away. Under state law, a candidate has until 70 days before an election to remove his or her name from the ballot. The deadline for the Nov. 6 election passed on Aug. 28. Democratic leaders - who raised the allegations, urged Rosen to step aside and notified prosecutors - said they would gather Central Committee members this month to identify a write-in candidate for the district, which includes the Eastern Shore and parts of Harford, Carroll, Cecil and Baltimore counties.

The revelation that Wendy Rosen, the Democratic congressional candidate in Maryland's 1st District, had voted in both Maryland and Florida in 2006 and 2008 is a serious embarrassment to her party. It is also an anomaly, and Republican efforts to pounce on the story as justification for their attempts to enact voter ID laws here and elsewhere are cynical and wrong-headed. Ms. Rosen lives in Maryland and owns property in Florida. She says she registered there so she could vote for a friend who was running for local office, but the fact that she was able to - and did - vote in state and federal elections in Florida and Maryland suggests that she broke the law in one if not both states.

John LaFerla, who lost a close Democratic primary in the 1 st Congressional District to Wendy Rosen, said Tuesday that he is available to challenge Republican Rep. Andy Harris as a write-in candidate. Rosen withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she was registered and had voted in both Maryland and Florida. The Maryland Democratic Party has referred the matter to state prosecutors; elections officials in Florida say they are doing the same there. Under state law, it is too late for Rosen to remove her name from the ballot, so Democrats now are looking for someone to support as a write-in candidate.

Wendy Rosen is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Maryland's 1st District but the Cockeysville businesswoman was busy Friday campaigning for a Libertarian. In an e-mail, Rosen's campaign implored supporters to sign a petition that would will help put Libertarian candidate Muir Boda on the ballot in November. Doing so, the e-mail said, would take votes away from incumbent Republican Rep. Andy Harris. "You can help me win this election by helping a third candidate enter the race," read the e-mail, which included a link to the state Libertarian Party's webpage.

U.S.House candidate Wendy Rosen shifted her attention to the general election Thursday after her opponent conceded the race for the Democratic nomination in Maryland's 1st District — ending the final disputed contest from last week's statewide primary. Rosen, a Cockeysville businesswoman, led Chestertown physician John LaFerla by 82 votes out of more than 25,000 cast after state election officials had counted most of the absentee and provisional ballots. The district includes portions of Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties as well as the Eastern Shore.

Just before the Monday evening Baltimore City Council meetings, Councilwoman Lois Garey would give a peace offering to her feuding fellow 1st District representatives -- a butterscotch Lifesaver to John L. Cain and a peppermint Lifesaver to Nicholas C. D'Adamo Jr.It was a motherly attempt to sweeten the often acrimonious relationship between the two councilmen, which in one incident a few months ago actually became violent.The Lifesavers haven't worked yet as the two vie for re-election. Mr. D'Adamo and Mr. Cain are running on separate tickets, with Mrs. Garey joining Mr. D'Adamo.

Phyllis Matlick remembers the remark dropped by City Councilman John A. Schaefer back in the spring when he and his two 1st District colleagues came to meet the new 1st District voters shortly after redistricting."

Two Democratic candidates in Maryland's 1st Congressional District remained locked Thursday in a too-close-to-call contest for the party's nomination, after an initial tally of absentee ballots left them separated by fewer than 100 votes. In the only still-undecided race from Tuesday's statewide primary, Cockeysville businesswoman Wendy Rosen had an 86-vote lead over physician John LaFerla of Chestertown, out of more than 25,000 ballots cast. Rosen has declared victory, but LaFerla has said the race remains too close for him to concede.