Post-Labor Day

It is easy to forget that today is the traditional start of the campaign season.

Which is why we're likely to see the Wayne Gilchrest endorsement of Frank Kratovil in a few hours -- as an attempt to remind voters that he's an old-fashioned, easy-going, Eastern Shore type of pol. Not the worst timing.

Gilchrest's embrace of Kratovil has been an inevitable event since his refusal to concede the primary. Rumors sprung up in late March that an endorsement would come around that time, which seemed like a waste of a good canned moment.

It's unclear how the Gilchrest endorsement will play. It may hurt, as some have seen him to be even more defiant of the Republican platform in the last seven months. Or it may help, in a bipartisan maverick moment.

How efficiently Gilchrest will be used is now the question.