By Catherine Matacic
Capital News Service
Friday, Sept. 13, 2002

HYATTSVILLE, Md. - Democrats closed ranks Friday behind 8th District congressional nominee Christopher Van Hollen, with three of his primary rivals endorsing his bid to unseat Rep. Connie Morella, R-Bethesda. 

Just days after one of the most expensive primary races in the country, second-place finisher Mark Shriver presented Van Hollen with a $1,000 check and pledged to "help in any way" he can. 

One of the first and most pressing ways to help will be to raise money: Van Hollen spent $1.25 million on the primary, leaving him with just $100,000 on hand for the general election. 

Morella, who had no challenger in the GOP primary, has spent only $300,000 so far and has $1.7 million in the bank for the general election. 

But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will supply Van Hollen with "all the resources he needs to be competitive," spokeswoman Kim Rubey said Friday. 

"This race is a top priority for us, and we'll do what it takes to elect a Democrat," Rubey said. 

Democrats need to pick up six seats to regain control of the House in November, and the national committee has targeted Morella's seat as one of the most vulnerable. 

"The whole cry is unity, because we've got to" take back the House, said Terry Lierman, who ran unsuccessfully against Morella in 2000. "The stakes are too high not to make it happen this time." 

The kiss-and-make-up started Friday morning when Shriver campaigned with Van Hollen at the Silver Spring Metro station. It continued at a noon press conference in Prince George's County with Van Hollen, Shriver and two other unsuccessful Democratic candidates, Ira Shapiro and Deborah Vollmer. 

The four Democrats were just two days removed from what WTOP political analyst Mark Plotkin has said was not "an ugly primary ... but a hard-fought primary." 

Van Hollen finished with 43.5 percent of the vote to Shriver's 40.5 percent, Shapiro's 12.7 percent and Vollmer's 2.5 percent. A fifth candidate, Anthony Jaworski, got 0.8 percent of the primary vote. 

Shapiro said he spent heavily in the primary, because he expected to have national party support if he won the nomination. But he wound up spending about $800,000 on his losing effort and said he is about $150,000 in debt. 

Shriver, who raised more than $2.5 million, still had about $500,000 in the bank at the end of the primary. But that money was earmarked for the general election and will have to be returned to donors. A campaign spokesman said "the bills are still coming in" but that Shriver could end up $10,000 to $20,000 in the hole. 

The four Democrats said Friday that there are not any solid plans for the kind of support Van Hollen might get, but Shriver said his support will include financial help. 

Shriver has also written to thousands of his supporters, urging them to back Van Hollen, and he is working to get unions that endorsed him in the primary to switch their allegiance.

With just seven weeks to the election, support has to come soon. Van Hollen said Friday he is confident that it will come. 

"There were many predictions that this Democratic primary would divide us. Instead, this Democratic primary energized us," he said Friday. 

Morella campaign manager Tony Caligiuri said the Republican incumbent is not worried about the Democrat's "take back the House" rallying cry. 

"The fatal flaw of that strategy is that the negative, partisan tone sort of backfires on such a well-educated and issue-savvy district," he said. 

Democrats hope it will give direction to their supporters instead. 

"Now that we have a candidate, people will laser in and support this vigorously," Lierman said. "It's a whole new ballgame for everybody."

Copyright © 2002 University of Maryland College of Journalism