October 9, 2008 - 2:01pm

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Club for Growth: Kratovil's no moderate

By Danny Reiter, PolitickerMD.com Reporter

The Club for Growth is blasting Democrat Frank Kratovil, calling him "extremely liberal" and the wrong choice for Maryland's 1st Congressional District.

The conservative economic group went on the air with two new television spots this week, attacking Kratovil's support of government sponsored health care and for taking "big bucks" from organized labor.

Kratovil, the Queen Anne's County state's attorney, is currently running against state Sen. Andy Harris (R-Cockeysville) for the 1st district seat. Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-Stevensville) -- who held the seat for nearly two decades -- was ousted by Harris in the February primary.

The group is nothing new to the 1st district race. Kratovil has continually criticized Harris for accepting large swaths of money from the Club for Growth, which Kratovil says is an extremist economic organization.

But the Club for Growth's president, former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), says Kratovil's the one who's extreme.

"Frank Kratovil is trying to hoodwink voters into thinking he is a moderate, but it is clear from his positions that he is a liberal who will march in lockstep with [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi if elected to Congress," Toomey said in a statement.

For voters who want lower taxes and greater economic freedom, Kratovil's the last candidate to support, according to Toomey.

"Instead, they should vote for State Senator Andy Harris who has a proven record of fighting for taxpayers," said Toomey.

But Kratovil campaign spokesman Kevin Lawlor shot back.

"Our financial crisis is a result of corporate greed, fiscal irresponsibility, and a complete failure to provide adequate federal oversight of our financial markets. Andy Harris's campaign is being funded by the folks who pushed for the policies that got us into this mess," said Lawlor, who then claimed Harris wasn't being strait with his record.

"He's either on the side of Maryland families or he's on the side of the extreme special interest group funding his campaign," Lawlor added.

The $200,000 ad buy will run on broadcast television in the Baltimore and Salisbury media markets, according to the group.

DANNY REITER is a PolitickerMD.com Reporter and can be reached via email at Daniel.reiter@politicker.com.

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Comments

Club For Growth: DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE

posted by Former Wall Street Guru

DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE. Enough said about The Club For Growth MANTRA. Thanks you BASTARDS for my retirement almost disappearing. Check The Club For Growth website. Besides being greedy SOB's they think Social Security is Senior Citizen Welfare. They want to do away with Social Security and have every invest in the Market themselves. I am 63 and thought I was going to retire. No way now because of greedy bastards like the nimrods that belong to The Club For Growth. I am going to have to work forever. I hope I can keep my home and I am very distressed.

10/10/08 4:23 pm

@anonymous 47

posted by anon54

don't know who you are, opining on the shore and such, but you are clearly unhinged.

it was schaefer that disregarded the shore. o'malley likes the shore but the shore doesn't like him, due to the right-wing keel of some opinion leaders and by virtue of the fact that he unseated the popular figure on the shore, ehrlich, who in turn followed the very unpopular figure glendening.

i think you are trying to refer to the endorsement of kratovil by o'malley. kratovil was also endorsed by franchot, gansler, mikulski, cardin and any other statewide democratic leader you can name. it's interesting that you try and label kratovil the way that you do, but if anyone can receive the endorsement of both o'malley and franchot, than he can work with anybody. not to mention the political appointment by ehrlich and winning two elections in a predominately republican county. your arguments just don't hold water and show that you understand the shore not a whit

10/10/08 9:54 am

Really Shoreman? You must

posted by Anon47

Really Shoreman? You must not have grown up Giuffrida's or anything from the Shore. You wouldn't make that sort of comment if you had. Martin O'Malley treats the Shore like crap. I'd take Bush over O'Malley and I don't even like Bush! It is too bad Frank Kratovil is best buddies with Martin O'Malley.

10/09/08 10:40 pm

@Anonymous47

posted by Shoreman

I'd rather have O'Malley's man on the Shore than Bush's man in Baltimore.

10/09/08 9:02 pm

Kratovil is a cold hard

posted by Anonymous47

Kratovil is a cold hard liberal. He ran O'Malley's Shore operation. He ran the College Dems at McDaniel. He worked for KKT against Ehrlich.

Oh and economic idiocy...he supported the golden parachute bailout!

10/09/08 7:47 pm

The national and state party

posted by Johnson Lineir

The national and state party bigwigs turned Andy down cold, with the State party keeping their minuscule resources for the guv race in two years, and the national party telling Andy to take a hike... something about knocking off an incumbent who would likely have won this race hands down, and needed to use their limited resources prtoecting vulnerable incumbents.

So CFG threw $160k to Andy, and used the only tired old argument that they know... liberal, liberal liberal. That dog might've hunted back in February, but we are at a whole new place now, and the voters don't want the same old dog tricks.

Stick a fork in Andy...he's clearly done.

10/09/08 7:45 pm

Wow. Harris must be in

posted by CFG investors' meeting

Wow. Harris must be in really bad shape for the Club for Growth to have to come back to town to protect their investment. When was the last time they got into a general election like this?

Does this mean Kratovil might actually win? Wow.

10/09/08 7:00 pm