Back in June I had a good conversation with Donna Edwards, a Democratic activist who is making another run this cycle at centrist Democrat Al Wynn after having narrowly lost to him in a primary challenge in the deeply blue fourth district of Maryland. You can listen to the conversation here, but I'd like to point you to one interchange between us.

Singer: In case there are some folks particularly on MyDD who maybe were absent during the last cycle when Matt was writing so much about your race or missed Matt's write up of your race just a couple of weeks ago, what's the argument? Why does Al Wynn, someone who's a Democrat - this is a Democratic district - why does he need to go?

Edwards: First of all, let's be clear - it is solidly Democratic district. So what that means in our district is that we can actually have one of the most progressive Democrats in the Congress.

And instead we have the reverse. We have somebody who during the time of the Bush administration has voted with the President on really key issues, more conservative than this district deserves. He supported the President on the authorization to go to war when many of our Congresspeople here in Maryland actually didn't support that authorization. He supported the President on the energy bill that gave billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil and gas companies the other Democrats in our district didn't support that. He supported bankruptcy reform, which rewards credit card companies over consumers. The Democrats in our district didn't support that. He supported a repeal of the estate tax, which took $50 billion out of the treasury benefiting one half of one percent of income earners.

That's not our district. We don't just need any Democrat. It matters what kind of Democrat we have. We need Democrats who are going to be leaders, who are going to stand out in front for the American people and for the people of the fourth district, and Al Wynn's not that guy.

Singer: So now that we've gotten a bit of a picture of why Al Wynn isn't the guy, why are you that woman? Why are you the person that should represent Maryland's fourth district?

Edwards: Because I'm a leader. I think that the country and our district is crying for leadership. I've been a leader on campaign finance and ethics reform. I've been a leader on ending violence against women. I've been a leader in my community in stopping bad development and fighting for mass transportation. I've been a leader on the environment. And if I could lead on all of those things outside of the United States Congress, no telling what will happen inside the United States Congress.

This weekend Nancy Pelosi will be holding a fundraiser for Wynn, a move that a lot of folks are taking umbrage at. In response, a number of sites -- including Daily Kos, Atrios, AMERICAblog, Color of Change, and others -- are holding their own fundraiser in the hopes of bringing $100,000 into her campaign account. In short, folks are looking for more and better Democrats. So head on over to ActBlue and make your contribution today.