Freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil of Maryland is counting on an upbeat message and centrist record to make the difference in one of the toughest re-election contests in the country this fall.
The Democratic incumbent is rated an underdog by independent analysts. Without mentioning names, he portrays his likely rematch against veteran state Sen. Andy Harris as a race between a mainstream pragmatist and a far-right ideologue.
In 2010, "the question is: Can the moderate, pragmatic, reasonable, common-sense people survive? And you've seen some challenges to people like that," Kratovil said in an interview. "The answer is: Some of them have, and some of them haven't."
Kratovil's survival, in what is already a bad season for incumbents, will likely depend on his ability to turn out dispirited Democrats and convince moderate independents and Republicans that his approach represents the best way to change Washington.
Two years ago, he defeated Harris by l fewer than 3,000 votes to become the first Democrat in almost two decades to carry the state's easternmost congressional district.
Now, voter enthusiasm is mainly on the Republican side, according to national opinion surveys, and Kratovil can't count on all those who backed Barack Obama — including younger voters and blacks — to turn out when the president isn't on the ballot.
As he prepared for a tour Saturday across his conservative district, which spans both sides of the Chesapeake Bay, the 42-year-old former prosecutor previewed themes of his re-election campaign.
Kratovil blames "ideologues" for many of the nation's problems. If voters keep sending "the far right and the far left" to Congress, he warns, there will be "just as much anger and disgust with Washington" two years from now.
He should know. Kratovil is famous for being hanged in effigy by an outraged conservative constituent last summer. Voter anger has faded somewhat, he says, though not among those on the left and right extremes.
Kratovil's pitch is that he has kept a promise to put principle above partisanship, while establishing an independent record in the House.
"I've been conservative in the areas that I said I was going to be conservative in: spending, law enforcement issues, immigration," he said. "I've taken a very balanced approach between agriculture and protecting the environment."
He voted against Obama's health care plan and in favor of his economic stimulus package (after initially voting against it). He also voted for a climate-change proposal that includes mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, which Senate Republicans are blocking.
The former state's attorney for Queen Anne's County is the only Marylander in the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, made up largely of conservative Democrats. At the same time, he remains close, personally and politically, to Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, whose status as House majority leader is at risk this November, along with continued Democratic control of Congress.
"I don't think you need to separate yourself from a party to be independent," said Kratovil. "If anything, we need more independence within the two parties."
The Eastern Shore lawmaker, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, is a skeptic of Obama's war strategy. Recently returned from Afghanistan, he questions whether the president's emphasis on counterinsurgency over counterterrorism in that country is "a sustainable approach to defeating al-Qaida, long term."
It's the economy, though, that will dominate the midterm election. Kratovil wants more incentives for small business and wishes the Democratic administration had done a better job of selling the successes of the stimulus program.
Looking ahead to November, he says he doesn't think voters in his district will be swayed much by national trends. Instead, he says, they'll make their choice on the candidates' records, their stands on key issues and their character.
Rarely given to loud outbursts or what he derides as "grandstanding," Kratovil said he considers it a "high compliment" to have been branded as a Boy Scout — not necessarily the image some voters might prize in someone they send to represent them in Washington's rough and tumble.
"What people want is genuineness, straightforwardness, honesty and common sense," he said. "Whether people agree with me or don't agree with me on every vote, they think I've been independent. They think I've used common sense. And I'd like to think they find me to be straightforward and honest. And I think that cuts through a lot of the cynicism out there."