Gilchrest

In the closing weeks of their run for Congress, Andy Harris and Frank Kratovil have claimed a wish to get away from negative campaigning. But it seems they just can't help themselves. With the election in just four days - a period when campaign professionals advise office-seekers to drop attacks and send voters to the polls with a positive message - the state's most competitive race is ending pretty much as it began: With the candidates tearing into each other. Harris, a Republican state senator from Baltimore County who has cast Kratovil in recent advertisements as a "Martin O'Malley, tax-and-spend liberal," has opened a new line of attack this week: questioning the Democrat's handling of a pair of cases as the state's attorney in Queen Anne's County.

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.

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.

Maybe they should call it the Fractured First. The political terrain is splintered, politics are fractious, and the price of dissent is spiking. State Sen. Andy Harris - of the Western Shore's Baltimore County - could be the First District's new voice in Washington unless voters on both sides of the bay find his hard-right rhetoric discordant. Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr., the Queen Anne's County state's attorney, hopes the momentum of a "change" election will move him from underdog to winner.

Gilchrest supports Obama, Biden on WYPR Maryland Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest strongly supported the Democratic presidential ticket in a radio interview aired yesterday, calling Barack Obama and Joe Biden "prudent" and "knowledgeable." "We just can't use four more years of policy that's somewhat haphazard, which leads to recklessness," said Gilchrest, who lost a 1st District primary to state Sen. Andy Harris this year, in a report on Baltimore's WYPR. In a subsequent interview with The Baltimore Sun, Gilchrest said he did not intend the remarks to be an endorsement, but information for voters.

The ad: Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest endorses Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. Who made it: Squier, Knapp & Dunn of Washington. What it says: The ad opens with a shot of nine-term incumbent Wayne Gilchrest, standing against a backdrop of what looks to be a Chesapeake Bay tributary. "I'm a Republican, but I'm reaching across party lines to support Frank Kratovil for Congress," Gilchrest says. "Frank Kratovil is a tough prosecutor. He'll be independent and put common sense ahead of politics.

Working to become the first Democrat in a generation to represent Maryland's 1st Congressional District, Frank M. Kratovil Jr. said he is depending on a nonpartisan message and the backing of the low-key Republican who has held the job for the past 18 years - Wayne T. Gilchrest. Silent on the race since his double-digit loss to state Sen. Andy Harris in the February primary, Gilchrest publicly endorsed the Democrat yesterday and embarked with him on a tour through the heart of the far-flung district that includes parts of Harford, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties and the entire Eastern Shore.

1 Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, ousted after nine terms in a bitter Republican primary campaign last winter, will cross party lines today to endorse Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. in the 1st Congressional District. A senior member of Gilchrest's staff confirmed yesterday that the veteran lawmaker - who earned a reputation as a staunch environmentalist who frequently clashed with Republican Party leaders - will join Kratovil, an Eastern Shore prosecutor, at appearances today in Annapolis and Easton.

The primary defeats in February of two of Maryland's eight U.S. House incumbents raised many eyebrows nationally. Congressional incumbents rarely lose, and when they do it's usually in the general election. State Sen. Andy Harris' 10-point victory over nine-term incumbent Wayne T. Gilchrest in the 1st District's Republican primary has set up a doozy of an open-seat race between him and Democratic nominee Frank M. Kratovil Jr. An unapologetic moderate, Mr. Gilchrest was overwhelmed by the self-described "true conservative" Mr. Harris, who hails from eastern Baltimore County in the increasingly powerful west side of the district's Chesapeake Bay area.

Political interest groups working outside the traditional confines of campaign finance laws spent more than $4.3 million in two Maryland congressional races during this year's primary, according to newly released campaign finance reports, and their success in defeating two incumbents here could portend an expensive and aggressive effort nationwide to target other swing districts in the coming months. Liberal groups have gone after Rep. Albert R. Wynn before, and conservative activists have long tried to unseat Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest.