Local Reps Win, but Dead-Heat in Md.'s 1st District

All the congressmen representing Maryland's Washington suburbs -- Reps. Donna F. Edwards (D), House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D) and Chris Van Hollen (D) -- won reelection today.

Meanwhile, Republican Andrew P. Harris and Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. were locked in a dead-heat in Maryland's most closely watched congressional contest, with 32 percent of precincts reporting. The matchup in the GOP-leaning 1st district to succeed nine-term Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest, who is retiring, has drawn national interest.

Harris was leading in the Baltimore suburbs while Kratovil was edging Harris in parts of the Eastern Shore. The district's Anne Arundel County precincts had not reported yet.

Harris, an anesthesiologist and three-term state senator from Baltimore County, won the GOP nomination after a stunning knockout of Gilchrest in a bitter February primary. That prompted Gilchrest to cross party lines and endorse Kratovil, a county prosecutor on the Eastern Shore.

-- Philip Rucker and Ann E. Marimow