Karen and Art Oertel used to organize crab feasts for Republican U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest from their family’s Harris Crab House and seafood plant on the waterfront at Kent Narrows six miles east of the Bay Bridge. But no more.
The Oertels hosted a fundraiser Thursday at the restaurant for state Sen. Andy Harris – no relation – and helped raise over $50,000 for one of the nine-term congressman’s best funded challengers ever. Besides the crab cakes, fried oysters and rockfish, the main dish on the menu was former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who dished out praise for Harris and barbs to Gilchrest.
Ehrlich described Harris, a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, as “real smart,” a “party builder,” and “team player” who helped him hold the line on taxes and spending as governor. To reporters later, Ehrlich, a former deputy whip in Congress, said Gilchrest did not support the GOP on procedural votes and he undermined the Ehrlich administration through “lack of cooperation on a lot environmental issues” and by testifying against slot machine gambling in 2004.
“He went out of his way to embarrass me on a state issue,” Ehrlich said.
“Most of the elected officials from the 1st District have not endorsed the incumbent,” the ex-governor pointedly told the small crowd. Thedistrict includes parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties along with all of the Eastern Shore.
Among the Republican lawmakers supporting Harris is Sen. Richard Colburn, Middle Shore, who ran against Gilchrest in 2004.
Harris has “more than doubled” the amount Colburn raised in that race, the senator said. Since then, “Wayne has made many more votes that are unpopular.”
The Oertels agree. They don’t like his votes for spending on social programs, either. Karen symbolically threw some tea bags into the waters of Kent Narrows to symbolize her objections to excessive taxation in Washington and Annapolis.
“We think Wayne wants to stop having commercial fishing,” Art Oertel complained.
Ironically, today [[Saturday]] just 15 miles south as the seagull flies, Gilchrest has been invited to appear with President Bush in St. Michaels as the president discusses an executive order he intends to sign about the conservation of rockfish (striped bass) and red drum, the congressman’s office announced.
