Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., whose backing of the war in Iraq led to his defeat in the primary, will announce his resignation from Congress this afternoon, Democratic Party sources said. Wynn, who lost in the primary to Donna Edwards, has scheduled an announcement for 2 p.m. He is expected to leave in June.

This is from nationaljournal.com. I do not have an exact link yet.

Still waiting on results from MD-04 where progressive challenger Donna Edwards is trying to take out entrenched Rep. Al Wynn. Matt Stoller is out in the field and has been reporting some good numbers from the precincts that have reported. Cautious optimism...

Stoller calls in to tell me that they have two precincts in.  Montgomery County #521 which went 59% to 35% for Wynn last time, went 508 votes to 167 this votes this time around for Edwards.
Also, Prince Georges County 13-13 which went 60% to 38% in favor of Wynn last time, was 415 (Edwards) to 432 (Wynn) this time.

So, way early. But two precincts in with favorable results.
Update (Chris): 0504 Montgomery 371-161. In 2006 it went 280-161 for Edwards last time. Monto 1313: 2006 Edwards got 348-122. This time, 654-148. Mont Co 13-15: 489-94 in 2006. 694-92. Looking excellent.

Update [2008-2-12 23:9:32 by Todd Beeton]:With 51% reporting Donna is up 59-37. She's expanding her lead now. Amazing. Chris Bowers has some thoughts on what an Edwards victory means.

Update [2008-2-13 0:17:14 by Todd Beeton]:WashingtonPost.com has called the race for Donna Edwards. Huge victory tonight. Congrats to all who really worked hard on this race, particularly Matt Stoller who really went all in on this race. Great work!

Thanks, vox populi for reminding everyone that there's an important congressional primary on Tuesday in MD-04 and to help out however you can. Wynn is desperate, he's hoping for the surge in Obama voters in his district will overwhelm the polls and vote for him as an after-thought -- name recognition and ballot placement favor him. He's also endorsed Obama and gone on TV as a surrogate for him, an appearance that was not sanctioned by the Obama campaign. Wynn is just trying to bask in the glow. The reality is, per Matt Stoller who's been doing a great job of championing Donna Edwards over at Open Left, that when Wynn endorsed him, Obama didn't send out a press release announcing it, something he always does. I should note that Donna Edwards has endorsed Barack Obama as well.

Know how else we know Wynn is desperate? Look at this last minute influx of cash -- more than $150k in the last 3 days -- Wynn received from his corporate backers, desperate at the prospect that they may lose one of their greatest shills in congress.

The thing is, they're right to be desperate. Donna right now appears strong, polling ahead of Wynn in a recent Lake Research (D) poll 40-32 and receiving a strong endorsement from The Washington Post.

For her part, though, Ms. Edwards, a lawyer and foundation executive, has been an effective, energetic advocate for a range of liberal causes -- the environment, higher minimum wages, stemming domestic violence, campaign finance reform. As a community organizer, she has been an unstinting voice for improving mass-transit options, although sometimes at the expense of building roads that the 4th District badly needs. Even in cases where she clashed with local developers, however, she won their respect as a sensible and no-nonsense adversary. Poised, persistent and principled, she would make a fine representative for the 4th District.

The fact is, other Democrats, such as Steny Hoyer, have thrown sopme last minute support behind Wynn as well. An Edwards win would be a real blow to the incumbency racket in Washington and would send a strong message to potential primary challengers everywhere, that these bad Democrats can be taken down. As with most elections, this one is much larger than just one person or one district, so give what you can and do what you can to help Donna Edwards today.

A big election, help Donna Edwards any way you can, jerome

With so much focus on the presidential contest, another important race takes place Tuesday in Maryland's 4th Congressional district featuring Netroots favorite and progressive activist Donna Edwards against corrupt, corporate Democrat named Al Wynn.

This is a rematch from 2006, when Wynn supporters physically assaulted Edwards supporters outside polling sites.

In recent days, Wynn sent out robocalls attacking Donna Edwards as a tax cheat. The Wynn campaign is very desperate and is making this very personal.  http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?do cID=news-000002668478

Al Wynn is everything you can ask for in a bad Democrat.  He voted for the Iraq War.  He's a champion of predatory lenders and credit card companies.  He's pro-big oil.  He supports No Child Left Behind.  He's spent so much time in Washington he's forgotten where he came from.

