By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 19, 2006

They've traumatized Girl Scouts and state lawmakers, feasted on candy kisses, gnawed through phone lines and forced one Eastern Shore delegate to conduct legislative business from her car.

Rats -- the four-legged kind -- have invaded the House Office Building in Annapolis, stirred up by construction work on a new wing.

"You would think out of professional courtesy they would have left us alone," said Republican Del. Michael D. Smigiel Sr. (R-Cecil).

Smigiel insisted that the rats must be Democrats -- he said he discovered bite marks on an "Ehrlich for Governor" bumper sticker in his office. But the creatures appeared bipartisan in picking their targets. Consider that their most dramatic encounter involved a Democratic legislator who had just finished a photo shoot with a Girl Scout troop.

As Charles County Del. Sally Y. Jameson bid adieu to the scouts Thursday, something the size of a kitten emerged -- but it was no kitten. The rodent scampered across the feet of at least three scouts and the red high heels of Jameson's legislative aide, according to an eyewitness account. The scouts shrieked, sending the rat darting through the second-floor hallway and down a marble staircase to its demise when cornered by two construction workers wielding pieces of wooden molding.

"It's anybody's worst nightmare, " said Barbara Oakes, the woman in charge of the construction project for House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). "Your heart just sinks."

The infestation has highlighted delays in construction of the $28.9 million Georgian-style addition to the House Office Building. Besides rousing the rats, the work has interrupted legislative hearings and inconvenienced some lawmakers.

Del. Mary Roe Walkup (R-Kent) opted to work from the parking lot rather than contend with rat droppings she found on her desk. Her office was without phone service for several days after a rodent chewed through her line.

"Here we are in session, having to deal with this issue. It should have been dealt with before January," she said. "We're trying to prepare for bill hearings, and it's hard on the staff. It's been a total disaster for us."

Plans for the addition were set in motion eight years ago to expand crowded committee rooms and make space for a growing legislative workforce. The project was supposed to have been completed in October, well in advance of the start of the 90-day General Assembly session. Four months later, it is part construction zone, part legislative office building.

Lawmakers' voices compete with whirring drills during their hearings. The marble stairwell is out of commission until railings are installed. And nearly all 55 plasma television screens -- part of a new $3.4 million multimedia network -- remain dark. Will the flat-screen TVs be on before the session ends?

"We'd hope so," Oakes said, "but I can't tell you that for sure."

For Oakes, it is a jigsaw puzzle, trying to fit in construction with daily legislative business. The jackhammering in the underground garage, for instance, has been put off until after the legislators leave town this spring. But the rats have been less cooperative.

Del. Herbert H. McMillan (R-Anne Arundel) announced on the House floor that there would be an emergency meeting of the Sportsmen's Caucus in Smigiel's office, suggesting that the group take on the rat matter with firepower.

McMillan apparently was joking.

Though Oakes certainly didn't mention firearms, she seemed to rule out little else when talking about the war with rats. "We're going after them with everything we can."