GOP LOOKS FOR REVENGE AGAINST REP. GILCHREST FOR OPPOSING IRAQ WAR AND FOR BEING SLIGHTLY MODERATE

Today's Moonie Times reports that Maryland's recently defeated Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich is surreptitiously supporting state Sen. Andrew Harris in an attempt to unseat Congressman Wayne Gilchrest next year. Gilchrest is viewed in right-wing GOP circles as a moderate and as slightly independent. Harris is a raving right wing loon and would be a total rubber stamp for the extremists who control the party.

Ehrlich's chief fundraiser, Richard E. Hug, has joined Mr. Harris' exploratory committee and cultivated donors for a Harris fundraiser last week in Baltimore that featured an appearance by Mr. Ehrlich.

After being soundly thrashed by then Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (875,362 to 757,099), Ehrlich became a local hate-talk radio host for WBAL-AM where he is constantly pushing Harris' bid to unseat Gilchrest. Harris and Ehrlich are all worked up because Gilchrest opposes-- like the vast majority of Americans-- Bush's endless occupation of Iraq.

Gilchrest’s pro-environment stances have irritated Republicans since he was first elected in 1990. A wounded Vietnam War veteran, Gilchrest has sparked even greater ire recently with his decision to repudiate his 2002 vote supporting the war in Iraq. He was one of only two House Republicans-- North Carolina’s Walter Jones was the other-- to support the Democratic troop withdrawal plan.

Gilchrest, who is hated by the NRA and the Club for Growth, will be running for his 10th term. Democrat Frank Kratovil is running for the Eastern Shore first congressional district, which was gerrymandered to dump as many Maryland Republicans into one district as possible.