Congressional District

PASADENA, Calif. -- Rep. James Rogan -- the man millions of TV viewers recently came to know as "Mr. Manager Rogan" -- says if he loses his House seat in the next election as a result of his role in the presidential impeachment, "that's a consequence I'm willing to accept."Democrats here are working to make sure that happens to the second-term Republican who hails from a congressional district located just east of downtown Los Angeles.Strategy sessionDemocratic State Chairman Art Torres met with about 60 local party activists Saturday to begin long-range planning to run the strongest possible Democratic candidate against Mr. Rogan and to provide adequate financing.

Michael Steele has dropped his bid to head the Maryland Republican Party and is exploring a run for Congress in 2000.The Prince George's County lawyer announced yesterday that for the sake of unity, he will not challenge Richard D. Bennett for the state party chairmanship when party regulars convene Dec. 12 in Annapolis.Steele received the endorsement of Ellen R. Sauerbrey in his unsuccessful campaign for comptroller in the Republican primary. But Bennett, Sauerbrey's running mate, earned her blessing for chairman of the state GOP."

EVERY TWO YEARS, when Anne Arundel residents vote for their U.S. representatives, they are reminded of the 1991 redistricting plan that carved their county into four congressional districts.At the time, politicians, civic leaders and citizens were outraged that the General Assembly used its long knives to fillet Maryland's fifth-largest county -- and what had been a single congressional district -- into four bites.Although much of the initial outrage has dissipated, there are occasions when county residents are again reminded of the absurdity of the this arrangement.

MARYLANDERS deserve the best candidates to represent their interests in Congress. With one exception, The Sun believes those in the state's current House delegation fulfill that role.Our eight endorsed candidates offer a diversity of conservative and liberal voices; Republicans and Democrats; men and women; rural, suburban and urban residents; veterans with seniority and rookies with fresh ideas. They can effectively work together for this state.1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTWhat unifies this large district (Eastern Shore, much of eastern and northern Anne Arundel County and a slice of South Baltimore)

Declaring that he will give embattled Gov. Parris N. Glendening "a bloody nose on election night," freshman Republican Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. says the governor is his real adversary in his re-election bid this fall.Preparing to launch his first television advertising campaign, Ehrlich yesterday brushed past Connie Galiazzo DeJuliis, the Democratic nominee for his congressional seat, to attack the governor, lately a more controversial target.He charged that Glendening was the real power behind the DeJuliis campaign, and that the governor had snubbed him at events in his district.

ALTHOUGH MARYLAND'S First District encompasses more suburban sections of the state than it did before redistricting, concerns about the Chesapeake Bay, agriculture and tourism preoccupy the majority of the voters. The district's economy depends on improving the quality of the bay, maintaining the productivity of the land and preserving the scenic areas of the state's largest congressional district.When Republican leaders In the 104th Congress demanded strict allegiance to their "Contract with America,' Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest became more partisan in his votes than during his first two terms.

It was in Maryland's 7th Congressional District -- a diverse area that now stretches from Belair-Edison to Woodlawn, from Catonsville to Reisterstown -- that Baltimore-area black voters first demonstrated their power and made history.Just 26 years ago, Parren J. Mitchell became Maryland's first black congressman after defeating a machine-backed, nine-term incumbent by a mere 38 votes at a time when blacks made up only 40 percent of the voters in the district.The 7th has been regarded with a special reverence ever since.

Each day this week an article on some of the 32 candidates competing in Tuesday's primary election for the seat vacated by Kweisi Mfume in the 7th Congressional District is appearing on this page. Today's article is on candidates with backgrounds in politics and activism. In the crowded field of 32 candidates for the 7th Congressional District seat, there is a group that does not have the built-in constituencies of the ministers and legislators.Nevertheless, they have made a name for themselves in the community and have generated some kind of a following by running for office or through their community activism.

WARREN, Mich. -- There's a famous scene in the old silent film classic, ''All Quiet on the Western Front,'' wherein two German soldiers muse about how wars could be fought, with much less loss of life, by the two opposing generals in a man-to-man duel.Something of the sort are the efforts by liberals to knock off House Speaker Newt Gingrich in his Georgia congressional seat and by conservatives to do the same to House Minority Whip David Bonior in Michigan.There is no love lost between these two. As Mr. Gingrich in 1988 set out to oust Democratic Speaker Jim Wright of Texas on ethics charges, Mr. Bonior has made a crusade of nailing this speaker on similar allegations.