I ask you to give Donna some 11th hour love.  She'll need every dollar she can get to defeat Wynn, something she came within 3 points of doing in 2006.  Visit my ActBlue page and give what you can.

http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli

A victory for Donna is a victory for progress in the Democratic Party.  Thank you!

[cross-posted from Free State Politics]

I wish I knew the answer to the question posed by the title. Some of the possible scenarios trouble me, because of the influence clergy traditionally have on (especially) older congregants in their flock (both within and outside African-American communities), and because of some of the, shall we say, less-than-holy relationships some of these pastors have traditionally had with local political machines. Combined with their still-critical role in many communities, especially when abandoned by the leaders theoretically elected to take up their causes - see for example here (PG-specific example) or here (a good explanation from NYC that applies well elswhere in the US, from the late and much-missed Steve Gilliard) - the potential influence of clergy in African-American communities such as PG's should not be dismissed lightly.

What brought this query to mind is an endorsement letter I received from Senator C. Anthony Muse (MD-Sen-26), in support of Congressman Wynn (letter mailing paid for by the Wynn campaign, fyi/fwiw). I've transcribed the letter, and it is provided after the jump. What you should know about good ol' Senator Muse is that he is also Reverend Dr. C. Anthony Muse, pastor of Ark of Safety Christian Church in Upper Marlboro. It probably doesn't hurt that his wife, church Elder Pat Lawson Muse, is the 4pm news co-anchor at DC's NBC affiliate WRC-TV (Channel 4), where she's been an on-air anchor for quite a few years now.

More after the jump...

Cross-posted from Free State Politics; also posted over at Open Left. Edited from the original.


I haven't received any campaign literature from my Congressman for awhile (first one received Feb-2007 and second one received Jul-2007), so was slightly taken aback to find something from him in my mailbox (rec'd Thursday 17Jan.). And while doing the scanning, image uploading, and editing for this post on that mailer, I received yet another mailer the next day, pretty much on the same theme (I hope to post that one later, in the interest of completeness if nothing else). We'll see what Saturday's mail brings, to see if Mr. Wynn went for the threepeat.

As for Thursday's mailer - it was a single 8.5" x 11" semigloss sheet, card stock (I believe that's the term), printed on front and back. Thumbnail links to scanned images are provided after the jump, but below are descriptions of the basic contents.

FRONT: Heading the page, in large fonts, a statement that "32,360 Support Congressman Wynn's effort to IMPEACH CHENEY", followed by one of the many readily available unflatttering head shots of CrashCart, and some more subdued text in the background concerning Halliburton-related malfeasance. "IRAQ" in large red font is also printed on the front, as a single lonely noun, with no context provided (not that any is needed, though).

BACK: At the top is the statement "Our Quickest Path Out of IRAQ is With Albert Wynn", followed by a photo of a hand touching names on the Vietnam War Memorial, and an invitation to "Support HR 333, Congressman Wynn's Effort to Impeach Vice President Cheney." After that come a number of statements (bullet items in two columns, basically), mostly related to the need to get out of Iraq, hold the Administration to account, and direct money from warfighting to domestic needs.

As promised, images after the jump, along with some commentary...

[Cross-posted from Free State Politics, and also posted over at Open Left]

Well, this has to be a first. In my 20+ years in MD-04, with Mr. Wynn as my Congressman since 1992, I don't recall ever hearing anything so defensive from him as I did the evening of Weds. 09Jan2008, when I arrived at my PG County residence to find his latest robocall on my answering machine. Here is a transcript of that message, with some additional notes and links after the jump:

Hello, this is Congressman Albert Wynn. My opponents have invested in a massive media campaign of distortions and outright lies. Their ads claim I received vacations paid for by lobbyists. The truth is I was invited by trade associations such as the Railroad Association and minority business organizations to give keynote speeches and participate in panels during overnight and two-day business trips. Next they say I voted myself five pay raises. The truth is, that I and every member from our region voted for a cost-of-living allowance, or COLA, for federal employees. By law, members of Congress automatically receive one-half percent less than federal employees. I'm Albert Wynn, and I just wanted you to know the truth. Thank you.

Remember how Republicans like Rick Santorum and Allen Raymond ran Green party candidates in elections to split the liberal vote and artificially engineer victory? Well conservative Democrat Al Wynn appears to be pursuing a similar strategy to hold onto his own seat for the upcoming primary.

cross posted with working links at Maryland's progressive hub, Freestate Politics