LA VALE, Md., Oct. 15 –– More than 220 gun enthusiasts gathered in the heart of House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr.'s home district today to protest his support of Maryland's newest gun control law.
 
 The measure, requiring locks on all handguns sold in Maryland, took effect two weeks ago and is generating some of the stiffest opposition the powerful politician has endured in his three-decade-long political career.
 
 Dozens of hunters and other gun-rights advocates trudged into a volunteer fire hall not far from Cumberland for the rally--which residents called unprecedented--to collect National Rifle Association bumper stickers and listen to activists speak. The two-hour rally was orchestrated by the NRA's chief Maryland lobbyist, and the turnout was
 large for this rural area and an attention grabber for politicians.
 
 But Taylor, a Democrat who has represented Western Maryland in Annapolis for 27 years, has been attracting a lot of attention himself in recent months.
 
 Besides his support for the new gun law, Taylor has injected himself into a fight on consolidating schools and is pushing for a new horse racetrack in Allegany County, issues that have split many communities here.
 
 The new fights, generating opposition on so many fronts, come at a telling time for the speaker, one of the most influential politicians in the state. Even as he faces the discontent at home, Maryland's political insiders are prognosticating about Taylor's future.
 
 He has led the House of Delegates for seven years; most speakers last about eight before the burnout and aggravation of commanding the 141-member House take their toll. Taylor, 65, has acknowledged weighing a bid for lieutenant governor, comptroller or state treasurer even as he contemplates running for reelection to the House in
 2002.
 
 "I care so deeply about public service that I want to find the best contribution I can make to the future of the state and to the future of my homeland in Western Maryland," Taylor said in an interview. "If the realities of the time convince me it's as speaker, fine. If the realities of the time convince me it's as something else, that's fine, too."
 
 The gun owners at today's rally see Taylor as close to invincible at the ballot box, but they also said that could change.
 
 "Right now, I think Cas is a little worried," said Jerry Zembower, who heads the 4,000-member Allegany County-Garrett County Sportsmen's Association. "He's got gun people upset. He's got school people upset, and now he's trying to ram a racetrack down people's throats.
 
 "Every election year rolls around and people say we're sick of Cas Taylor, and Cas Taylor keeps getting elected. But my point is he's got people here that he's got to listen to."
 
 Taylor has been a fierce advocate for Western Maryland in the legislature. Even his opponents acknowledge that he has been able to direct tens of millions of state dollars to help a region that so far has not matched the rest of the state's booming growth--aid that likely would not have come if the speaker were from elsewhere. Unemployment here is among the highest in Maryland, large employers have shuttered or moved, and there has been a brain drain as students leave for college and don't return.
 
 The speaker has pushed for new prisons in Western Maryland to increase jobs, increased tourism opportunities and fought for better highway networks and air service to this mountainous region to try to attract employers.
 
 "His base of support remains strong," said Irene Strieby, a retired schoolteacher and Democratic activist. "His future is what he wants to make it. No matter what he decides it will be, we'd support him."
 
 Taylor currently is pushing for construction of a new horse racetrack as another economic development boost. He favors a plan under consideration by William Rickman, who operates Dover Downs in Delaware, for a track in eastern Allegany County. Pimlico owner Joseph A. DeFrancis is hoping to win approval for a track near Frostburg.
 The state Horse Racing Commission is weighing the proposals.
 
 "If Cas's assumption is this is going to put economic lifeblood into the county, I think he's wrong," said Nelson Guild, the retired president of Frostburg State University, who opposes a track in either location. "My major concern is gambling. I think it's particularly wrong in an area where economic health leaves something to be desired."
 
 For most of this year, residents have been grappling with what to do with the public schools in the county, where population is dwindling, leaving few children to attend classes. Taylor wanted the school board to delay consolidating some schools for a year while the issue was studied, and he arranged for a special state appropriation of $1
 million to help with school costs.
 
 But Allegany officials rejected the money, and residents decried the speaker's involvement in the issue.
 
 "Cas has inserted himself into every issue at every level of government in Allegany County. He controls everything that happens in Allegany County," said Kimi-Scott McGreevy, who has helped develop a Web page critical of Taylor. "I am a Democrat. I'm voting for Gore. But I will vote for a Republican against Cas Taylor" in 2002.
 
