CLEAR SPRING - One of the most remarkable election upsets in recent Maryland political history was engineered by a self-described political "nobody" who hadn't intended to take on House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., but was thrown against him by a court's redistricting map and chose to accept the challenge.

"If you know my character, I'm not a quitter," says Republican LeRoy E. Myers Jr., a Washington County building contractor.

Myers, 51, who had never before run for office, decided that even if he lost Nov. 5 - as almost everyone, including himself, anticipated - he would at least meet lots of people and build a political base for a possible second try.

"To be honest, I did not think I had that great of a chance. I mean, think about it. I was running against a fella who was sitting in office for 28 years - the speaker of the House," Myers said.

His victory by 72 votes hinges on a recount requested by Taylor.

Before the election, Myers was little recognized outside this rural area west of Hagerstown that is known for, among other things, its hunting, dirt track speedway and Civil War history.

But Myers didn't lack for personal confidence. One of his role models is former Washington Redskins football coach Joe Gibbs, with whom Myers shares a country twang and a predilection for motivational speechmaking.

"It was not an easy campaign, but nothing in life is easy," he said a week after the election to a group of 9th- and 10th-graders at a local school for students with learning disorders. "It's what you make of it."

Wearing jeans and a black windbreaker, Myers, who is married with four children, stood at the front of the classroom with his arms folded. His tone was that of a coach addressing his players before a game.

He gestured in the direction of a student seated in the front row. "Someday you might be speaker of the House," he told him. "What do you think of that?"

The teen-ager squirmed, and Myers, trying hard to connect with the class, recalled when he was their age. "In 1966, I had no idea that at the age of 51, in the year 2002, that this would come to pass," he said, smiling.

What came to pass was a product of hard work and happenstance.

Redistricting's impact

The owner and operator of a business specializing in constructing steel buildings, the conservative Myers had planned to run in a different district under Gov. Parris N. Glendening's redistricting plan. But a state court rejected that plan as unconstitutional and redrew the map, shifting Myers into a new district with Taylor.

At one end of the district is Cumberland in Allegany County, home to Taylor, Maryland's longest-serving House speaker. At the other end is Conococheague Creek in Washington County, where Myers was born and raised. Between them is Sideling Hill, a 1,760-foot mountain cut in two by Interstate 68.

For Taylor, the new configuration meant losing constituents familiar with him in Allegany, while gaining new voters in heavily Republican Washington County.

Myers captured 70 percent of the vote in Washington County, where Taylor's record and accomplishments were less known than in his home base. It was also a county that went more than 2-to-1 for Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s successful gubernatorial bid.

Like Myers, Taylor won his home county - but by a lesser margin. He got 61 percent of the vote in Allegany, a margin likely reduced by political foes' criticism of his record on gun control, slot machines and school consolidation.

Taylor's advocates say there was also confusion over his House leadership role. They say an untold number of citizens incorrectly believed that the powerful speakership would remain in the district even if Taylor lost.

During the campaign, Myers said, "I had adults thinking, 'Why did you decide to run for speaker of the House?' I heard that, but it wasn't like it was every day."

Taylor declined to discuss the campaign or Myers, saying he would wait until the recount is completed around Thanksgiving. "This race isn't over yet," Taylor said.

But Taylor has said for months that his positions on guns and slots have been distorted, in some cases by activists from outside the district bent on his defeat.

At least three gun-rights organizations helped orchestrate his loss, buying radio and newspaper ads and distributing anti-Taylor literature.

A specific target was Taylor's backing of the governor's 2000 legislation to require built-in locks on all handguns sold in the state. Taylor has said the measure addressed a safety issue - particularly involving kids - and was not "anti-gun."

Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, one of the groups that campaigned against the speaker, said the law is too restrictive, branding Taylor an architect of "gun control."

"Casper forgot that his constituents elected him as a delegate. It was his colleagues who elected him as speaker," said John H. Josselyn, the association's legislative vice president. "He forgot who he worked for."

Taylor knew as far back as two years ago that he needed to clarify his gun positions. In October 2000, he wrote a letter to The Cumberland Times-News saying his record was being "misconstrued and attacked." He said in the letter that he had "always supported the Constitutional right of my constituents and all law-abiding citizens to bear arms."

Myers said he was happy to receive assistance from gun-rights groups. "They came out of the woodwork," said the Republican, whose election literature emphasized the rights of "legitimate gun owners and sportsmen."

On slots, Taylor backs a voters' referendum on whether to allow the machines at racetracks or other spots. He has said his position has been misrepresented by political foes who label him an ardent slots advocate. Myers opposes slots.

The issue was significant because a planned horse-racing track near the Allegany County community of Little Orleans could be a candidate for slots. A boisterous citizens group opposes the track, partly because of gambling and the expected traffic, lights and noise.

Candidates meet

Living in two distinct regions, Myers and Taylor hadn't met until after the court unveiled the new district plan. Myers first approached the speaker at a meeting of business leaders from the two areas in June.

Taylor asked Myers why he would want to run, as the Republican's victory would take the powerful House speakership away from Western Maryland, where it has been since 1994.

Said Myers last week: "I told him, 'I hope you understand that I'm running for the House of Delegates, and the only way I can do that is by running against you. If you're the person you're supposed to be, you should have no problem beating me.'"

Later, Myers said Taylor wasn't as cordial as he expected him to be, and Taylor, in the news media, predicted he would win the race handily.

Said Clear Spring grocery store owner Alan Albert, a longtime friend of Myers': "I think all that kind of riled LeRoy up."