One of the first candidates of the 2008 cycle that we added to the Blue Majority ActBlue list was Donna Edwards. By now, I’m sure many Swing State Project readers are intimately familiar with this race. Maryland’s 4th CD is a whopping D+30. By way of contrast, there isn’t a single red district that’s this Republican (UT-03 is R+26), so you know this is extremely solid blue ground.
And it should, therefore, be home to a loyal team player, a progressive leader who has the luxury of taking bold stands which also happen to be perfectly in tune with his or her constituents. After all, you don’t vote 78% for John Kerry and hope you wind up with a Lieberdem representing you.
But sadly, that just about describes Al Wynn. If you looked at his voting record alone and were feeling extremely charitable, you might imagine he sits in a precarious seat. Of course, it’s not even close – but take a look at a few of the gems he’s managed to rack up on his resume:
- Wynn voted for the resolution authorizing Bush to use force in Iraq (aka the AUMF)
- He voted for the odious bankruptcy bill
- He voted for the 2005 energy bill, which was little more than a huge mess of subsidies for Dick Cheney’s oil buddies
- He co-sponsored the anti-net neutrality COPE Act and also voted against Rep. Ed Markey’s pro-net neutrality amendment to the bill
Needless to say, MD-04 deserves a lot better. And that’s why Blue Majority – along with a wide array of other blogs and coalitions – is supporting Donna Edwards. Edwards, you may recall, pummelled Wynn within an inch of his political life last year – as a mostly unknown, surprise challenger, she came within just 3.5% of victory.
Next year, Edwards – a bonafide movement progressive – has the chance to finish the job. Wynn, who somnambulated through his last election, has sensed the threat and called in some big establishment guns to raise mega-bucks for him this weekend. The netroots are pushing back, with the goal of raising $100,000 for Edwards by Sunday.
Many hands, as they say, make light work, and I think, on the strength of this broad blogosphere-wide push, we can hit this goal. Donations of any size help, and with the primary still ten months away, small donor list-building is still a valuable exercise, especially for an insurgent candidate like Edwards. So if you can pitch in, please do so!
And, as always, if you’re able to give, please let us know about it in comments.
If this year has proven anything to me, it’s that we need to get rid of these moderate Dems who don’t do anything for our party. They compromise our values, stab good Democrats like Wyden in the back, and cave to pressure from an unpopular administration. I hope we meet our goal for Edwards, we need more like her representing us. I also am pushing for Jeff Merkley here in my state of Oregon. I would love to rid my state of Gordon Smith with a good progressive in the Senate. I’m so sick of these moderate Repubs/Dems, I’m ready to be done with them all!