 Isolated from much of what happens in Annapolis--most television stations here are from Pittsburgh--residents sometimes are quick to read conspiracy in their politics. Many here saw the $1 million for schools as Taylor's reward for supporting the gun control law, which was the main policy priority for Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) this
 year.
 
 Taylor has denied that and said he's convinced voters will see he was right when a new study on the schools is completed. But many residents are starting to link their anger over schools and guns, and it is a worrisome combination for a politician.
 
 "It's a very big concern of mine that all kinds of wonderful people who I've lived with my entire life . . . are being so grossly misled by the NRA national leadership," Taylor said before today's rally, which he did not attend. "You check Taylor's 27-year record and it's been very pro-gun, very pro-wildlife." He said the new gun control
 legislation was for safe gun handling and wouldn't limit anyone's ability to own a gun.
 
 But the gun forces have Taylor in their sights. "We have targeted him for an education campaign, and if we cannot have some success at that education campaign, then we'll look to target him with a different campaign in two years," said NRA lobbyist Greg Costa.

Washington County Commissioner Paul L. Swartz's frustration, as Election Day approaches, is a common one among Western Maryland Democrats, and even some Republicans.
 
 "I think this area is crying for leadership. Roscoe [G. Bartlett] hasn't brought a thing back," the Democratic official lamented about the 6th District's well-known conservative Republican congressman.
 
 Although Swartz is working to help Democratic nominee Donald M. DeArmon take the 74-year-old Bartlett's place, he doesn't hold out much hope that it will happen.
 
 "Roscoe Bartlett will be in office as long as he wants to be," Swartz said.
 
 Swartz made his comments recently at a Hagerstown hotel outside a closed meeting of the combined Frederick and Washington County chapters of the Ploughman and Fisherman's Club, a Democratic political group.
 
 Inside, DeArmon and Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend talked to about 100 activists about the election and the value of higher education in helping economically stressed Western Maryland attract more good jobs, one participant said later.
 
 At an open meeting earlier, DeArmon, 44, of Frederick, laid it on the line for the dedicated Democrats gathered in the Potomac Room of the Four Points Sheraton Hotel on U.S. 40.
 
 "I find Bartlett is very vulnerable. This is it. This is the time. It's right in front of us. This guy is terrible and we need to replace him. Let's elect somebody who's on our side for a change."
 
 Easier said than done, say those familiar with the six-county, 150-mile-long district where there are 50,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
 
 Herb Smith, a political science professor at in Westminster, said that sometimes an incumbent can be unseated in an election if there is a low turnout, but "it's a very difficult task. Incumbents generally lose when they fall out of touch with the district's attitudes and opinions, or from self-inflicted scandal wounds. Absent that, it's incredibly difficult," he said.
 
 Despite that, and despite DeArmon's relatively low profile so far, the 23-year Capitol Hill staffer has a strategy that he and his supporters hope will do the trick.
 
 "We are trying to do a blitz at the last minute. We are trying to keep this a little bit of a secret so Bartlett can't spend a lot of money. At the end of the last reporting period [Sept. 30] we had over $100,000 cash on hand. That's twice the amount of money spent since 1992," when Bartlett won his first election, said Sue Tuckwell, DeArmon's spokeswoman.
 
 But Bartlett said he is not standing still either, partly to help himself but also to bolster the Republican vote for presidential candidate George W. Bush.
 
 "We're up on radio and television for a couple reasons," he said about ads that began running last week on stations in Hagerstown and Westminster.
 
 One Bartlett radio ad bills him as "both our umbrella and rainbow" when flooding hits Western Maryland, because he donated books to a local library after the last floods in 1996.
 
 But Bartlett has had to defend his votes against bills that contained money for drought and flood relief for his district - a charge leveled by Republican primary challenger Timothy R. Mayberry, a former treasurer of the Maryland GOP. Bartlett trounced him in March, winning 78 percent of the vote.
 
 The congressman's response was that he was voting against huge federal spending bills filled with pork-barrel projects.
 
 And he rejects DeArmon's criticisms that "if communities are depending on Bartlett for their umbrella, based on his record, his umbrella has a lot of holes in it."
 
