My assumption is that this was prompted, at least in part, by the public protest and online criticisms of the recent Entergy-hosted fundraiser for Mr. Wynn. See discussion of this in a couple Matt Stoller diaries over at Open Left, here (pre-fundraiser notice) and here (report on the protest after the event, including a link to Stoller's photos). This was also reported on in PolitikerMD.com and WaPo's Maryland Moment politics blog, as well as on Donna Edward's campaign site. A couple other related blog posts are here and (via Stoller) here (PolitikerMD.com editorial cartoon).

A couple notes on the robocall contents. The "Railroad Association" sounded a little too generic, and a few Google searches didn't clarify matters - there are several organizations with names that contain that phrase. It's probably a trivial thing, but I may have another go at it after getting some sleep, more out of curiosity than anything.

What I am really curious about is whether that discussion of the COLA business was such a good idea for Wynn. There are still a lot of federal employees in MD-04, but as everyone knows by now, private contractors have been assuming an increasing share of the duties formerly borne by government employees. The executives of those contracting companies usually do quite well, but I wonder if their rank-and-file employees are going to have much sympathy for Mr. Wynn's argument, unless it is the habit of federal contractors to offer COLA adjustments to their non-executive staffs. I've seen some folks in these blogs who seem to know something of the demographics in this district; perhaps they could provide further insight on this topic.

Mr. Wynn is definitely old school, and it seems (IMHO) he has developed a "tin ear" with respect to the needs and worries of a lot of MD-04 residents. I mean, do any of you political professionals think that something like this offers big political payoff in the current environment?

Finally, for those really into all news of the MD-04 Congressional race, here are a couple links not related to the Wynn fundraiser or the robocall. This Maryland Moments blog post is more interesting for its comments, which include as a participant one of the longshot candidates competing with Mr. Wynn and Ms. Edwards. And here's an account of an 03Jan debate between the candidates, including Wynn and Edwards.