Roscoe Gardner Bartlett Jr. (born June 3, 1926) is an American politician who was U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a member of the Tea Party Caucus. At the end of his tenure in Congress, Bartlett was the second-oldest serving member of the House of Representatives, behind fellow Republican Ralph Hall of Texas.
Early life and education
Bartlett was born in Moorland, Kentucky, to Martha Minnick and Roscoe Gardner Bartlett. He completed his early education in a one-room schoolhouse. He attended Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University) in Takoma Park, Maryland, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and graduated in 1947 with a B.S. in theology and biology and a minor in chemistry. He had intended to be a Seventh-day Adventist minister, but he was considered too young for the ministry after receiving his bachelor's degree at the age of 21.
Bartlett was encouraged to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park. He studied anatomy, physiology, and zoology, earning a master's degree in physiology in 1948. Bartlett was then hired as a faculty member of the university and taught anatomy, physiology and zoology while working towards his Ph.D. in physiology, which he earned in 1952. His academic career included lecturing at Loma Linda School of Medicine, also affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Loma Linda, California (1952–1954), and serving as an assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. (1954–1956).
Political career
Elections
1980
In 1980, Bartlett ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary, he ranked fourth with 7% of the vote, losing to incumbent Charles Mathias, who won the primary with 55% of the vote.
1982
In 1982, Bartlett ran for Congress in against incumbent Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Beverly Byron. He won the Republican primary with 52% of the vote. In the general election, Byron defeated him 74%–26%.
1992
Bartlett ran again in the newly redrawn 6th congressional district and won the Republican primary with 42% of the vote. Byron was upset by a somewhat more liberal Democrat, State Delegate Thomas Hattery, in the Democratic primary. Many conservative Democrats switched their support to Bartlett in November, as he defeated Hattery 54%–46%.
1994–2006
During this time period, Bartlett repeatedly won re-election with at least 56% of the vote.
2008
According to the Frederick News-Post, Bartlett had under-reported property sales by over $1 million since 2004 on his official financial disclosure forms, and made $299,000 in unreported loans in order to sell his daughter's home, over which he exercised power of attorney. Bartlett said that the under-reporting was an oversight and that he was a "bit player" in the real estate transactions.
2010
As the lone Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation, Bartlett won reelection in 2010 at the age of 84. On June 1, 2009, Democrat and Iraq war veteran Andrew Duck formally announced a campaign for Congressman Bartlett's seat.
2012
Bartlett's district was significantly altered in redistricting plans released in October 2011, which was described as gerrymandering. The new district lines shifted the district slightly to the south, adding some heavily Democratic territory closer to Washington DC.
Specifically, the redistricting plan shifted a mostly Republican section of Frederick County and an even more heavily Republican section of Carroll County to the heavily Democratic 8th district. It also lost heavily Republican sections of Harford and Baltimore counties, as well as another section of Carroll, to the already heavily Republican 1st district. In their place, the legislature added a heavily Democratic section of Montgomery County. While John McCain carried the old 6th with 57 percent of the vote, Barack Obama would have carried the reconfigured 6th with 56 percent of the vote.
Bartlett faced Democrat John Delaney and Libertarian Nickolaus Mueller in his bid for reelection.
In 2012, the Federal Elections Commission fined Bartlett $5,000 for repeatedly failing to submit accurate campaign finance disclosure reports. Bartlett hired an accountant to address any outstanding disclosure issues.