 Despite DeArmon's charges that he is out of step with his district, Bartlett said, "I get more than just Republican votes. We're blessed with a lot of good Southern, conservative Democrats. I believe that I am in sync with the majority of voters in Western Maryland."
 
 Even his recently revealed opposition to the death penalty hasn't hurt him politically, he said.
 
 "I got nothing but good press on that," he said, explaining that it is a deeply held belief based on his reading and some soul searching.
 
 Still, he's not passing DeArmon off lightly, he said.
 
 "We have an opponent now who has 23 years on the Hill. He certainly knows the drill."
 
 Although voters such as Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said public signs of a congressional campaign are few and far between, DeArmon is preparing for a last-minute blitz he hopes will catch fire with voters.
 
 "There's a new influx of voters in Frederick and Washington counties. The district has a good history of ticket-splitting. I want to give them a good, positive choice," DeArmon said.
 

CUMBERLAND -- The two-horse race to see who builds a track/betting parlor in Western Maryland reached the first turn last week at a public hearing in a packed Holiday Inn ballroom.
 
 Most of the speakers in this mountain city of 24,000 said they didn't want either entrant to win.
 
 The naysayers have it right.
 
 This is a race course that should not be built. If it is, you can chalk it up to unseemly insider politics.
 
 What's wrong with putting a horse-racing oval in Allegany County? Just about everything.
 
 - Local enthusiasm is tepid.
 
 - It will lose money.
 
 - It will severely weaken the financial viability of the
 state's existing major tracks at Pimlico, Laurel and Rosecroft.
 
 - It doesn't give this down-on-its-luck community enough
 economic stimulus to spur a revival.
 
 The two applicants have submitted intriguing proposals.
 
 William Rickman Jr. and his father, who own the Delaware Park slots and racing emporium and just bought the Ocean Downs trotting track near Ocean City, own 142 acres of rolling farmland at the isolated, eastern edge of the county. They will build a racetrack and 40,000-square-foot clubhouse for 21 days of live racing and simulcast wagering the rest of the year.
 
 Pimlico-Laurel owner Joseph De Francis and his partner, the Rosecroft trotting track, selected a 115-acre site on the edge of Frostburg, in the middle of the county's population center. It's atop a reclaimed strip-mine that will be replaced by a one-mile racing oval and a 15,000-square-foot clubhouse and OTB structure. They plan on 20 days of live racing.
 
 Each applicant has angered local residents. The Rickman site drew the most heated opposition.
 
 It's in a rural area called Little Orleans that has no sewer or water lines, no police patrols and just 292 families. Nearly 90 percent of Little Orleans families signed a petition against
 the Rickman plan. Their rural lifestyle -- hunting, fishing and camping are popular -- would be heavily impacted, they say. And they're alarmed about an already meager water supply.
 
 This sliver of Allegany gets the least amount of rainfall in Maryland -- just 36 inches a year. Last year, 43 percent of the wells within 3,000 feet of the Rickman property had serious water problems.
 
 No wonder residents there are agitated. Mr. Rickman's enterprise would double the amount of water used in Little Orleans -- and his rivals claim that his water-usage estimates are way too low.
 
 The De Francis site sent local pastors into a tizzy and had Frostburg's mayor complaining of being overwhelmed by a 15,000-square-foot building near town.
 
 Not many people wanted to speak in favor of racing. Even those you'd think would welcome more business are fighting it: One of the few veterinarians here, who's also Frostburg's
 public works commissioner, said she just wouldn't have time in August to care for ailing race-track horses!
 
 Not one official -- state, county, city or town -- spoke at the hearing for racing. Not a single business group announced support.
 
 The silence was deafening.
 
 In a county desperate for jobs, folks are mighty particular about what they'll accept. Prisons and landfills, yes; racetracks, no.
 
 So if there's all this resistance, why is a track likely to be approved for Allegany County? Casper Taylor and Parris Glendening.
 
 The Western Maryland track is part of Governor Glendening's push to punish Mr. De Francis for opposing his re-election in 1998. That's why Mr. Glendening insisted on a new racing license and that's a prime reason he has cozied up to Mr. Rickman.
 
 House Speaker Taylor seized the opportunity to insert language in the racing bill requiring that any new track must be built in his home county of Allegany. He sees Mr. Rickman as a cash cow for other Allegany projects.
 
 There was no economic study to justify this plan. That's because there is no economic justification. Each applicant privately acknowledges it's a red-ink proposition.
 
 For Mr. De Francis, it's a defensive move to limit Mr. Rickman's power in Maryland racing.
 
 For Mr. Rickman, the Western Maryland track is a loss-leader that lets him open off-track betting venues elsewhere.
 
 In fact, he has tied the two together in this application: I'll build you an Allegany track, he promises, but only if I can have OTBs in St. Mary's County and Frederick and Cecil counties,
 where Mr. De Francis already runs OTBs.
 
 That's the only way he says he can offset his losses from the Western Maryland track.
 
 What he doesn't say is that the three Rickman OTBs would siphon off revenue from existing OTBs that support racing at Pimlico, Laurel and Rosecroft. And if Mr. Rickman succeeds in
 drawing these betting dollars away from the Maryland tracks, it might force a reduction in purses at those tracks. Who gains? The Rickman oval at Delaware Park.
 
 If the Maryland Racing Commission were truly independent, it would reject the notion of approving a Western Maryland license. There's not enough interest in race track wagering in these mountain counties. The numbers don't work. It winds up hurting Maryland's existing race tracks.
 
 But the commission often seems willing to do whatever powerful politicians want. And knowledgeable observers are convinced that the die has already been cast for the Rickman application.
 
 That may harm Maryland racing and help Delaware racing. It may put Mr. Rickman in position to seek financial aid from the state in a few years to keep his Allegany track open. And as residents of the county repeatedly warned, this could mean slot machines.
 
 Allegany County deserves better. It's the land that Annapolis has forgotten -- except for an occasional sop to Speaker Taylor. Frostburg and Cumberland don't have enough jobs to keep young folks around. There's no effort to make economic development in Western Maryland a State House priority.
 
 Instead, the only thing coming Allegany County's way is a mangy old dog of a racetrack deal. And as they say up in these heavily wooded environs on a crisp, autumn day, "That dog won't hunt."
 
 
 Barry Rascovar is deputy editorial page editor.

We need an ampitheatre like we need a hole in the head

So why do we need an outdoor ampitheatre that would function maybe five months a year? Because Cas Taylor says we do? So we can breathe life into his comatose Rocky Gap Musical Festival? Please. Pull the plug on that thing and get it over with.

If Cas Taylor wants to spend $10 million dollars up here, why not build a high tech business park? Or improve our infrastructure? Or our education system?

What's the matter? Those ideas make too much sense?

Mr. Taylor claims the state is only going to give a little money for his project, and the bulk will come from private investment. Uh huh. The Rocky Gap Lodge was going to be like that, too, and now the state of Maryland is in the hotel business. No private investor in their right mind is going to give Cas Taylor $10 million dollars for that theatre. It's a loser. It's such a loser that even Mr. Rickman, the man with the racetrack proposal in Little Orleans that Mr. Taylor is pretending not to support, has said that his participation in the ampitheatre boondoggle is overstated. (That means he has no intention of building it, in case you're wondering.)

Of course, the only person talking about Mr. Rickman building us an ampitheathre is Cas Taylor, who is afraid, apparently, that even he can't shake down the state for the money for this one.

So why is it an inane idea? Because to support such a facility, we would need hordes of people trekking here from Baltimore, Washington and Pittsburgh on a daily basis. Maybe Cas Taylor has never heard of Merriweather Post Pavilion or Wolf Trap. Maybe he doesn't get out much.

Maybe no one has told him that another one of his brilliant schemes - the Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort - is struggling to stay afloat even as we speak.

People are not trekking here in hordes. We definitely have more people visiting than we used to, but we're no Ocean City. And an ampitheatre isn't going to make us Ocean City.

The reality is this: the people in urban and suburban areas have wonderful, privately owned ampitheatres in their own backyards. Why would they drive two hours to see an act they could see any day of the week 20 miles from their house?

If Mr. Taylor needs to spend $10 million dollars up here, we say great. But do something with it that makes sense. Don't repeat your performance of last fiscal year, when our schools were in turmoil and desperate for funds and you got the governor to cough up $1 million dollars for our schools, but $1.3 million for your goofy theatre.

Maybe Mr. Taylor's priorities need to be adjusted.