SEVERNA PARK, Md. – Andy Harris won the 60 Plus Association’s Honorary Guardian of Seniors’ Rights award, given to those running for office and based on their views of seniors’ issues.

“Washington must work to protect senior citizens from an overreaching government and an overbearing tax burden,” said Andy Harris. “The 60 Plus Association works to keep government fiscally responsible so our seniors can keep the money they’ve earned and pass it onto their children. I’ll live up to the Honorary Guardian of Seniors’ Rights award and fight for seniors in Washington.”

“Andy Harris can always be counted on to protect Social Security and Medicare,” said Pat Boone, national spokesperson for the 60 Plus Association. “Andy Harris will be a tax cutter, protecting the pocket books of senior citizens. 60 Plus calls on nearly 5.5 million seniors nationally for support, so I believe I can speak on behalf of seniors when I say that they can count on Andy Harris. Clearly, seniors will have no finer friend in Congress than Andy Harris.”

The 60 Plus Association is an 18-year-old nonpartisan organization working for death tax repeal, saving Social Security, affordable prescription drugs, lowering energy costs and other issues featuring a less government, less taxes approach as well as a strict adherence to the constitution.  60 Plus calls on support from nearly 5.5 million citizen activists.

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District.  Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.

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Unemployment Rises to 7.5 Percent

SEVERNA PARK, Md. – Andy Harris released the following statement regarding September’s Maryland Jobs Report showing unemployment rising from 7.3 percent to 7.5 percent:

“The Maryland Jobs Report proves the Obama-Pelosi-Kratovil Team has failed once again and our economy continues to sputter. Of the reported Maryland jobs that were created in September, 73 percent of them were actually government jobs. Increasing the size of government is not the way to jumpstart our economy. The economy must grow from the bottom up, creating private sector jobs through tax cuts and small business incentives, not through taxpayer-funded government jobs. We need to break up the Obama-Pelosi-Kratovil Team and send someone to Washington who knows what it takes to create jobs and get our country back on the right track.”

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District.  Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.

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SEVERNA PARK, Md. – Congressman Frank Kratovil is on the stump touting his independence from Congressional Democrats while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) throws $1.1 million into his reelection bid.

After a September 4^th New York Times article calling out Democrats for performing political triage on Frank Kratovil, House Democrats started pouring money into Maryland – the birthplace of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and home of Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen.

“Congressional Democrats must be in serious trouble if they are putting millions into a race where their candidate runs away from Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Party,” said Bill Lattanzi, Campaign Manager – Andy Harris for Congress. “It is interesting how Frank Kratovil can claim independence at every campaign stop and still allow Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and the DCCC to do his dirty bidding.”

A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University has Harris up 53 percent to 42 percent, even after the DCCC has put $1,118,981.78 into Maryland’s First District  on behalf of Frank Kratovil.

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District.  Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.

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SEVERNA PARK, Md. – The National Taxpayers Union Campaign Fund (NTUCF) endorsed Andy Harris for his “potential to dramatically change the composition and leadership style of Congress, and in doing so change the direction of fiscal policy.”

“I’ve protected tax payers for twelve years in the Maryland Senate and the National Taxpayers Union knows I will do the same in Washington,” said Andy Harris. “To get our stagnant economy moving again, we need to cut taxes across the board so businesses can expand and Americans can keep more of their own money to put into the economy.”

Out of hundreds of candidates, Harris was also named one of the “Taxpayers’ Twenty.” “The Taxpayers’ Twenty are the ones to watch when it comes to making Washington, D.C. a place where the people who pay government’s bills are back in charge,” said NTUCF President Duane Parde. “By sending the Taxpayers’ Twenty to Washington, voters will be sending a strong message for limited government that will echo loudly throughout the halls of the 112th Congress.”

NTUCF is the political action arm of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the nation’s largest grassroots taxpayer organization. NTU, founded in 1969, created the NTU Campaign Fund in 1994. Read the NTU endorsement here.

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District. Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.

Baltimore’s WBAL-TV profiles Andy Harris in their Candidate Close Up Series.

Learn more about Andy Harris and his plan for our district at www.AndyHarris.com

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Severna Park, Md.– Andy Harris reports today raising over a half million dollars in the third quarter FEC fundraising period.  Harris raised $332,000 in just 35 days since the Pre-Primary filing.

“With this incredibly successful fundraising quarter, our campaign will be perfectly positioned to ensure voters are well-informed when they go to the polls on November 2^nd,” said Andy Harris. “Once again, the overwhelming majority of our funds come from individuals who understand the importance of this race to the future of our country.”

Harris raised close to $2 million total in this campaign cycle.

Harris outraised his opponent in the Pre-Primary filing, July 1^st – August 25^th.

