Challenger Donna Edwards must be making an impression on incumbent Albert Wynn as he hopes to hold onto his seat in Congress. Wynn, as you may remember from a recent post, is a Democrat who votes with Republicans on key issues: Iraq, energy, bankruptcy, the environment, personal privacy, as examples. Not only that, but his machine-style campaign involves threats, intimidation and thuggery - such as stealing Edwards signs and pulling off and tearing up Edwards' distributed literature. They even had
children covering her signs with Wynn stickers, perhaps after the word got out that they were taking Edwards signs unlawfully.
Last Wednesday brought a new low.
The Prince George's County NAACP sponsored a candidate forum at Prince George's Community College in Landover, Maryland. As the Edwards campaign prepared for a caravan in a nearby parking lot, a couple of Edwards people went over to the college to put up some signs. When Wynn campaign workers arrived, they began to place Wynn signs immediately in front of and behind the Edwards signs, basically covering them up. An Edwards volunteer asked a Wynn worker to stop placing signs blocking the Edwards signs. According to the victim, the Wynn worker, who was later identified as "B", a Congressional staff member for Wynn, responded by saying, "If you touch one of our signs, you won't leave this campus." (Hey -
your tax dollars at work) The victim was so offended that he asked that the man repeat the statement. When "B" still refused to move the Wynn signs, the victim proceeded to move a sign away himself. According to the Edwards volunteer, it was then that "B" punched him in the eye. Another Wynn worker then came up and hit the victim from behind. He fell to the ground, unable to get up. The Wynn workers began to kick the victim on the ground and continued until other Edwards volunteers managed to jump in and end the attack.
The police were called.
An Edwards campaign worker was able to videotape what happened next; you can see it here (http://www.youtube.com/...). You can clearly see the Edwards volunteer bleeding from cuts on his forehead. After seeing his wounds, the police cuff the two Wynn workers and take them away.
Representative Wynn responded to the incident by saying, "Apparently there was a little skirmish. My people acted in self-defense. Their people got the worst of it." In fact, the video shows that this was not self-defense. Besides, what kind of person, not to mention a member of Congress, responds to an incident where someone gets hurt like that by saying, "They got the worst of it?"
Nice crowd, huh?
By the way, Donna Edwards walked away with the debate. She was spectacular clobbering Wynn on his Bush record. The crowd - with the likely exception of the Wynn team - was on its feet more than once. I expect the outrage she was feeling about the Wynn tactics fueled her dynamite delivery.
LEARN MORE
Donna Edwards has a message about the incident on her website:
http://www.donnaedwardsforcongress.com/...
Included is her letter to Rep. Wynn:
http://www.donnaedwardsforcongress.com/...
video: http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.gazette.net/...
http://www.mydd.com/...
YOU CAN HELP
Give what you can; every dollar helps Donna's Campaign for CHANGE.
www.donnaedwardsforcongress.com or
http://www.actblue.com/...
CONTACT anyone you know in Maryland's 4th District and make certain they are aware of Al Wynn's voting record and of these events .
TELL OTHERS WE WON'T PUT UP WITH THIS KIND OF POLITICS. IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE.