REP. CONNIE MORELLA of Maryland is the least typical Republican in the House of Representatives. She’s pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-campaign finance reform, anti-missile defense, and that’s just for starters. She voted against seven of the ten planks of Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America. Had the 2000 presidential election been thrown into the House, Morella announced she would have voted for Al Gore since her district overwhelmingly backed him. Yet President Bush hosted a fund-raiser for her this summer, lauding her in understated fashion as an “independent soul.” Why? Republicans may need to retain her seat to hold the House, now in their control by a scant seven votes. Morella has three distinctions as a GOP House member. She’s probably the most liberal Republican in Congress, the Senate included. She represents the most Democratic-leaning district now held by a Republican (it covers the affluent Montgomery County suburbs of Washington, D.C.). And she’s regarded by both Democratic and GOP officials as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the 2002 midterm election cycle. Morella’s district already tilted Democratic, but reapportionment by Maryland’s Democratic legislature this year transformed it into a district that went 66 percent for Gore in 2000. This isn’t the first time Democrats have targeted Morella, first elected in 1986. She easily turned back challengers until 2000, when she beat Democrat Terry Lerman by only 4 percentage points. That outcome plus partisan redistricting has prompted a swarm of prominent Democrats to enter the race to oust Morella. Among them: state representative Mark Shriver, son of Sargent and Eunice Shriver and a Kennedy cousin. He’s raised more than $2.3 million, more than half of it from out of state, just in his bid for the Democratic nomination. Other candidates include Ira Shapiro, a top trade official in the Clinton administration, and state senator Christopher Van Hollen Jr., a former Capitol Hill aide who has raised $1.1 million. The primary is September 10. Despite Democratic excitement, Morella is hardly at death’s door in her reelection effort. The district, at least the core of it, has been hospitable to moderate or liberal Republicans for decades, starting with the election of Charles Mathias (later a U.S. senator) in the 1950s. He was followed by Republicans Gilbert Gude and Newton Steers. Morella is a slightly more liberal version of her predecessors. When asked why she remains a Republican in an increasingly Democratic district, Morella says she brings moderation to the Republican party and helps keep the two-party system alive in Maryland. She insists the legislature’s attempt to gerrymander her out of a congressional seat is the result of the “tyranny of a one-party system” in Maryland. Morella has several political strengths. One is the difficulty her Democratic foes face in laying a glove on her. There are few issues they can use against her since she so often votes with Democrats in Congress. One exception is her vote for the Bush tax cut in 2001. Nonetheless, Shriver decries her supposed ties to big business, and Van Hollen said Bush’s appearance at her fund-raiser was a “political quid pro quo” for her support on a prescription drug plan. Another strength is her constituent service. Morella prides herself on personally handling even tiny issues on which constituents need help. Her approval rating among voters in her newly configured district hovers around 70 percent. The fundamental issue in the Morella race, however, is control of the House. Shriver’s campaign slogan is “Working to restore a Democratic Congress.” And it will be hard for Democrats to achieve this without knocking off Morella. Private polls show her running surprisingly strong for another term, but that was before a Democratic nominee emerged. Absent a national issue driving the election and working against Republicans, her chances are 50-50 or slightly better, not bad for an incumbent running in Gore country with a bull’s-eye on her back. Sonny Bunch is an intern at The Weekly Standard.
