Gilchrest

WASHINGTON -- During his victorious and sometimes bare-knuckle campaign against Representative Roy P. Dyson, D-Md.-1st, Wayne T. Gilchrest trumpeted his opponent's ethical troubles.But yesterday, Representative-elect Gilchrest and 42 other freshman lawmakers quickly learned that once on Capitol Hill, some things are best discussed in private. Disappearing behind closed doors, they turned to the first item on their agenda: congressional ethics.Before the huge, wooden doors slammed shut on the ornate Cannon Caucus Room, House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, R-Ill.

U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest has urged state environment officials to carefully study an Abingdon rubble fill in a letter supporting citizens who have questioned operations at the dump.In the letter to the state Department of the Environment, the 1st District congressman expressed concern over health and environmental threats posed by the Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc. rubble fill."I am aware of a concerted effort by Harford citizens to find answers to these troubling problems surrounding the Spencer fill," Mr. Gilchrest said in the letter.

What's it like, trying to be a Republican and care about the environment?Normally, asking your representative a question like that would be either joking or snotty. But Congress' first 100 days have not been normal times; unless you call normal a concerted, and so far, successful attack to dismantle a quarter century of environmental progress.And for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, a 1st District Republican who was conducting town meetings around the Eastern Shore when I interviewed him last week, they have been especially trying.

WASHINGTON -- Two Republican House members from Maryland laid their hands on the actual levers that help turn the great machine of government for the first time last week. Both declared they liked the feeling.Power, in modest proportion, came to Reps. Wayne T. Gilchrest from the Eastern Shore and Constance A. Morella from Montgomery County. He assumed control over the Public Buildings and Economic Development Subcommittee. She took charge of the Technology Subcommittee.They are the only Marylanders to chair either a committee or subcommittee in the new Congress.

WASHINGTON -- Wayne T. Gilchrest, who until recently taught Eastern Shore high school students how a bill becomes law in Washington, became part of that legislative process yesterday as the representative from Maryland's 1st Congressional District.Shortly after noon, the former teacher and house painter from Kennedyville, with his 8-year-old daughter, Katy, at his side, rose with his fellow representatives in the House chamber and took the oath of office as a member of the 102nd Congress.

U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, 1st District Republican, will meet with a representative of the federal Environmental Protection Agency tomorrow to discuss hazardous materials management at Fort Meade.Mr. Gilchrest learned of what is happening at Fort Meade after being alerted by his constituents, said Kathy Hicks, who manages the congressman's Glen Burnie office.Last week, the Maryland Department of the Environment imposed a $10,000 fine on the military for improper hazardous waste management.

From: Normand A. PelissierJoppaAs our new U.S. Representative Wayne Gilchrest, R-1st, takes his new seat in Congress later this month, he will be confronted by a number of urgent domestic issues, including measures to reduce violent crime. One bill that will reduce the gun violence plaguing our streetsis the Brady Bill -- a national seven-day waiting period for handgunpurchases.Just four days before Christmas, a co-worker of mine lost her brother. He was killed with a gun by a good friend during an argument.

Freshman Representative Wayne T. Gilchrest was mugged driving to his new job in Washington, but the robber took pity on him and left him with $1 -- taking the remaining $5 he had in his wallet.Mr. Gilchrest, R-1st, said he was driving through slow traffic on New York Avenue in Washington on Friday with his door unlocked, just as everyone does in his hometown of Kennedyville, when he was approached by a man who said he needed help with his car.Before Mr. Gilchrest could reply, the man climbed into the passenger seat and asked for $80, the congressman told members of the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce at their annual dinner in Easton Friday night.

EASTON -- Voters searching for big differences between 1st District congressional candidates Wayne T. Gilchrest and Tom McMillen need look only as far as their election finance reports.Representative McMillen, a Democrat, has spent more on his campaign in the last three months than Republican Representative Gilchrest has raised in the past year. And while it's clear that Mr. McMillen has the edge when it comes to raising money, the Gilchrest campaign is attempting to turn many of the Democrat's benefactors -- political action committees and other out-of-state contributors -- into an election liability.