Maryland resident, a few miles outside (SE) of DC. Proudly represented in Congress by Donna Edwards. Neither an expert on politics nor my own neighborhood [50-ish nonreligious white guy in socially conservative (AFAICT), very church-oriented, African-American majority region]. Became more interested in both politics and my own neighborhood within the past few years - appalled at changes in national government, including Cong. Al Wynn's sell-out positions on many issues, so signed up at this fine Website and others. Supported Donna Edwards in 2006 and 2008, along with Congressional candidates nationwide holding similar views. Congress is the key to saving our Republic, IMO, but is the most fragile of the national government institutions, so needs more of our attention and support - including "tough-love" - than most of us currently give it.
MD-04 -- How Will Churchgoing Democrats in Prince George's County Vote on Tuesday?
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.
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...
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.
Added 04-Jan-2008: As noted at Free State Politics (original source here), it looks like the endorsement from MSTA/NEA is the real deal. Apparently Mr. Wynn simply jumped the gun in mentioning this in his 31Dec robocall.
It's a disappointment, but not really a surprise given Mr. Wynn's past support for policies advocated by the NEA. Particularly for distressed schools - which PG County has in some quantity - NCLB has been a real burden to teachers, on top of all the other crap they deal with. Having an advocate in Congress who is in the majority party and has some seniority was clearly irresistable. [FWIW, announcement is on Wynn's campaign site, but my quick searches of the MSTA and NEA Websites didn't find anything. Presumably these folks will release their own statements soon.]
____________________
In anticipation of the Feb.12 Maryland primary, featuring a strong challenge from Donna Edwards, a robocall recorded by Congressman Albert Wynn was left on my answering machine on the afternoon of Mon. 31Dec2007. A transcription of this New Years Eve robocall is provided below the fold.
I found no statement of endorsement at either organization's site for Mr. Wynn, but it is possible that they simply haven't been posted yet, perhaps due to limited holiday staffing at these organizations' offices; my research capabilities could also be deficient. If any readers have information on MSTA and/or NEA endorsements for Albert Wynn, please let me know in comments (TIA). The only remotely relevant item I could find via a Google search is Matt Stoller's early November post at Daily Kos on Progressive Maryland's endorsement of Donna Edwards, where one of the listed Board of Directors for PM (Betty Weller) is associated with MSTA (Vice President through mid-2009, according to this MSTA site). It should be noted that Mr. Wynn has done some things in Congress that MSTA/NEA support, so an actual formal endorsement by one or both of these organizations is not inconceivable. However, I was just poking around in His Corporateness' campaign website, where I would have thought such a well funded, resource-rich operation would have posted such important endorsements immediately - even during the holiday - but I also came up empty here. Hmm...
The transcript, and some final comments, are below the fold.
Here's a report from MD-04, for those interested in the Congressional Democratic primary race between incumbent Albert Wynn and challenger Donna Edwards. It is a transcript of a robocall left on my answering machine on Weds. 19Dec2007, recorded by His Corporateness himself, and my Congressman, Albert Wynn:
Hello,
This is Congressman Albert Wynn, {and} I would like your support in the upcoming election on February 12th, 2008. Our country needs a new direction. I share your frustration with this senseless war, and I will keep fighting to bring our troops home safely. On education, I want to overhaul No Child Left Behind, with fewer tests, more federal money, vocational programs, and anti-dropout programs. For safer neighborhoods, I fought for federal money for more cops on the street, and intervention programs for first offenders. One of the major assets I offer is my seniority. For example, I obtained $3 million to fight gangs, $1.5 billion* for construction of the new Woodrow Wilson bridge, funds for diabetes screening, and funds for ex-offender re-entry programs. I hope I can count on your support on February 12th, and I'd like to wish you and your family a great holiday season. Thank you.
*[Might have been 'million', but I think 'billion' is right (message recorded on an old tape in an old answering machine; audio fidelity leaves something to be desired). The WW Bridge rebuilding is a huge effort, so $1.5B would be a more realistic cost.]
A couple-three musings on this are provided below the fold...
Just before Independence Day, some franked literature arrived in the mail from Albert Wynn, that devoted servant to the Corporatocracy, and (unfortunately) my Congressman (MD-04). Details are provided below the fold, but to summarize, this bit of franked mail from Mr. Wynn sought to demonstrate his commitment to students and education, and toward that end he bragged on what he has done and what he plans to do in the U.S. House.
As part of my ongoing effort to record these mailings from Mr. Wynn to his MD-04 constituents, I have scanned each page of the 4-page mailing and provided links to the images "below the fold". The inner two pages are the only ones with actual content (text), but in the interest of being complete, front and back cover images are provided as well.
*Part 1 can be found here - his Feb-2007 mailing highlighting his (somewhat newly) discovered opposition to the Iraq misadventure.
Judging from his official Website and a recent mailer I received - I'm a voter in his district - Democratic Congressman Albert Wynn (MD-04) has made opposition to the Iraq war a major component of his current political stance. While he had already declared a change of heart from his original pro-Bush position by the time of last year's election, when Donna Edwards gave him a tough contest during the primary - as usual in MD-04, the general election was a foregone conclusion in favor of the Democratic candidate - he has now adopted most, if not all, of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's positions on the topic. He even signed on as a cosponsor of HR-3760, which if enacted would establish a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
As I note in my MyDD bio, I'm neither an expert on the politics nor the demographics of my district. Despite that, I think I know enough to say that this is not a high risk position for Mr. Wynn to take at this point. We certainly have a lot of DoD employees in MD-04, but most are rank-and-file regular working folk, rather than of the philosophically hardcore neocon variety, and they now likely regard the Iraq War as a disaster at least in its execution, and at this point likely also feel they were deceived* like so many others during the campaign to justify the invasion (*which was also Mr. Wynn's stance during the 2006 campaign). Down here in the southern part of MD-04, I would guess there is some eye-rolling at the Dept. of Peace idea - to the extent anyone is paying attention - but it's unlikely this will do any measurable harm to Mr. Wynn's support here in his traditional political base of middle-aged (and older), socially conservative, church-going African-American voters. It seems more plausible that this is an effort to placate more hostile constituents who are concentrated mostly in the northern part of the district and who, much to their continuing chagrin, were thrown into MD-04 during the most recent redistricting (a representative viewpoint from those folks seen in this Letter to the Editor).
Any would-be progressive challenger to Mr. Wynn - whether that be Donna Edwards or someone else - will likely again have an uphill battle in 2008. Whether this new aggressive stance on Iraq makes things even more difficult for a challenger remains to be seen. At the very least, Mr. Wynn isn't likely to be caught by surprise again, as he was by Ms. Edwards in 2006. However, Mr. Wynn has voted for several other stinkers (e.g., the Bankruptcy Bill), and that isn't likely to be forgotten by those paying attention. I also wonder whether any measurable portion of his conservative church-going base was appalled by the alleged behavior of his campaign staff, a couple of whom appear to have assaulted an Edward supporter (see here and here, for example). Whatever the case, Mr. Wynn's future votes and overall behavior will require close scrutiny. His seniority on John Dingell's powerful Energy and Commerce committee - which doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves, except from the lobbyists who properly recognize it as a major player in policy-making - will continue to provide him with ample opportunity for mischief.