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District. Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. From more information, please visit www.andyharris.com

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SEVERNA PARK, Md. – Congressman Frank Kratovil released yet another phony ad Saturday, pulling supposed facts from midair and making accusations with no basis.

In his latest ad, Kratovil cites Andy Harris’s signing of the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge, saying Harris “supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”  Once again, the independent site, Factcheck.org calls this ad “false,” saying the Pledge “says nothing about jobs at all.”

In reality, Frank Kratovil was the one who voted for the so-called Stimulus bill, sending $2.3 billion of manufacturing tax credits overseas, allowing China and other countries to make green windmills and solar panels for American use.   What the Stimulus failed to do was create jobs in the First District.

It seems the only time Frank Kratovil wants to talk about jobs is when he’s falsely accusing Andy Harris. Kratovil has run five television commercials and not once mentioned creating jobs for Marylanders.

“Frank Kratovil is running away from his job-killing voting record,” said Bill Lattanzi, Andy Harris for Congress Campaign Manager. “The Eastern Shore’s unemployment rate is drastically higher than Maryland’s average, yet Frank Kratovil refuses to talk about jobs. Instead he insists on running phony ads that take the focus away from his votes supporting Nancy Pelosi’s out-of-touch legislation.”

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s First Congressional District.  Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.

CNBC

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – State Sen. Andrew Harris, who has been one of the most conservative members of the Maryland General Assembly in his three terms, is touting his experience as a state legislator in his second run for Congress.

Harris tried two years ago and didn’t win a seat in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District. It’s a very different primary for Harris this time.

In 2008, Harris prevailed in a crowded five-way primary with experienced competition. He won handily, defeating nine-term incumbent Wayne Gilchrest and state Sen. E.J. Pipkin. This time, he’s running against only one opponent in the primary, Rob Fisher, the head of a cyber security company who is making his first run for public office.

“They’ll know what they get when they vote for Andy Harris, because I have a record in the state Senate, and it’s a record of not shying away from fighting big government, fighting inefficient government, fighting tax increases,” Harris said.

Harris ended up losing the general election to Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil in a race that was decided by fewer than 3,000 votes. But with anti-incumbency sentiment running high nationally, Harris is confident this year will be different, and he hopes to put his experience in the Maryland Legislature to use.

“If the Republicans take over Congress, we have a lot of work to do pretty quickly in terms of turning the ship of state back on course, and I certainly understand the legislative process,” Harris said. “There will be no learning curve for the legislative process.”

Unlike his largely self-funded primary opponent, Harris has yet to roll out a television ad for his campaign. Harris has about $944,200 in the bank for the campaign, compared to roughly $80,000 in Fisher’s campaign bank account. Kratovil has about $1.3 million cash on hand, according to filings last week.

Kratovil, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, already has put two television ads on the air.

Harris, a 53-year-old anesthesiologist who has worked at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for 25 years, also has been spending more time on the Eastern Shore over the last two years. He has practiced medicine at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury and Easton Memorial Hospital. The sprawling congressional district includes the entire Eastern Shore as well as portions of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties.

Harris, who supports repealing most of the health care law approved earlier this year, said working at the hospitals has confirmed his concern that the federal government is making it difficult for a physician to practice medical care unimpeded.

“The doctor-patient relationship is becoming impeded by government regulation and government oversight, and the place where it first becomes obvious is in the areas outside the metropolitan areas, which already have physician shortages that are now made much worse,” Harris said.

Kratovil voted against the health care bill.

Harris also is highly critical of the $814 billion economic stimulus measure. Instead, Harris said the nation needs across-the-board tax cuts to enable small businesses and consumers to have more money to spend.

“Getting our tax policy in order and our spending in order specifically addresses the concerns of many of the small-business men and women I meet,” Harris said.

Harris also contends that state and federal environmental regulations are hurting business on the Eastern Shore, and he said he’s worried the shore’s poultry industry could be looking to move away.

“The increasing regulations don’t recognize that there’s actually an industry you’re affecting and that you have to be careful when you take those kind of regulatory moves that you don’t in fact completely destroy the industry,” Harris said.

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 17, 2010; 9:31 PM

WASHINGTON — Republican candidates around the country seized on President Barack Obama’s support for the right of Muslims to build a mosque near ground zero, assailing him as an elitist who is insensitive to the families of the Sept. 11 victims.

From statehouses to state fairs on Tuesday, Republican incumbents and challengers unleashed an almost unified line of criticism against the president days after he forcefully defended the construction of a $100 million Islamic center two blocks from the site of the 2001 terror attacks.

Recalling the emotion of that deadly day, Republicans said that while they respect religious freedom, the president’s position was cold and academic, lacking compassion and empathy for the victims’ families.

