From the looks of it, most of Harris’ 7th District Senate seat is in the 1st Congressional District. That at least is good news for him. It should be noted that should Harris get through to the General Election, by nailing down the more liberal Baltimore suburbs he puts himself in good shape to hold the district from a RAT interception. I dont see the Eastern Shore voting Democrat anytime soon.
You give me the opportunity to remember an awful event that happened in MD 34 years ago today (May 24, 1973), which I’ll mention in a bit...
The 1st will vote rodent under unusual circumstances. It was supposed to be a fairly solid GOP seat going back many decades. From ‘63 until ‘71 it sent Rogers Morton, whose brother, Thruston, was serving as the Senator from Kentucky at the time (Morton was then tapped by Nixon to become Interior Secretary).
In the special election in ‘71, it sent a Republican named Bill Mills. The story regarding Mills was a very sad one. A thoughtful, friendly, and sensitive man, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to serve in Congress. In the hyperpartisan atmosphere during the Watergate affair, it came out that Mills’ campaign had forgotten to report a loan made on behalf of Nixon’s CREEP fund via Morton, at worst, it was nothing more than an accidental oversight, and not a deliberate error.
However, to Mills, he considered his character and reputation to be the most important things he ever had, and even the slightest hint of impropriety, accidental or no, was an utterly unforgiveable sin. 34 years ago today, which was also a Thursday, Mills returned to his Eastern Shore home where he committed suicide.
An almost completely forgotten event now, it totally shocked Congress, most of whom couldn’t believe any member would kill themself over a minor matter. Mills, at only 48, would’ve likely settled in to a long career representing the Eastern Shore (probably would’ve remained until the ‘90s), but was not to be.
In the special election to succeed Mills that August, a young State Senator named Bob Bauman won by only a 51-49% margin over his Dem opponent, and was considered a victory by the administration. Bauman looked to be a real star, an outspoken Conservative who enjoyed being a gigantic pain in the ass to the Democrat leadership, but harbored a deep, dark secret. Eventually, just weeks before the 1980 elections, he was arrested for soliciting a 16-year old boy. He claimed he was an alcoholic, which had driven him to do that, but it turned out, at worst, he was only a moderate drinker (and most certainly not an alkie). What should’ve been a landslide victory for him turned into a narrow 52-48% loss, and the surprise winner was Roy Dyson, the first Dem elected to the seat since 1960.
Dyson should’ve been a one-term wonder, but when Bauman tried to seek a rematch in ‘82, things got so ugly on the GOP side that the eventual nominee was unable to make any headway. Dyson faced another lackluster opponent in ‘84 and ‘86, but only kept getting higher and higher percentages of the vote...
Now, then how did Gilchrest manage to knock off the popular Dyson ? Scandal again. Gilchrest was the nominee in 1988, and was considered to be a 3rd tier candidate sacrificial lamb, described as a “guidance counselor and summer-season house painter.” While the problem wasn’t with Dyson himself, the scandal that erupted centered on his top aide, a man with similar appetites and proclivities as ex-Congressman Bauman. The aide would insist on hiring young, naive men from small-town America, where they would, upon gaining employment, be forbidden from dating, allowed only to socialize with him, and at a special retreat, had one of the men do a strip-tease. Lurid and creepy stuff.
In any event, Dyson’s aide committed suicide himself as soon as the allegations came to light, and because Dyson had claimed he didn’t know what was going on (and a side-scandal, also linked to the same aide, had to do with paychecks going to his private company). The GOP badly wanted Gilchrest to stand aside for a name candidate, because Dyson should’ve been toast. Despite being outspent 6-to-1, Gilchrest held Dyson to a 50-50% victory (by only 1,540 votes).
When the next election came up in ‘90, Gilchrest was running again (but was described by Barone and local Republicans as a poor and “desultory” campaigner, and he scarcely raised enough $$ to be competitive). Dyson himself was almost defeated in the Dem primary that year. As if Dyson hadn’t enough problems stemming from his dead aide, it came out during the campaign that year that he had been a conscientious objector during Vietnam (and Dyson had always considered himself a pro-defense hawk). The fact that Gilchrest received a Purple Heart while serving in the Marines in Vietnam only helped enhance his image. Despite, again, being outspent (3-to-1, this time), Gilchrest won in a landslide of 57-43%.
Ironically, Dyson’s setback didn’t keep him out of politics permanently, as he went on to win a State Senate seat at the next legislative elections in 1994, and remains there today.
Gilchrest himself has only had one close call since his initial election, and that was in ‘92, when redistricting threw him in with ‘Rat Congressman Tom McMillen. McMillen massively outspent the always low-spending Gilchrest (by $1.6 million to $400k, 4 to 1), but because Gilchrest represented the bulk of the district and some nasty remarks by then-Gov. Bill Schaefer calling the E.S. a “$hithouse”, and Gilchrest prevailed by a narrow 52-48% margin.
Well, there’s the summation of the district to date. Hope I didn’t bore you guys to death. ;-)
“From the looks of it, most of Harris’ 7th District Senate seat is in the 1st Congressional District. That at least is good news for him. It should be noted that should Harris get through to the General Election, by nailing down the more liberal Baltimore suburbs he puts himself in good shape to hold the district from a RAT interception. I dont see the Eastern Shore voting Democrat anytime soon.”
The MD-01 is hyper Republican, and the only way I can see us losing it is if the general election becomes a geographic battle (with an Eastern Shore Democrat running against a Baltco Republican)instead of an ideological battle. But even if we place the odds of losing the CD in the general at close to 0, it may still be difficult for a Baltco Republican to defeat Gilchrest in the primary because Eastern Shore conservatives may be fooled into voting for “one of them” (meaning someone from the Eastern Shore) instead of their ideological twin from Baltco. I’d much rather have an Eastern Shore conservative run against Gilchrest in the primary.