From suicide and scandal to Robert E. Bauman's coming out of the closet, Maryland's 1st Congressional District has had its share of eye-opening moments. But at least throughout the years, the various congressional candidates have maintained a reasonable decorum - until now, that is. Never before has a 1st District Republican primary had a greater and more repugnant ado about little more than the misleading mailings and TV ads that have plagued the electorate for months.
Voters in the district, which covers the Eastern Shore and portions of Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties, are generally more conservative and George W. Bush-supportive than voters elsewhere in Maryland, but they are not so easily deceived. Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest, 61, who has represented the district for nine terms in Congress, deserves his party's nomination for a 10th.
Not only do Mr. Gilchrest's fiscally conservative views reflect his constituents' but his pro-environmental positions that have sometimes put him at odds with the prevailing GOP views in Washington are nonetheless well-suited to this rural but increasingly suburbanized region so closely linked to the Chesapeake Bay.
That the decorated Vietnam veteran was perceived as politically vulnerable this year was, in large measure, a result of his willingness to stray from the White House line. He was among the first in his party to push for a withdrawal of American forces in Iraq and, most recently, he has been part of a small House cadre promoting diplomatic solutions for the troubled Mideast.
Contrast such principled positions with the political smears that have appeared in district mailboxes and on local television screens. Too bad Mr. Gilchrest is not just victim but participant in the fray.
It may be a matter of self-defense, but it's sadly out of character for the former high school teacher whose career in Washington has often been likened to Frank Capra's fictional Mr. Smith. But because the 1st District is home to Maryland's poultry industry, it's likely voters will recognize manure, political or otherwise, when they see it.
The ad wars chiefly involved two challengers, state Sens. Andy Harris and E. J. Pipkin. Aside from that, Mr. Pipkin proved a worthy adversary. The conservative Kent County Republican has demonstrated his own independent streak as a fierce critic of Constellation Energy Group and utility deregulation. He may one day make a suitable successor to Mr. Gilchrest.
In the Democratic contest, the clear choice is Frank M. Kratovil Jr., the two-term Queen Anne's County state's attorney. Mr. Kratovil, 39, who has won nearly every endorsement within his party, is the most accomplished candidate in the four-person race.
He, too, is a conservative in most matters of domestic and foreign policy, and because of the contentious GOP primary is widely seen as his party's best chance of recapturing the seat since Democrat Roy P. Dyson, who held it for five terms, lost to Mr. Gilchrest in 1990.