I've blogged before about Donna Edwards, who is challenging net neutrality bad guy and all around machine hack Al Wynn in Maryland's 4th district. I had thought that this district was out of reach for Edwards until 2008, but a debate last night suggests that Donna now has a real shot. She's finally put together a real campaign, and Wynn is significantly weaker than he appeared a few months ago.
I'm seeing if I can get pictures and video from the debate, which Donna won convincingly. What makes the debate interesting, though, is not that Wynn couldn't defend his record, but that the Wynn campaign is clearly in operational trouble. Prior to the debate, apparently Wynn staffers or supporters (it's not clear which) beat up a Donna Edwards volunteer in a standard scuffle over signs. There are a host of interesting bits of the story, but politically, it's a real problem for Wynn that he just made his primary competitive through his campaign's own brutal incompetence. Here's what I was told about the incident and the debate.
During the debate, Edwards just crushed Wynn on his votes for the war, the energy bill, the bankruptcy bill, etc. Wynn is clearly a terrible Congressman, one of the biggest villains on net neutrality. What the debate proved is that he's also a terrible politician who has maintained his seat in Congress through a mixture of fear, machine politics, and voter apathy. The fact that Edwards, a first-time candidate who has had significant trouble with her campaign, is rattling Wynn, is a big deal.
I initially was very excited about Donna, since she is by most accounts an extremely principled and savvy progressive with a great reputation in both Maryland and DC. She really is one of the good guys. For a variety of reasons, including not being in the ole boys network and thus being frozen out of the electoral machinery, as well as being a first-time candidate, she couldn't get her campaign up to snuff to oust a long-time machine politician. Over the last two months, that has changed. Edwards has a real campaign, with significant field presence and a professional set of operators hammering at Wynn. She's picking up a great deal of local media exposure, and the thousands of door-knocks are having an effect.
Wynn himself is in trouble, and it shows in his behavior. He hasn't faced a competitive election for at least ten years, and the district was redrawn in 2000, bringing in a lot of progressive voters who don't know who he is and don't like his closeness with Bush. This incident will serve as a way to create publicity around the primary election, and will significantly raise Donna Edwards' name recognition.
Here's what happened at the debate. Donna prepared for the debate, both personally and campaign-wise. She brought a caravan of supporters, and had people putting out signs with her name on it to raise her name ID. At the debate itself, she drew cheers and ovations, and not just from her own supporters, since Wynn just wasn't prepared to defend his record.
Prior to the debate, Edwards supporters arrived early to put signs out. The Al Wynn people started knocking over the Edwards signs, ripping them up, and putting their signs in front of the Edwards signs. It was a standard sign battle, with the Wynn people getting a more aggressive since they had arrived late and were confident in their ability to intimidate. This is the problem with machine candidates who haven't had to run for a long time; their machine is corroded and their operatives have become bullies who are terrible at politics.
Anyway, a 57 year old volunteer with the Edwards campaign asked the guy ripping up the signs to stop, and there were some heated words. The volunteer and two Wynn supporters got into a scuffle, and a Wynn supporter punched the volunteer, who then fell to the ground. At this point, the two Wynn supporters started stomping on him, and the Edwards volunteer had his head split open. The police came, and the two of the Wynn staffers were apparently taken away. It gets worse, since the Edwards volunteer is an officer in a Teamster's local, and beating up union guys is a no-no. Well beating up anyone is a no-no, but this is particularly unwise on Wynn's part.
Donna arrived and tried to calm everyone down, and the pro-Wynn people shouted obscenities at her. Then she proceeded to whip their boss in the debate, which wouldn't have ordinarily gotten much media attention but did because of the violent incident.
So anyway, what does this all mean? Well, Donna Edwards now has an opening, and a real shot at a victory. The race is competitive, and if she can raise her ID enough she can take Wynn down. Wynn has already described his vote for the war as a mistake, so just having a competitor in the race is pushing Wynn to the left.
Of course, a machine is a machine, and on election day a machine turns people out for the machine candidate. That machine kept Lieberman much closer than he should have been against Lamont. Keep your eyes on Maryland's 4th to see if progressives can win in different but related circumstances. There's a strong progressive undercurrent in this country, and politicians ignore it at their peril.
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