Wayne Gilchrest

Voters were so mad at the president and Congress they kicked county executives out of office.Wayne Gilchrest is too good to be true. May power not corrupt him.

Rep. Frank Kratovil went to Washington promising to put his constituents above his party, and he's accomplished that. On the biggest issues of the last two years, he has voted with Democrats when he believed that has been the right thing for his constituents, and he has voted with Republicans when he's thought that was the right thing to do. He has stood up for the environment and economic development in his district and against bank bailouts, the federal...

Mayor's office seeking donationsThe Mayor's Office of Community Services and Substance Abuse is seeking donations to help defray the cost of T-shirts touting the City's anti-drug activities.Send contributions to: The Mayor's Office of Community Service, c/o The City of Annapolis, 160 Duke of Gloucester St., Annapolis, Md. 21401.Information: 263-7932.Congressional aide applications acceptedDistrict 1 Congressman Wayne Gilchrest is currently accepting applications for internships in his Washington office and in the four district offices in Salisbury, Chestertown, Aberdeen and Waldorf.

Twenty-six years ago, Maryland farmer Robert Bealle finished second in the Federal Duck Stamp art contest, when his painting of redheads lost to a pair of American wigeons. This year, he won by painting a wigeon himself. Bealle beat entries from 223 other wildlife artists from across the country Saturday to win the 2010-2011 Federal Duck Stamp contest held at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge. His oil-on-Masonite painting of the colorful waterfowl will be on the $15 stamp, which is purchased by migratory bird hunters and collectors.

When it comes to backing up President Clinton on his gutsy decision to continue normal trading relations with China, the Maryland delegation in Congress provides an Alice in Wonderland glimpse of party loyalty. On a roll-call vote last week, Democrats Benjamin Cardin, Steny Hoyer, Kweisi Mfume and Albert Wynn voted against the Democrat in the White House. Republicans Roscoe Bartlett, Wayne Gilchrest and Constance Morella gave Mr. Clinton their support.This reversal of partisan behavior probably would not have been complete had Republican Helen Bentley, a stalwart protectionist, voted.

Last year I met a young woman who had lost her brother in the war in Iraq. Although obviously grieved over her family's loss, she spoke proudly of her brother's service and the ultimate sacrifice he made on our behalf. In relaying the events of his return home, she described her family's deep disappointment that the Army had not presented them with his Purple Heart. They had hoped they would have it in time for his memorial service. They called Congressman Gilchrest's office to see if he could help in this matter.

Wayne Gilchrest, having parlayed his outsider status into a decisive victory over U.S. Rep. Roy Dyson, now has to figure out how to go on being an outsider.In other words, can Wayne Gilchrest, congressman-elect, be the same Wayne Gilchrest, schoolteacher and itinerant house painter, who won the voters of the 1st District?"I don't know how to be anyone else," Gilchrest says. "I don't like suits, fancy cars or big buildings. I just want to leave something for my children. Ten, 12 years and I'm out."

Wayne Gilchrest said last night that he hoped his victory in the First Congressional District would set an example for races everywhere in the future: "Stick to truth, stick to decency, stick to honesty, stick to issues." Mr. Gilchrest campaigned in the way he described. His doing so won him many votes. But there were other elements in his victory that his Republican Party especially, but also Democrats on the outs, should ponder.First, he had a weakened opponent. Rep. Roy Dyson sullied his record by getting too cozy with campaign contributors and oblivious to conflicts between special and public interests.

The Sun makes the following endorsements for today's election. As has been the case in the past two presidential elections, we make no endorsement for that race. You may take this list with you into the voting booth.United States SenateBarbara Mikulski (D)House of Representatives1st District - Wayne Gilchrest (R)2nd District - Helen Bentley (R)3rd District - Benjamin Cardin (D)4th District - Albert Wynn (D)5th District - Steny Hoyer (D)6th District - Thomas Hattery (D)7th District - Kweisi Mfume (D)

Rep. Roy Dyson's victory in the 1st District must be chalked up to low voter turnout and absolute apathy. How else to explain the implied confidence expressed by voters in a man whose recent record in the House of Representatives is dismal?Dyson has been the consummate PAC man, taking tens of thousands of campaign dollars from the defense industry, then voting for legislation benefiting them. Throughout his congressional career, Dyson has been a hawkish Democrat. He has used his position on the Armed Services Committee to advocate the use of U.S. military force abroad -- all the while concealing the fact that he himself was unwilling to serve in the Vietnam War.In addition, his term in office has been plagued by a number of personal problems.

