Tonight is the deadline for candidate contributions this quarter. Yeah, you can still give tomorrow, but money you give today will become part of the case the Blue Majority candidates make to the public, to the DCCC or DSCC, to big donors who may not judge by the same criteria we do.
But if those criteria are important to you -- if you want not just more but better Democrats, Democrats serious about getting the US out of Iraq and protecting our civil liberties -- this is where you should be going.
As we've pointed out a number of times in the past week, two Blue Majority candidates have already won this cycle. Bill Foster cast the deciding vote on an ethics bill his first day in office. And it didn't take Al Wynn long after losing his primary to Donna Edwards to decide to cash in -- so we don't even have to wait until January for him to be out of the House. How's that for having an impact?
There's another chance to have an impact before November. Blue Majority candidate Leslie Byrne is in a June primary against a "pro-business Democrat" whose friendliness to the wealthy is helping him build a fundraising advantage. She's at 676 contributions on our page right now. That makes it a long shot to get to 1,000 by the end of the day, but with June coming up quickly and the possibility of getting another "better Democrat" through to a general election, can we maybe do it?
Byrne isn't the only candidate to give to, of course -- Joe Garcia, Gary Trauner, and Rick Noriega are all still under 1,000, and this isn't all you'll hear about them today -- but she's on a deadline. If you care what kind of Democrats we field, or you just don't want to wait until November to see results, chip in for Byrne.
Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) is expected to announce Thursday afternoon that he will leave the House in June to join a Washington, D.C., law firm, according to Democratic sources.
Wynn was defeated in February in his bid for a ninth term when he lost the Democratic primary to challenger Donna Edwards.
And good riddance. Question now is whether there will be a special election to fill the remainder of his term. I wouldn't mind getting Edwards into the seat sooner rather than next January.
Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila is among several people named in a sealed indictment, officials said Thursday, as U.S. authorities made the first arrests in a long-running probe into his party's finances.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least five officials from the Popular Democratic Party as they were led in handcuffs into the U.S. federal building in San Juan.
While I have in some way, shape, or form supported the Congressional Black Congress (CBC) over the years, however, they have of late made me doubt their relevancy. The CBC sells itself as a watchdog over Congress, looking for civil rights violations, or though legistlation that adversely affects people of color. But with the win of Donna Edwards over Al Wynn, the CBC is crying foul, even insinuating the SEIU involved themselves in intra-Black issue.
I'm tired and happy, and the last few days have been kind of a blur. Anyway, I just thought I'd come by and answer questions and thank you for your incredible help over the past few years. Together we're going to change Congress and the direction of this country.
Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome. I'll be here for an hour or so.
Last night Donna Edwards defeated Al Wynn in their democratic primary. First off, I would like to congratulate Donna Edwards in a well run campaign. Ms. Edwards will be one more voice in a hopefully growing chorus of progressive democrats supporting democratic values.
Progressive Democrats of America, Democracy For America, Kossacks and other groups and bloggers from across the US helped progressive challenger Donna Edwards win a stunning upset victory against eight-term incumbent Albert Wynn. Despite Wynn's huge advantages in terms of special interest contributions and insider connections, Donna Edwards marshaled support from what Wynn's campaign dismissed as "a vast left-wing conspiracy" to defeat the most conservative member of the Congressional Black Caucus. With 76% of the precincts reporting, Donna led by 60% to 35%, a margin of more than 22,000 votes. Because the 4th district is overwhelmingly Democratic, Donna is a sure bet to win this seat in the November general election.
In Maryland's 4th Congressional District, Representative Al Wynn was known for his habit of taking donations from big corporations...and then returning the favor with his votes. On more than one occasion, his votes sided with large, multinational corporations, even at the expense of his own constituents. One of those corporations was Wal-Mart.
In 2005, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut proposed an ammendment to the 2006 labor appropriations bill. As explained on TomPaine.com at the time, "This bill barred any spending of money by the Department of Labor to implement the part of the deal the department had made with Wal-Mart calling for advance notice of inspections any time the DOL planned to investigate Wal-Mart."
Predictions in primaries are always dicey. It is cold today, it may rain or snow in parts of the region. Still, I expect a heavy turnout, and would think the lower end of Obama's margin in the two states is 18%, and conceivable could reach 25. In DC it will be a blow-out: the margin will be better than 2-1, and it is not inconceivable that Obama could reach 70%.
. As I look at not quite complete returns from the three jurisdictions, I see VA at 64-35 (+29), MD at 59-37 (+22), and DC at 75-24 (+51!). My title had asked the question "Game on, or game over?" I now thing, barring something totally unexpected, the answer is getting very close to the latter. Or to use an old metaphor from sports, I hear the fat lady warming up in the next room.
It's official. Meet your new congresswoman from Maryland! Donna Edwards still has a general election to ratify the victory, but in this district, that's a done deal.
As I wrote time and time again, we don't have the money to buy off our politicians, and the bad Democrats know we're not about to start voting for Republicans. So the only way we can hold our caucus accountable is to send notice that we will primary them. And sure, they may survive such primaries. But sometimes they won't.
We'll be working this fall for "more" Democrats, but today we struck a blow on behalf of better Democrats.
Our caucus is once again on notice. If they continue to serve corporate interests rather than their constituents, if they insist on remaining aloof to the nation's popular sentiment, they'll get booted in a Democratic primary like Joe Lieberman in 2006 and Al Wynn in 2008.
This is going to be an extremely short diary, and there is no other reason to go to click "read more" because the only point of the diary is this screenshot, lifted off the website of the Washington Post:
Not sure if cathartic is the word, but I think the lesson to learn from this is that we should hope the weather is bad in November. Clearly that's the reason why turnout was this disproportionately tilted towards the Dems.
Updated below the fold with the national snapshot from the front page of the WaPo w/98% reporting.
Updated again, the first national update was only the D.C. snapshot, I've added Maryland & Virginia, where the weather probably wasn't as bad judging by turnout.
Update: Open Left is tallying precincts as they come in. It's starting to look like a rout. This may turn into the biggest victory of the night.
More precincts. PG-13-06: in 2006 it was 463-265 Wynn, and in 2008 568-513 for Donna. PG-13-04: It went 260-250 Wynn in 2006, but in 2008, it went 469-299 for Edwards. Turning into a rout. Brutal but awesome.
U.S. House (Dem) - District 4 (88 of 173 precincts - 51 percent)
Michael Babula - Dem (1%)
Donna Edwards - Dem (59%)
Jason Jennings - Dem (1%)
George McDermott - Dem (1%)
George Mitchell - Dem (1%)
Al Wynn - Dem (37%)
Progressive Democrats of America National Board Chair Mimi Kennedy flew in from L.A. Friday night to ride through Maryland's 4th District on a Bus. PDA National Board Member Rev. Lennox Yearwood rushed back from an appearance in Texas to Prince Georges County, where was "born, went to public school, was ordained, and commissioned into the Air Force." Why? To rally voters for Donna Edwards, the most exciting and progressive candidate this district has seen. The room was packed with Donna's supporters, swelled by PDA members from Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties. Local Democracy for America (DFA) leaders including Sharon Polidoro, Maida Schifter, Suzanne St. Cyr and Donna's Montgomery County Campaign Organizer Gina Angiola joined in.
It's official. Meet your new congresswoman from Maryland! Donna Edwards still has a general election to ratify the victory, but in this district, that's a done deal.
