HAGERSTOWN, Md. - If U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett feels a threat to his re-election, he doesn't show it. Addressing a breakfast crowd at a Republican primary debate in Hagerstown, the 85-year-old conservative from Frederick County calmly ticks off the same objectives _ lower taxes, less regulation, smaller government _ that he's espoused since he first claimed Maryland's 6th District for the GOP in 1992.
Yet some listeners say they're hungry for a fresh message to counter the district's strongest Democratic offensive in 20 years. Redistricting added a big chunk of Democrat-heavy Montgomery County to what had been a Republican stronghold. The change made the seat competitive and led Bartlett to consider retiring rather than face bulked-up Democratic opposition. As a result, registered Republicans and re-energized Democrats both have large fields of candidates from which to choose their parties' nominees Tuesday.
It's a quandary for Republican voters accustomed to easy victories by a congressman who now seems stale to some.
It doesn't matter MD is hopelessly Democrat and that's why it cost to much to live there.
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