KENNEDYVILLE - Coaxed to reflect on his 18 years in Washington, Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest acknowledges a single regret. "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have run," he said. "I probably would have rested my days as an outfitter taking people on horseback rides in the northern Bitterroot towns of Idaho. Lived out a peaceful existence, in a log cabin that was still filled up with snow in May." It is a typically idiosyncratic answer from the Eastern Shore Republican, who spent time counting moose in Idaho between jobs as a high school history teacher and a house painter before he won his seat in 1990.

By now, it is a familiar script for Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest: Every two years, as if on cue, fellow Republicans lambaste the 61-year-old former social studies teacher as too liberal. The label never sticks. The decorated former Marine Corps platoon leader has rarely broken a sweat as he ambles through GOP primaries in the 1st Congressional District. But this year, the chorus of opposition has been much louder - and better financed - than usual. Faced with challenges in Tuesday's primary from well-known state Sens.

Last year I met a young woman who had lost her brother in the war in Iraq. Although obviously grieved over her family's loss, she spoke proudly of her brother's service and the ultimate sacrifice he made on our behalf. In relaying the events of his return home, she described her family's deep disappointment that the Army had not presented them with his Purple Heart. They had hoped they would have it in time for his memorial service. They called Congressman Gilchrest's office to see if he could help in this matter.

Robert Banks came clean the other day about who put him up to running for Congress. He did it at a news conference teased this way: "Banks To Reveal Source of Congressional Candidacy." "I will admit that there is some truth to the idea to run for Congress did not originate solely with me, and that there was in fact some outside influence," Banks said in the release. So, did he confirm the claims of Republican rival Andy Harris - that Rep. Wayne Gilchrest & Co. got Banks in the race to split the anti-incumbent vote?

GRASONVILLE -- Taking the highly unusual step of opposing the re-election bid of a congressman from his own party, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. threw his weight last night behind state Sen. Andrew P. Harris's bid to unseat nine-term Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is on the cover of next month's Irish America magazine, which was throwing a dinner in his honor last night at the New York Yacht Club. Let's just say that Patricia Harty, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the 23-year-old publication, is a fan. "Martin O'Malley is easy on the eye - very easy on the eye," Harty begins her piece. "He's handsome, young, and he's got talent. He paid his way through college playing music - Irish music. ... He's an orator in the truest sense.

WASHINGTON -- Wayne T. Gilchrest is not going to let voters forget that he served in Vietnam while Rep. Roy P. Dyson, D-1st, was a conscientious objector.Today, Adrian Cronauer, the former Air Force deejay whom Robin Williams played in the hit movie, "Good Morning, Vietnam," will say, "Good m-o-r-n-i-n-g, Maryland," while taping a radio campaign commercial for Gilchrest, Dyson's Republican challenger.In the 30-second message, Cronauer will emphasize the war record of "Gilchrest, a Marine who won the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star in Vietnam."

A new round of hard-hitting radio advertisements is being heard in the 1st Congressional District, with incumbent Representative Roy P. Dyson charging that his GOP opponent, Wayne T. Gilchrest, was "unemployed" last year and "got caught" taking money from his own campaign -- charges vehemently denied by Mr. Gilchrest.Meanwhile, an ad from the Gilchrest camp asks voters whether they "believe" the congressman who "has begun running a desperate negative campaign."With four days to go before Election Day in this tight contest, the latest Dyson campaign ad being aired on radio stations throughout the district features an announcer asking, "What does anyone really know about Wayne Gilchrest?"

Ever since the eight-way primary he won on his way to Congress in 1990, Wayne Gilchrest has had to duke it out with fellow members of the GOP. The pro-environment, pro-choice, social libertarian isn't every Republican's cup of tea, so more conservative candidates have tried to pick him off in the primary. That changed last year, his first without a primary challenger. Does this mean that 1st District Republicans have finally accepted Gilchrest as one of their own? Andy Harris apparently hopes not. I hear the state senator is telling people he plans to run against Gilchrest.

Everybody talks in politics about cooperation across the partisan divide, of cooperating for the greater good. All very nice - even smart - and yet almost nobody does it. So photographs in the newspaper last week featuring Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest and Democrat Rep. Elijah E. Cummings on a happy-talk tour of Maryland's Eastern Shore had a certain shock value. One of the shots caught the Republican helping the Democrat into a pair of protective booties. They were about to start wading through manure on a Kent County dairy farm owned by Howard McHenry.