Last week, Democrats worked to replace Democrat Albert Wynn in Maryland's fourth district with progressive Democrat Donna Edwards. This was an overwhelmingly liberal district where John Kerry beat George W. Bush by a 78%-21% margin, one of the most lopsided margins in the nation. Donna Edwards will likely hold MD-04 seat as long as she wawnts. Democrats appear to be doing the same thing in Iowa's third district, but it is a big, big mistake. While MD-04 went for John Kerry by 78%-21%, IA-03 favored George W. Bush by about 100 votes in 2004.
Democrats are running very liberal Democrat Ed Fallon against moderate Democratic incumbent Leonard Boswell. Boswell has proved to be a perfect fit for this swing district, continuing to win it since 1996 against top-tier Republicans. If Boswell were to lose to Fallon or even almost lose, it would leave a big opening for Republicans to come after this seat. Leonard Boswell may not be perfect, but you cannot deny that he is a near perfect fit for this moderate district.
Democrats are getting into very dangerous territory by challenging moderates in swing or even conservative districts in primaries. This sort of reminds me of 1992 when Democrats thought Democrat Beverly Byron was too Conservative in Maryland's 6th district and ran liberal state Senator Thomas Hattery against her. This was a district that voted 66%-34% for Bush over Dukakis in 1988 and Byron was the only Democrat who could hold the district. Hattery ended up beating her and the losing to right wing Republican Roscoe Bartlett in November, costing Democrats a seat. For the sake of the Democratic majority, I hope people of Iowa's third district will reelect Rep. Leonard Boswell in the June 1st Democratic primary.