“He is thinking like a lawyer and not like an American, making declarations without America’s best interest in mind,” said Andrew Harris, a Republican running for Congress in Maryland against first-term Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil.

That line – emerging as a boilerplate attack – forced the endangered Democrat to respond.

“I mean, it seems to me those are issues related to local zoning laws and so forth, and that’s a decision that they’re going to have to make, but I don’t see the federal government having any role in that,” Kratovil said.

In Ohio, where the president was headed Wednesday as part of a three-state political swing, Republican congressional candidate Jim Renacci took issue with Obama’s position and challenged his opponent, first-term Democrat John Boccieri, to do likewise.

“Just because we may have the right to do something, doesn’t necessarily make it right to do it,” Renacci said.

The Boccieri campaign said the candidate was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

In New York, one of the developers of the planned Islamic Center said in a television interview Tuesday he was dismayed that the project had become a national political issue.

“I’m surprised at the way politics is being played in 2010,” Sharif El-Gamal told NY-1. “There are issues that are affecting our country which are real issues – unemployment, poverty, the economy. It’s a really sad day for America.”

Republicans who weren’t on the ballot this year – but possibly looking ahead to challenging Obama in 2012 – sought to make it a political issue.

“Well I think it’s another example of him playing the role of law professor. … We can have a great debate about the legal arguments. But it’s not about that,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in an interview Monday on Fox News.

Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Democrats face an unforgiving political landscape 11 weeks before midterm elections, with high unemployment, ethics charges against two senior House Democrats and Obama’s low approval ratings taking a toll. The president injected another issue to the mix when he said last Friday that Muslims “have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country” and that included building the Islamic center in lower Manhattan.

A day later, Obama told reporters that wasn’t an endorsement of the specifics of the mosque plan.

Republicans called it the “9/11 Mosque” and the “Ground Zero Mosque,” falsely describing it as if a place of worship were being built in the crater left behind when the Twin Towers crumbled. Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott started running a TV ad in Florida that said: “Mr. President, ground zero is the wrong place for a mosque.”

With a steady drumbeat, Republicans tried to force Democrats into difficult positions of either standing with the president or bucking him.

GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina told reporters in Sacramento that the issue was not about religious freedom. Rather, she says it is about being sensitive to those who suffered in the Sept. 11 attacks. Her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, said it was an issue for New Yorkers.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher also said religious rights must be protected, but the decision on the project was best left to New Yorkers – a common position shared by many fellow Democrats seeking Senate seats.

His Republican rival, Rob Portman, said it was about taste.

“It’s not a question of whether or not they have a right to build it,” Portman said. “It’s a question of whether or not they should.”

Democrats in Washington advised candidates to do what was best for their campaigns, reminding them of state demographics and poll results. Democrats sought to keep the conversation focused on job creation – their main message as economically struggling voters look to unleash their fury on the party in power.

In the end, senior Democrats told candidates, it wasn’t as though the president of the United States or the White House needed their defense.

“This wasn’t something that the president viewed through a political lens,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to an appearance in Seattle. “This is something that he saw as his obligation to address.”

But it has been Democratic candidates who have had to address the issue of the mosque.

In Illinois, Rep. Mark Kirk, the Republican running for Obama’s former Senate seat, said he respects religious freedom but suggested the Islamic center be built at a “less controversial site.”

His challenger, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, defended the decision to build the facility.

“This is about every single religion and remembering what this country was founded on,” Giannoulias said as he visited the state fair in Springfield. “You can’t just say things when they’re nice and flowery. You have to say them when it’s the right thing to do.”

His remarks came one day after the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, came out against plans to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

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Andy Harris released a statement today regarding President Obama’s Support of the Ground Zero Mosque:

“The proposal to build an Islamic mosque and community center near Ground Zero is blatantly disrespectful to the sacred ground that is a memorial to the 3,000 Americans who died on September 11^th. The president is once again trying to have it both ways; publicly supporting the project while saying he won’t get involved in local politics. He is thinking like a lawyer and not like an American, making declarations without America’s best interest in mind.  I lost a very close friend in the terrorist attack on the Towers and consider Ground Zero a place to remember my friend and how she lost her life trying to save others on that day. The area around Ground Zero is a special place where Americans should feel comfortable to visit, mourn, and remember what happened on 9/11. That will be impossible if this project is allowed to continue. One of America’s founding principles is freedom of religion, but that does not mean you should practice your religion without a sense of respect for others.”

Andy Harris is a Republican candidate running for Maryland’s 1^st Congressional District.  Harris, a practicing physician, and his wife Cookie have five children. For more information, please visit www.andyharris.com.