The Sierra Club congressman: will conservatives revolt against Rep. Wayne Gilchrest?(POLITICS)

ON February 26, 1998, Andy Harris spotted a headline in a copy of the Washington Post that was sitting in the doctor's lounge of the hospital where he works. "I still remember that it was on the front page of the Metro section, on the right-hand side," he says. Here's what it announced: "Md. Senate Delays Bill on Abortion; Issue Won't Resurface This Year, Officials Say."

The story described how his state senator, a Republican, had played a vital role in killing a proposed ban on partial-birth abortions. "He led the fight against it, which really surprised me," says Harris. "I decided that he couldn't cast a vote like that and not be challenged."

Harris had no political experience beyond his occasional attendance of local Republican-club meetings--the kind of gathering that he says usually drew fewer than a dozen people. Harris nevertheless resolved to take on state senator F. Vernon Boozer, a 17-year incumbent, in the GOP primary--and won a victory that shocked Maryland's Republican establishment.

Now Harris is both aiming higher and trying to repeat history: On February 12, he'll square off in a GOP primary against Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, a liberal Republican who has sat in Congress for as long as Boozer served in the state senate. The contest, which also features state senator E. J. Pipkin, promises to be one of the most expensive in Maryland's history. More important, it could function as a Republican bellwether: Are conservatives so disgruntled following the defeats of 2006 that they'll evict a longtime incumbent whose voting record places him well to the left of his constituents?

Maryland's first congressional district includes all of the state's eastern shore, plus parts of suburban Baltimore. President Bush has carried it easily, winning with 62 percent in 2004. After the 2000 Census, state Democrats gerrymandered the district to contain as many Republicans as possible, with the goal of making other areas more favorable to Democrats. The result is that some of America's most contorted congressional districts lie between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The aesthetics may be questionable, but the election returns were clear: Maryland's House delegation moved from a four-to-four tie between Democrats and Republicans to a six-to-two lead for Democrats.

Gilchrest, a former Marine who won a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in Vietnam, has never been an especially good match for his district. He favors abortion rights and gun control, and he even won the endorsement of the Sierra Club for his environmentalism. In its congressional scorecard, the American Conservative Union gives Gilchrest a lifetime rating of 61. Only two of his Republican colleagues have earned lower marks, and they at least have the excuse of coming from districts won by both Al Gore and John Kerry.

"The debate over liberal versus conservative is bizarre when it comes to competent public policy," says Gilchrest. "I think I'm a liberal like Gorbachev is a liberal--he wanted to bring freedom to his country. I don't follow a mythical, purist ideology."