Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) Elected 2002, 2d term
Born:	Jan. 10, 1959, Karachi, Pakistan
Home:	Kensington
Education:	Swarthmore Col., B.A. 1982, Harvard U., M.P.P. 1985, Georgetown U., J.D. 1990
Religion:	Protestant
Marital Status:	married (Katherine)
Elected  Office:	MD House of Delegates, 1990-94; MD Senate, 1994-2002.
DC Office	1419 LHOB20515, 202-225-5341; Fax: 202-225-0375; Web site: www.house.gov/vanhollen
State Offices	Mount Rainier, 301-927-5223; Rockville, 301-424-3501.
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Update: November 30, 2005
On July 11, 2005, Rep. Chris Van Hollen announced he would not run for Maryland's open Senate seat in 2006.

Along an old road, down which colonial farmers rolled barrels of tobacco to the port of Georgetown 200 years ago, has grown one of America's most affluent and best-educated communities. The old road, now called Wisconsin Avenue and Rockville Pike, is the commercial spine of Montgomery County, Maryland. And this suburban jurisdiction just northwest of Washington, D.C., has for several decades ranked at or near the top counties in income and education. Today's Montgomery County is in large part a creation of the federal government, which has placed huge facilities there--Bethesda Naval Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology--and it has become the center of America's biotech industry, the home of firms like Celera and Human Genome Sciences which, in parallel with the Human Genome Project, are pioneering the study of the human gene. Some of the federal labs have gained high-security classification because of their research on bio-hazards and infectious diseases in the war on terrorism. Montgomery County has also become racially diverse: in 2000, it was 15% black, 12% Hispanic and 11% Asian.

Wisconsin Avenue and Rockville Pike have become strip highways, with 1950s commercial development and 1960s shopping centers like so many in the country. But the stores are upscale, some very upscale, and the new skyscrapers of downtown Bethesda are genuinely impressive. Author David Brooks mocked Bethesdans as "urban exiles" who frequent "anti-chain chain stores … that cater to people who consider themselves too refined and individualistic to shop at the mall or the mass-market big-box stores." Not all of Montgomery County is exclusively high-income: There are some modest neighborhoods in Silver Spring and Wheaton, and one of the nation's largest Asian populations--some, hard-working store owners; others, educated professionals with high incomes. Historically, the typical Montgomery County voter was a high-ranking civil servant. "A candidate knocking on doors in the 8th District can reasonably expect to be questioned about a government regulation by the person who wrote it," explained The Washington Post. As growing private-sector employment outpaces government work, the picture has changed. The growth here is in the private sector, and in the fastest-growing parts of the county, out the I-270 corridor past Rockville in Gaithersburg and Germantown.

The 8th Congressional District of Maryland includes most of the heavily populated parts of Montgomery County, which accounts for more than 90% of the population. Democratic redistricters in 2002 removed to the 4th District much of the eastern part of the county, and added a slice of heavily Democratic territory in Prince George's County. Perhaps its most unique precinct is Leisure World in Silver Spring, whose 6,000-plus senior citizens have one of Maryland's largest, most partisan and highest voter turnouts; Democratic candidates practically camp out there during primaries. Democrats drew these lines with the avowed purpose of defeating Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella, who was first elected in 1986.

The congressman from the 8th District is Chris Van Hollen, first elected in 2002 in one of the nation's most competitive congressional races. The son of a Foreign Service officer, Van Hollen was born in Pakistan, graduated from Swarthmore, got a master's from Harvard and a law degree from Georgetown University. He worked on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the late 1980s, and he co-authored a report on Iraq's use of chemical weapons. In 1990 he was elected to the House of Delegates and in 1994 to the state Senate, where he helped win the largest education funding increase for Montgomery County in its history. Wonky and telegenic, Van Hollen's legislative accomplishments earned him the moniker, "Mr. Fix-It" from the Washington Post.

