Sen. Andy Harris returned to Annapolis a conquering hero yesterday, having done what many considered impossible: taking out long-time incumbent Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest in a Republican primary.
His win after a rough-and-tumble campaign came on a bad day for Maryland incumbents. Both Gilchrest and longtime Rep. Albert R. Wynn lost in party primaries, something that hadn't happened to a Maryland congressman since 1992.
"I think that the voters want a change; I think that's pretty clear," Harris told reporters yesterday morning before the General Assembly convened in Annapolis. President Bush, who had endorsed Gilchrest, called to personally congratulate Harris at 11 a.m., he said later, adding: "The Republicans nationwide are really looking for new leadership to regain the majority."
But the full story of Harris' upset rests on a combination of money, grass-roots organizing and an unexpected assist from millionaire Sen. E.J. Pipkin who spent more than $1 million in his own bid and appears to have eaten away at Gilchrest's base vote on the Eastern Shore.
The nine-term congressman went back to Washington yesterday for a voting session, but he and his long-time supporters on the Shore were stunned by the end of a political era.
Gilchrest refused to make the traditional concession call to the victor, evoking memories of Harris' first political victory over veteran state Sen. Vernon Boozer, whom he beat 10 years ago running a bare-knuckles campaign. Boozer, the Senate minority leader at the time, also refused to give Harris a conciliatory call.
"A concession amounts to rewarding unseemly behavior," Gilchrest said. "I'm not bitter, but my God, what's happened to democracy? It's a clear sign the party is split between dogma and tolerance."
According to unofficial returns from the state board of elections, Harris was leading Gilchrest yesterday by about 11 percentage points with 99 percent of precincts reporting, an enormous margin for a primary against an incumbent and prominent senator.
Although many expected Pipkin's candidacy to act as a spoiler for Harris by splitting the anti-Gilchrest vote, it actually appears to have hurt the incumbent. Election figures show that Pipkin and Gilchrest split votes on the Eastern Shore, typically a stronghold for the congressman in past elections.
Harris, a native of Baltimore County, ran up large margins on the Western Shore.
"I'm not going to pretend that I thought it would be this margin," said former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., whose support for Harris provided a major boost, according to interviews with voters. "He just kept very strong. I looked for a closer race, but we certainly thought he was going to win."
Ehrlich said the huge sums of money Harris raised - nearly $1.1 million as of Jan. 23 - allowed the campaign to combine "high-tech sophistication" in targeting potential voters with grass-roots support.
More than $4 million was spent on the race, much of it for advertising, and nearly half that by Harris' campaign or outside groups like the Club for Growth, a political action committee that supports conservative candidates. In addition to spending $590,000 on advertising supporting Harris, the Club bundled $435,000 in donations for him, meaning they brought over $1 million into the race on his behalf.
The campaign amassed hundreds of volunteers who made calls to voters in a final blitz leading up to Tuesday. Many voters got messages tailored to issues that mattered most to them. The callers made personal appeals and phoned some voters repeatedly. Yesterday, Harris' campaign staff said they made 45,000 calls in all.
Tarah Fehrman, a 15-year-old high school student from Ohio, was among about two-dozen home-schooled teenagers who worked the phones and knocked doors in the last four days of the campaign. She came to Maryland as part of the Madison Youth Project, a non-profit and political action committee that works to involve young people in getting conservative candidates elected.
"It was a lot of work, but you know what, it's so nice to influence the election to get pro-life, pro-family conservatives elected," said Fehrman, whose voice was hoarse after working 12-hour days calling voters and partying to celebrate Harris' win. "I'm not old enough to vote, but I can still make a difference."
Meanwhile, Democrats nominated what they consider a strong candidate, and leaders in that party think the defeat of the 18-year incumbent plus a strong national sentiment favoring Democrats could put the seat in play for the first time in decades. GOP insiders disputed that claim, touting a poll released yesterday showing Harris with a strong lead against the Democratic nominee, Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Frank M. Kratovil Jr., in a general election matchup.
Out and about in Annapolis, accepting congratulations for much of the day, Harris seemed to relish the role of giant-killer. He looked jubilant, often cracking self-deprecating jokes about needing to get some sleep at committee hearings in the afternoon.
For his part, Gilchrest eschewed an elaborate post-mortem yesterday, heading to Washington for a series of roll call votes - procedural work he has said he usually finds boring.
Gilchrest has nine months left in his term. He said he hopes to find work that somehow combines the varied interests he has pursued in Congress: environmental education, agriculture and foreign policy.
bradley.olson@baltsun.com
chris.guy@baltsun.com
Sun reporters Matthew Hay Brown and Timothy B. Wheeler contributed to this article.