Rep.-Elect Frank Kratovil checks out DC

From WMDT.com:

Congressman-Elect Frank Kratovil has been in Washington D.C. all week. He is with other new members for orientation. Kratovil won Maryland's First District seat in the election.

He says come January, he wants to start working for the people of Maryland's First District on day one. He wants to get right to work fixing our economy, securing our middle class and protecting the environment.

Those three themes were on every piece of literature and in every phone call made by the Kratovil campaign this fall, and it appears he's staying true to that course. In Wicomico County alone, Frank Kratovil won by 5,818 votes. And remember, John McCain won the county by more than 2,413.   

From the office of Congressman-Elect Frank Kratovil:

Washington, DC (November 19, 2008) - Congressman-Elect Frank Kratovil has been in Washington all week with fellow members-elect and current members of Congress as part of a new member orientation program designed to help new members hit the ground running when they are officially sworn in at the start of the 111th Congress in early January. 

The orientation has consisted of informational seminars that range from getting around the Capitol subway system to briefings on House of Representatives rules and procedures. The program has also included an extensive briefing on House ethics regulations as well as guidelines for setting up and staffing both Washington, DC and district offices. 

"So far this experience has been invaluable. Come January I want to start working for the people of Maryland's First District on day one. This experience will allow me to handle all of the paperwork and procedural stumbling blocks ahead of time so that we can get right to work fixing our economy, securing our middle class, and protecting the environment," said Kratovil. 

Kratovil has had the opportunity to meet with members of his incoming freshman class as well as members of the House leadership. Yesterday Kratovil also attended his first Blue Dog Democrats meeting, a coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats who endorsed his candidacy. "Our nation faces a great deal of challenges, but I am confident that by working with the men and women I have met this week, as well as the current members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, that we can come together and do what our constituents sent us to Washington to do," said Kratovil. 

The second part of the week will focus on committee assignments. Kratovil has expressed interest in joining a committee that will allow him to work closely with the issues that effect First District families on a daily basis, such as Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, Natural Resources, or Transportation. More information will be made available about committee assignments when it becomes available. 

So, yes, he's officially a Blue Dog Democrat. But that's not a bad thing for the Shore, and there's not much in President-Elect Barack Obama's agenda that would put him in opposition to the new president. Here's to a successful first term, and to many terms to come.