The following article was published in the political insider newspaper Roll Call. For the original article, visit RollCall.com.
Wynn Gets First Credible Challenger in Many Years
June 29, 2006
By Josh Kurtz, Roll Call Staff
Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.), who has faced only minimal opposition in the past decade, is being challenged in the Democratic primary by the head of a liberal foundation in Washington, D.C., who has ties to several community groups in Maryland's 4th Congressional district.
Donna Edwards, the executive director of the Arca Foundation, which is funded by the heirs of the Bagley and Reynolds tobacco families, quietly declared her candidacy two weeks ago and said she has been able to raise $150,000 to $200,000 in that short time period.
"It's exciting traveling around the district and seeing that people are interested in having a choice," she said.
Wynn, after years of winning landslides, said he is up to the challenge.
"I'm comfortable running for re-election on my record, on the projects I've brought to the district and on my votes," he said.
While it is difficult to find a political observer who will suggest that Wynn is in any way vulnerable, the emergence of a credible challenger has raised some eyebrows, especially given Wynn's penchant for injecting himself into local controversies far more than any other Member in the Free State.
Dating back to 1996, Wynn's primary and general election opponents barely have surpassed 20 percent of the vote. In four straight elections, his Republican challenger was John Kimble, a self-described "animal behavioral observer" who once offered to pose nude for Playgirl magazine to raise campaign funds and later convinced Wynn's ex-wife to campaign against the Congressman.
But Edwards is an attorney and former Capitol Hill lobbyist for nonprofit groups who gained local stature in recent years as a leading critic of a proposal to build a huge resort along the Potomac River in Oxon Hill — a multimillion-dollar project that Wynn and most other elected officials in Maryland have championed.
Edwards is arguing that in one of the most reliably Democratic districts in the nation, Wynn has betrayed his constituents by voting for the Iraq war, the estate tax repeal and a Republican-proposed bankruptcy reform measure, while opposing campaign finance reform.
While Edwards' candidacy has attracted scant attention in the local media, she has been the object of some chatter on liberal Web logs. Bloggers have compared Edwards to Marcy Winograd, a teacher and anti-war activist who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.) in the Democratic primary earlier this month.
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