The 2002 race attracted strong Democratic candidates: Van Hollen; Delegate Mark Shriver, a state representative and Kennedy cousin, who gained extensive labor support; and Ira Shapiro, a former Clinton administration trade official who stressed his familiarity with federal policy issues as a senior Senate aide. Bolstered by a crucial endorsement from the Post, Van Hollen defeated Shriver, 43%-41%, with 13% for Shapiro. Van Hollen had only eight weeks to take on Morella, who was widely viewed as hard working, cooperative with colleagues, congenial with constituents, and with a liberal voting record that was largely out of step with the Republican-controlled House. Morella once again proved her independence from her party by voting against military force in Iraq and by becoming the lead House sponsor of the amendment, opposed by the Bush administration, insisting on strict civil service protections for Department of Homeland Security employees. Van Hollen refrained from directly attacking Morella, but argued that her vote to organize the House with Republicans kept in power a conservative leadership out of line with the views of most district voters: She was an enabler of the Republican majority. Morella criticized Van Hollen's record in Annapolis, including his decision to quit a Senate subcommittee over proposed budget cuts. The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun endorsed Morella, but it wasn't enough. In a race in which the two candidates together spent nearly $6 million, Van Hollen won 52%-47%. Nearly half of his popular vote margin came in the small sliver of the district in Prince George's (which is 55% black), which he carried 78%-21%. If the contest had been held in the old district, Morella clearly would have won, and probably by a wider margin than in 2000.

In the House, Van Hollen has been an activist liberal on most issues, though a bit less so on foreign policy. Although he had few opportunities for influence as a junior member of the minority party, Van Hollen scored an unexpected victory when he got the House--including 26 Republicans, some of them conservatives--to approve his amendment to limit a Republican plan to outsource more federal jobs. Despite that vote, the Bush Administration eventually got its way. With what The New Republic termed his "eager industriousness," Van Hollen has attacked the parliamentary restraints that Republicans impose on the minority party; his efforts have won him some favorable press notices, but minimal response from the majority.

In 2004 Van Hollen was reelected 75%-25% in what now is clearly a safe Democratic district. He is among the many Democrats in the Maryland delegation interested in running for a Senate seat when one comes open; that opportunity presented itself when Senator Paul Sarbanes announced in March 2005 that he would not run for a sixth term. Congressman Ben Cardin announced he was running in April but Van Hollen hedged his bets and by mid-2005 was still exploring a run.

Committees

• Education & the Workforce (19th of 22 D): 21st Century Competitiveness; Select Education.
• Government Reform (13th of 17 D): Federal Workforce & Agency Organization; National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations; Regulatory Affairs.
• Judiciary (17th of 17 D): Commercial & Administrative Law; The Constitution.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	100	85	100	100	60	11	38	4	3	8	--
2003	95	--	100	100	--	22	33	12	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	87%	--	9%		82%	--	17%
Social	90%	--	8%		84%	--	15%
Foreign	66%	--	32%		81%	--	18%
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 N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Chris Van Hollen (D)	215,129	75%	$1,235,488
	Chuck Floyd (R)	71,989	25%	$352,644
	Other	562	0%
2004 primary	Chris Van Hollen (D)	67,805	91%
	Deborah Vollmer (D)	4,847	7%
	Other	1,701	2%
2002 general	Chris Van Hollen (D)	112,788	52%	$2,985,329
	Constance Morella (R)	103,587	47%	$2,996,119

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 205,660 (69%) Bush (R) 90,108 (30%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 177,475 (66%) Bush (R) 84,088 (31%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Eighth 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 +20
• District Size: 307 square miles
• Population in 2000: 662,060; 98.8% urban; 1.2% rural
• Median Household Income: $68,306; 6.2% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 10.6% blue collar; 77.1% white collar; 12.3% gray collar; 9.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 56.1% White, 16.4% Black, 10.9% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 2.4% Two+ races, 0.3% Other, 13.7% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 8.2% German, 7.9% Irish, 6.6% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.