By Christopher Anderson
Capital News Service
Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002

WASHINGTON - The 4th District GOP primary was too close to call Wednesday, with perennial challenger John Kimble leading Floyd Anderson by just 62 votes out of more than 9,300 cast, according to unofficial state returns.

Kimble's 0.7 percent lead could be reversed once write-in votes, which the Maryland State Board of Elections began counting Wednesday, are tallied.

But most political observers believe the GOP nominee, whoever he may be, has little chance against Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Largo, in the heavily Democratic district, which includes parts of Prince George's and Montgomery
counties.

"What are you going to do, convert all of those Democrats in three months?" asked James Gimpel, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.

The Republicans can only "hope that the Democratic candidate screws up," he said.

But state GOP officials pledged Wednesday to stand behind their candidate in November.

"We're going to support our nominee," said Paul Ellington, the Maryland party's executive director. "Our goal is to give Al Wynn a run for his money.

"We're waiting to see, just like everyone else, who will win," Ellington said.

Kimble did not return repeated calls Wednesday to comment on the primary results.

Anderson said he has no plans to contest the primary results, "unless I hear there was some problem with the election." But he said he will not endorse Kimble until they have had a chance to discuss some issues on which they disagree, including transportation, education and Social Security.

Anderson, who has been active in the PTA at the local and regional levels, has never run for federal office before. This would be Kimble's fourth run against Wynn. He has been nominated, and lost, every election for the 4th District since 1996.

Kimble is known for his unusual campaign style, hiring Wynn's former wife, Jessie, to work on his campaign in 2000 and offering to pose nude for Playgirl
magazine another year.

Republicans are hoping that recent redistricting of the 4th District, which added more than 20,000 new Republican voters, will make a difference in the outcome of the general election this year.

But Wynn was not worried Wednesday.

"We have some specific objectives in terms of our campaign, and we're
going to pursue those and not focus so much on who the opponent is," he said.

Most political analysts agree that neither candidate poses a serious challenge to Wynn, who won 86 percent of the vote in the 2000 election.

"It's an overwhelmingly Democratic district," said Eric Uslaner, another University of Maryland government and politics professor.

"Once you get a district that is so overwhelmingly Democratic ... it really is almost impossible or extraordinarily difficult for the minority party to come up with a good candidate."

Uslaner also said it's not surprising that a candidate like Kimble, with his unorthodox style, is a recurring character in the district.

"When you end up with a minority party candidate in an overwhelmingly non-
competitive race, you wind up with a more extreme candidate," he said.

"He's not going to get any Democratic votes. He may not even get all the
Republican votes. There is no pressure on him at all to moderate his positions."
 

Copyright © 2002 University of Maryland College of Journalism