Rep. Ben Cardin (D) Elected 1986, 10th term
Born:	Oct. 5, 1943, Baltimore
Home:	Baltimore
Education:	U. of Pittsburgh, B.A. 1964, U. of MD, LL.B., J.D. 1967
Religion:	Jewish
Marital Status:	married (Myrna)
Elected  Office:	MD House of Delegates, 1966-86, Speaker, 1979-86.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1967-86.
DC Office	2207 RHOB20515, 202-225-4016; Fax: 202-225-9219; Web site: www.cardin.house.gov
State Offices	Annapolis, 410-974-9703; Baltimore, 410-433-8886.
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Baltimore, one of America's major cities since the Revolution, was transformed into one of America's star cities in recent years. Its Inner Harbor and new ballpark at Camden Yards became national models. Its cuisine--steamed crabs with Chesapeake spices and crab cakes--became known beyond the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. The city "prefers diners and taverns tucked into venerable row houses to newer, trendier spots," wrote The New York Times. The central city of Baltimore has had terrible problems--high crime, abandoned neighborhoods, poor schools--but the greater Baltimore that has grown far beyond the city and county lines retains a distinctive character. This is a city built solidly on commerce, and one that has always known how to reap its pleasures. To the south, Annapolis was laid out as a capital in 1694, with one circle planned for the Statehouse and one for the Church; the marble-halled Statehouse, built in 1772, where the Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, is the oldest state capitol in continuous use. Annapolis is also the home of the United States Naval Academy and its waterfront, though gentrified, is a waterman's as well as a yachter's port.

The 3d Congressional District of Maryland consists of three oddly disjointed portions that extend from the locus of the Inner Harbor area. Its boundaries were designed by Democrats with politics in mind: The 3d envelops on three sides the majority-black 7th District and is itself enveloped on three sides by the 2d District, which redistricters made more Democratic than the 3d. One spoke extends northeast from black city neighborhoods into mostly white suburbs. Another extends north and west from the city to the Baltimore County seat of Towson and the heavily Jewish suburbs of Pikesville and Owings Mills, past the array of temples and synagogues on Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore city. The largest bloc of voters is in the crooked spoke that extends southwest, past the old rowhouse neighborhoods overlooking Fort McHenry and out past Governor Bob Ehrlich's birthplace in blue-collar Arbutus into Linthicum in Anne Arundel County, and continuing to Annapolis. Just over one-third of the district population resides in Anne Arundel County (including all of Annapolis); a quarter resides within Baltimore city itself, in neighborhoods like Roland Park, and among the restaurants and bars of Little Italy and Fells Point. A small portion of Howard County is also in the 3d, consisting of parts of Elkridge and Columbia in Howard County. Redistricting left the 3d District less Democratic than it had been; the Bush 2000 percentage vote increased from 34% to 41%.

The congressman from the 3d District is Ben Cardin, former Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates and one of the many bright politicos produced by the Jewish neighborhoods of northwest Baltimore. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1966, at 23, the first time he was eligible to run; after serving four years as Ways and Means chairman, he became speaker in 1979, at 35; he was easily elected to Congress in 1986 when Barbara Mikulski ran for the Senate. In the House, Cardin got a seat on Ways and Means in his second term and has been a productive and creative legislator. He supported NAFTA despite union opposition, backed a cap on medical malpractice damages despite trial lawyers' opposition, and voted for normal trade relations with China after securing for local consumption a rider designed to crack down on international dumping of subsidized steel in U.S. markets.

More than any Democrat at Ways and Means--and perhaps more than any Democrat in the House--he has worked skillfully on bipartisan legislation at a time when few were sufficiently clever or independent to pursue such initiatives. Few House members of either party "can match his stature as legislative architect and master of bipartisan lawmaking," the Baltimore Sun editorialized. Such has been his record, occasionally to the dismay of more partisan Democrats. He was co-sponsor with Ohio Republican Rob Portman of the 1998 IRS reform law, which shifted the burden of proof away from the taxpayer and toward the government, established greater oversight of the agency and encouraged electronic filing and updated technology. Again with Portman, he produced in 2000 bipartisan legislation to expand 401(k) savings and other retirement plans. In 2001, when Congress enacted the Bush tax cut, it included his and Portman's measure to increase the limits for maximum IRA and 401(k) contributions. In 2003, he and Portman teamed yet again on a plan to sponsor pension savings and rollovers for low and moderate-income workers. But they failed to enact the bill in the 108th Congress, when it became the ancillary victim of a walkout by committee Democrats and the directive by Chairman Bill Thomas for Capitol Police to evict them from an adjoining room. On Social Security, too, he has shown willingness to seek bipartisan reform with retirement accounts, but he was not receptive to George W. Bush's Social Security proposal; in March 2004 he told an audience of senior citizens to prepare for a benefit cut.

Cardin has been a workhorse on health care and welfare, but with less bipartisan success. He criticized the prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries that the House enacted in 2003 for failing to provide seniors what they needed, and he proposed an alternative to authorize HHS to negotiate lower drug prices. He wants more coverage for preventive care.

Cardin protested the new redistricting lines that removed more than one-third of his former district and added unfamiliar territory in Anne Arundel County, which now casts nearly 40% of the district's votes. Some thought he was facing retaliation from the chief map drawer, Governor Parris Glendening, for having considered running against him in 1998. In any case, Cardin has done just fine with the new lines. In 2004 he faced Republican Bob Duckworth, the circuit court clerk in Anne Arundel, who supported the war in Iraq and the constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage. "I'm someone who's more in touch with the new voters in the new Third," he claimed. Cardin won Arundel by only 50%-48%, but his 2-1 or greater margins elsewhere gave him a 63%-34% victory. In April 2005, Cardin said he would run in 2006 for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes, who announced he would not seek a sixth term. Without Cardin running as the incumbent here, this district could be competitive in 2006.

Committees

• Ways & Means (4th of 17 D): Human Resources; Trade (RMM).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	95	79	100	100	60	13	43	0	0	23	--
2003	90	--	100	100	--	25	37	24	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	87%	--	9%		81%	--	18%
Social	73%	--	26%		73%	--	27%
Foreign	66%	--	32%		62%	--	38%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Ben Cardin (D)	182,066	63%	$1,011,951
	Bob Duckworth (R)	97,008	34%	$140,972
	Other	8,145	3%
2004 primary	Ben Cardin (D)	54,398	90%
	John Rea (D)	6,163	10%
2002 general	Ben Cardin (D)	145,589	66%	$1,050,896
	Scott Conwell (R)	75,721	34%	$27,859
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (76%); 1998 (78%); 1996 (67%); 1994 (71%); 1992 (74%); 1990 (70%); 1988 (73%); 1986 (79%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 163,088 (54%) Bush (R) 136,672 (45%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 143,685 (55%) Bush (R) 107,481 (41%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Third District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 7
• District Size: 293 square miles
• Population in 2000: 662,062; 98.6% urban; 1.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $52,906; 7.7% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 15.7% blue collar; 71.7% white collar; 12.5% gray collar; 13.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 75.7% White, 16.2% Black, 3.2% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.5% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 2.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.3% German, 11.1% Irish, 7.7% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.