Maryland Republicans joined millions across the country this week in mourning the passing of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the country's 40th President who died recently after battling Alzheimer's disease for the last decade.

Chuck Floyd, the GOP candidate in November for Maryland's 8th Congressional District, has a picture of Reagan that has been sitting in his office for 20 years. Floyd counts Reagan as one of the people who have had an influence on his life, and now that he is entering the world of politics, Floyd says he still looks to Reagan for inspiration. "I want to have the optimism that the future is better," Floyd said.

Delegate Jean Cryor, the General Assembly's lone Republican Montgomery County representative, has a personal connection to Reagan. Her father-in-law Stanley Cryor grew up in Dixon, Ill. That is the same city the Reagan called his boyhood home and Cryor's father-in-law gave Reagan his first job as a lifeguard.

Putting her family's connection to Reagan aside, Del. Cryor believes the former President had a lasting effect on Montgomery County. She credits him with starting the economic boom that allowed the I-270 Technology Corridor to prosper and is still growing today. And in spite of party affiliation, she believes locals should see Reagan for the great President he was. "I think that everyone in Montgomery County, whether they voted for him or not, would say he wanted what was best for his country."

Howard A. Denis, the lone Republican on the Montgomery County Council, remembers Reagan as a genuinely kind man who treated everyone the same, whether they were a politician or an ordinary citizen. "I was impressed by his very friendly demeanor. He had a sparkle in his eyes. He gave the impression he was concentrating on what you were saying and responded to what you were saying." He also remembered Reagan as the same in person that he was on TV. "I found that a little bit unusual with all the people I've met over the years in public life," Denis said.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. entered national politics as a Congressman in 1994. He says former representative Newt Gingrich and Rep. Dick Armey are usually seen as the ones who lead a GOP takeover of the House.

But, Ehrlich believes Reagan deserves a lot of the accolades given to his class. "The bottom line is that many of us were thirty-somethings elected in that class. We had grown up post-Vietnam, we had come of age in the late 70s, early 80s. We were the Reagan generation."

In trying to shy away from the typical words spoken this week, Ehrlich reiterated how profoundly his group of lawmakers was influenced by Reagan "It says a lot that the philosophical orientation that a lot of us brought to Congress was reflected in his priorities. He was very pro-military, we were tax cutters, we were welfare reformers, we were about empowerment and equal opportunity.

"So I do believe besides the resume and what observers are talking about today,

"President Reagan deserves more credit for the control of the House of Representatives that occurred in 1994 because so many of us came of age under his leadership and under his tutelage."