The following article was published in The Gazette. For the original article, visit www.Gazette.net

Democratic rivals attack Wynn’s record on war and energy

Congressman defends his record on legislation, touts federal spending in district

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006
by Sean R. Sedam

Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn calls attention to his record of sponsoring legislation, bringing money back to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and community service when arguing why he should be elected to an eighth term representing District 4 in Congress.

His opponents point to other parts of Wynn’s record, including his vote to go to war in Iraq and for last year’s Republican-sponsored energy bill.
Donna Edwards of Fort Washington and George E. McDermott of Forest Heights are challenging Wynn in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary. The winner will face Republican Michael Moshe Starkman of Aspen Hill in the Nov. 7 general election. Starkman is unopposed in the GOP primary.

District 4 stretches from Laytonsville in the north through the central and eastern portion of Montgomery County, including Silver Spring, Brookeville, Olney and parts of Gaithersburg, to central and southeastern Prince George’s County.
Wynn is out of step with the Democratic Party and with District 4 voters, said Edwards, executive director of the Arca Foundation, a philanthropy focused on government and public policy. ‘‘Al Wynn is among a handful of Democrats on the Congressional Black Caucus who on a number of issues have voted with the Bush administration,” she told The Gazette editorial board on Monday. ‘‘That is troublesome for a lot of Democrats.”
McDermott, a construction contractor, agreed. ‘‘You look at his voting record,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. ‘‘Actually he shouldn’t even be running as a Democrat this time. He’s stepped over and voted with the right wing, the Bush administration, almost every time lately, against the will of the people.”
Wynn of Mitchellville defended his record in interviews with Gazette editors and reporters. ‘‘The record shows I vote with Democrats 88 percent of the time,” he said. ‘‘I’m a good Democrat, but I’m not a blind Democrat.”

Wynn said he is taking his challengers seriously, but said his record is being ‘‘grossly distorted.” He pointed out that he helped win $442 million for the Food and Drug Administration’s new headquarters in White Oak, $1.1 million for the Crossroads Youth Opportunity Center in Takoma Park and $3 million for the Silver Spring Transit Center.
Capitol Hill observers describe Edwards, an attorney who represented an Oxon Hill group that sued the developer of the $2 billion National Harbor project on the Potomac River, as posing the first real challenge Wynn has faced in years.
Edwards called Wynn ‘‘Maryland’s Joe Lieberman,” referring to the Connecticut senator who faced a serious challenge in Tuesday’s Democratic primary from Edward M. ‘‘Ned” Lamont, an outspoken war opponent and businessman. ‘‘Only Lieberman didn’t vote to repeal the estate tax,” she said. Wynn did, supporting a repeal that could take billions out of the federal treasury for items like education and health care, said Edwards, who would make access to affordable health care a top priority if elected.

She also criticized Wynn on two other issues. ‘‘The war and energy,” she said. ‘‘People are really concerned about the war. They see it as a distraction from the local things they are concerned about. ... And they see it as connected to what they pay at the pump.”
The war in Iraq was ‘‘misguided from the beginning,” she said. ‘‘This move to preemptive war is a direction we can’t afford to go in any longer.”

Wynn said he regrets his 2002 vote in support of the war in Iraq, saying his position has ‘‘evolved.” ‘‘If I knew then what I know now, I would not have made that same mistake,” he said.
Wynn said he supported the repeal of the estate tax because it makes it difficult to keep small businesses in family control. Of his vote for the energy bill, he noted that the bill contains tax breaks for hydrogen-powered vehicles and that he has sponsored anti-price gouging legislation directed at oil companies. He is firmly against drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Wynn said.

Full funding of the federal No Child Left Behind education reform law, energy security and employment issues, including increasing the minimum wage are the top issues Wynn said he would continue to pursue if re-elected.

McDermott, who lost the 2004 primary to Wynn, said his top priority would be to ‘‘make sure we stop fraud, abuse and corruption within the U.S. House of Representatives and in our state and local courts.” McDermott has engaged in a 12-year fight with the court system involving the loss of several businesses.
He has said he would work for an exit strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and on eliminating abuse of ethics and campaign finance rules. McDermott is opposed to corporations, such as Enron that ‘‘ship jobs overseas, turn us into a debtor nation ... [and] have lawyers to get them off,” he said.

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