Published: March 22, 2008 12:27 am      

Bartlett campaign steady; economy hot-button issue

Eight-term incumbent will face former Frederick mayor in election

CUMBERLAND — By looking at U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s daily schedule, one might not be able to tell the eight-term incumbent is in the home stretch of yet another campaign for re-election.

Bartlett, a Republican, said he’s treating the race for the 6th Congressional District with Democratic challenger Jennifer Dougherty of Frederick similar to any other year. Bartlett addressed his campaign tactics, along with the price of oil and food and other issues Wednesday during a visit to the Times-News. He was accompanied by Bud Otis, his chief of staff, and Lisa Lyons Wright, his press secretary and legislative assistant.

“We will do maybe three or four things that are uniquely campaign (related),” Bartlett said, such as debates and candidate forums. “The other things will be the things we did last year. We accept every invitation that we can to be as many places as we can.”

But in traveling across his district, which stretches from Garrett County east to Frederick and Carroll counties and portions of Montgomery, Harford and Baltimore counties, he hasn’t had much time to focus on his campaign. He’s been too busy discussing issues that matter most to his constituents.

“The No. 1 thing right now is going to be the economy,” Bartlett said. “That’s only true for the last five to six months. Before that, it would either have been illegal immigration or the war, depending on their individual circumstances.”

He called Maryland’s brief foray into the illegal immigration debate “most interesting.”

“It was just kind of an irrational concern that people had,” said Bartlett, 81, pitted against Dougherty, 46, a former Frederick mayor. “But I think the people’s concern about it exceeded the personal effect it had on them. That’s all abated now.”

And concerns about the economy have root, spearheaded by ever-rising fuel costs. Bartlett said he believes people are generally misinformed — and are wrong to expect a magic cure to a real problem.

“There’s no silver bullet,” Bartlett said, suggesting the need for a combination of nuclear, wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power sources. “Exploiting all of these things probably will produce as much electricity” the world uses now.

Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota is chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. Peterson has said the combined effort likely will produce one-third of the liquid fuels the world currently uses.

But that gap “doesn’t have to be a catastrophe,” Bartlett said. “We can easily get three times the mileage (of vehicles) than we get today.”

Only two things will result in an oil price decrease — a recession or a “conscious decision to use less (oil) on a global basis.”

“I suspect the latter will not happen,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett recently voted against House Resolution 6, which would have expanded the biofuels ethanol mandate. Bartlett said the “flipside” to the benefit of biofuel is “that the trifling amount of oil that we have displaced has resulted in the doubling of corn prices (and) nearly the doubling of wheat and soybean prices.”

He said one United Nations official has called America’s biofuel venture “a crime against humanity” by increasing the cost of staples of rice, corn, soybeans and wheat. To profit from the rise in corn prices, farmers converted land available for the other crops to corn, resulting in higher prices for each of the four crops.

“It’s silly to pretend you’re displacing fossil fuels when all you’re doing is burning fossil fuels in a different form,” Bartlett said.

CUMBERLAND — By looking at U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s daily schedule, one might not be able to tell the eight-term incumbent is in the home stretch of yet another campaign for re-election.

Bartlett, a Republican, said he’s treating the race for the 6th Congressional District with Democratic challenger Jennifer Dougherty of Frederick similar to any other year. Bartlett addressed his campaign tactics, along with the price of oil and food and other issues Wednesday during a visit to the Times-News. He was accompanied by Bud Otis, his chief of staff, and Lisa Lyons Wright, his press secretary and legislative assistant.

“We will do maybe three or four things that are uniquely campaign (related),” Bartlett said, such as debates and candidate forums. “The other things will be the things we did last year. We accept every invitation that we can to be as many places as we can.”

But in traveling across his district, which stretches from Garrett County east to Frederick and Carroll counties and portions of Montgomery, Harford and Baltimore counties, he hasn’t had much time to focus on his campaign. He’s been too busy discussing issues that matter most to his constituents.

“The No. 1 thing right now is going to be the economy,” Bartlett said. “That’s only true for the last five to six months. Before that, it would either have been illegal immigration or the war, depending on their individual circumstances.”

He called Maryland’s brief foray into the illegal immigration debate “most interesting.”

“It was just kind of an irrational concern that people had,” said Bartlett, 81, pitted against Dougherty, 46, a former Frederick mayor. “But I think the people’s concern about it exceeded the personal effect it had on them. That’s all abated now.”

And concerns about the economy have root, spearheaded by ever-rising fuel costs. Bartlett said he believes people are generally misinformed — and are wrong to expect a magic cure to a real problem.

“There’s no silver bullet,” Bartlett said, suggesting the need for a combination of nuclear, wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power sources. “Exploiting all of these things probably will produce as much electricity” the world uses now.

Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota is chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. Peterson has said the combined effort likely will produce one-third of the liquid fuels the world currently uses.

But that gap “doesn’t have to be a catastrophe,” Bartlett said. “We can easily get three times the mileage (of vehicles) than we get today.”

Only two things will result in an oil price decrease — a recession or a “conscious decision to use less (oil) on a global basis.”

“I suspect the latter will not happen,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett recently voted against House Resolution 6, which would have expanded the biofuels ethanol mandate. Bartlett said the “flipside” to the benefit of biofuel is “that the trifling amount of oil that we have displaced has resulted in the doubling of corn prices (and) nearly the doubling of wheat and soybean prices.”

He said one United Nations official has called America’s biofuel venture “a crime against humanity” by increasing the cost of staples of rice, corn, soybeans and wheat. To profit from the rise in corn prices, farmers converted land available for the other crops to corn, resulting in higher prices for each of the four crops.

“It’s silly to pretend you’re displacing fossil fuels when all you’re doing is burning fossil fuels in a different form,” Bartlett said.

Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.