District: 1st (Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford)
First elected: 2008 (def. Andrew Harris)
Margin of victory in last election: 2,852 votes
Votes on key issues
Health care overhaul: No
Cap and trade: Yes
In a traditionally a Republican stronghold Democratic freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil is all but certain to face a competitive race this fall against Republican state Sen. Andrew Harris, who he defeated by a razor-thin margin in 2008.
Kratovil took 49.1 percent of the vote in 2008 to Harris’s 48.3 percent. Libertarian candidate Richard Davis, who took 2.5 percent of the vote in 2008, has also indicated that he will run this year.
“It’s the only competitive race in the state,” said Paul Hernnson, director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland.
Hernnson said at this point, the race is a tossup. Kratovil has an advantage as the incumbent, but Harris is likely to receive support from out-of-state conservative organizations, such as the Club for Growth, Hernnson said.
The freshman representative’s voting record reflects the politically diverse Eastern Shore. He voted for an energy bill last June that was unpopular among Republicans, but bucked his party and voted against the high-profile health care bill last month.
Kratovil, a member of the fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” coalition in the House of Representatives, also sits on the House’s Agricultural, Armed Services and Natural Resources committees.
He became the first Democrat to win a seat in Maryland’s 1st District in 18 years when he defeated Harris in 2008. In the Republican primary, Harris upset former Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who subsequently endorsed Kratovil.
