Election in the Maryland 6th Congressional District

Source: The Herald Mail

We have an opportunity this year to elect someone who will be willing to negotiate and compromise. The current Representative of the 6th Congressional District, Roscoe Bartlett, it a Tea Party conservative and the Tea Party people have shown an unwillingness to do so. Following the 2010 census, the districts in Maryland were redrawn; the sixth which was in the last decade almost completely rural now includes Frederick and parts of the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. My precinct was moved into the district in 2011.

As a new Democratic voter in the district, my first priority was to find the strongest candidate from my party for the November election. I also wanted to find a person who could represent the very varied population of this district if elected. Our district, shown above, includes people who live closer to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania than they do to me in Maryland. It includes people in the most rural areas of the State as well as in Frederick, a mid size city, and the suburbs of Washington, DC.

I came to the conclusion that Rob Garagiola fit that bill. Having spent a decade in the Maryland State Senate and risen to Senate Majority Leader, he should have developed a good understanding of the whole state. He seems to be one of the 99 percent, not one of the very rich. His experience as a state legislator and as a Congressional aid should have prepared him with knowledge of how to represent his constituents if elected. His many endorsements suggest that key Maryland Democratic leaders agree with that assessment. His background in health care legislation should be especially useful.

The next Congress is going to have to deal with the economic crisis that we face. It will have to cut federal expenses, raise tax income (in part by getting rid of tax breaks), and support economic growth and development (especially employment generation). In doing so it is going to have to make reforms in the big budget items -- military spending, medicare and medicaid, and social security. If, as seems likely, the Supreme Court does damage to the Affordable Care Act, the Congress will have to revisit health care legislation in that context. The next Congress will have to do a lot better than this one has done to meet the challenge. Rob Garagiola, would seem to be a strong candidate for that Congress.

It is my hope that the Republicans in the Sixth Congressional District of Maryland agree with my diagnosis of the situation, and that they vote for the Republican candidate in the primary who will best represent our District and negotiate and compromise as needed to get legislative progress at last.