Baltimore County executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III yesterday threw his support behind state Sen. Delores G. Kelley for the 7th Congressional District seat, saying that he believes she will best represent both the city and the county.Mrs. Kelley, a Randallstown resident, represents a senate district that includes Baltimore and Baltimore County. She is one of 27 Democrats competing for the seat being vacated by Kweisi Mfume, who resigned Sunday to assume the presidency of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The guy campaigning next to Andy Harris yesterday - the man sporting the same blue blazer and khakis, offering the same brisk hand shake or high-five - could almost have passed as a twin, which was precisely what Harris had in mind. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., sprinting alongside Harris throughout a milelong parade route, intoned the congressional candidate's name each time he pressed a voter's palm, which was often. Ehrlich is Harris' secret weapon in the final days of the 1st Congressional District race, not that either man is interested in keeping it a secret.

Amid the outrageous rancor and hyper-partisanship of contemporary Washington, the Eastern Shore's Wayne T. Gilchrest is a throwback to the founders' concept of citizen legislators. For 18 years, the former schoolteacher has thought for himself and boldly followed a course of his own choosing, right of center on some issues, veering left on others. Few in the GOP have been as strong on environmental causes, a fitting approach for a congressional district geographically centered on the Chesapeake Bay. At a time when such statesmanship is needed more than ever, it would be a disservice not only to the residents of Maryland's sprawling 1st Congressional District but also to the nation to replace him with a rigid doctrinaire or someone who is not well-qualified for the post.

Emboldened by recent victories in districts across the country that had long been safe bets for Republicans, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced yesterday that it would throw its financial and staffing resources behind Maryland candidate Frank Kratovil Jr. The national support bolsters the hopes of local Democrats that they have a shot at winning in Maryland's 1st Congressional District, which has been held by Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest...

With all the talk this year of how close races - such as the Democratic presidential contest - will be decided by who wins the most delegates, it's not surprising that some voters were confused yesterday when they saw the Maryland ballot. They were asked to vote both for president and for delegates to their party's convention, and under each delegate's name was the name of the candidate they supported. So which vote counts? What if, say, you voted for John McCain for president but for all of Mike Huckabee's delegates?

On the Eastern Shore, Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest faces a challenge from a pair of conservative state senators. In Prince George's County, Democratic Rep. Albert R. Wynn tries to fend off the progressive activist who nearly unseated him in 2006. With Maryland just the second state to hold congressional primaries this year, the mirror-image races are drawing national attention. "It's a good preview of possibly the breadth of anti-incumbent sentiment," said David Wasserman, the House editor of The Cook Political Report, a Washington-based newsletter for insiders and political junkies.

From suicide and scandal to Robert E. Bauman's coming out of the closet, Maryland's 1st Congressional District has had its share of eye-opening moments. But at least throughout the years, the various congressional candidates have maintained a reasonable decorum - until now, that is. Never before has a 1st District Republican primary had a greater and more repugnant ado about little more than the misleading mailings and TV ads that have plagued the electorate for months. Voters in the district, which covers the Eastern Shore and portions of Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties, are generally more conservative and George W. Bush-supportive than voters elsewhere in Maryland, but they are not so easily deceived.

Easton -- For Jim Corwin, the dozen or so residents who gathered in an upscale retirement village here on the Eastern Shore were just his kind of crowd: smart, informed, worried about the Iraq war and eager to talk issues. Trouble was that Corwin, a little-known Democrat making his first bid for public office, had expected to talk politics with as many as 100 retirees in his quest to unseat eight-term Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest. Corwin chatted for an hour anyway, then headed for the next stop in the far-flung 1st Congressional District - which includes the entire Eastern Shore and chunks of Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties.

In the end, maybe the name was the thing. And so John P. Sarbanes clinched a victory yesterday, winning the 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary with a comfortable 6-percentage-point margin, a crucial step in his quest to continue the Sarbanes legacy. The son of retiring U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes shrugged when asked if he could have won with a different last name. "Who knows?" said Sarbanes, 44, of Towson. "We'll never know." Sarbanes captured 32 percent of the vote, with 95 percent of the district's precincts reporting unofficial results.

In a recent news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said that although she claims to watch Comedy Central's satirical pundit show The Colbert Report "all the time," she "wouldn't recommend that anyone go on the show." Her advice to other members of Congress: "Don't subject yourself to a comic's edit unless you want to be made a fool of." Last month, Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, seemed to prove her point when Stephen Colbert convinced him to make outlandish statements on camera.

Federal tax benefits for homeownership are among the heftiest and most popular of any in the Internal Revenue Code: An estimated $81 billion for mortgage interest write-offs, $15 billion for local real estate taxes and another $24 billion for capital gains exclusions this year alone, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. But who really gets these tax-code goodies? Who gets to write off the most? New research offers intriguing insights into where the billions of dollars in annual mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions flow, state by state, congressional district by congressional district.