Edwards Not Only Dem Interested in District 4
Here's someone unhappy that the Maryland General Assembly has passed legislation to eliminate a special primary election to fill out Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D)'s congressional term: Jason Jennings, a former contestant for the seat.
Jennings, a utility consultant from Montgomery County, was one of five Democrats who challenged Wynn for the seat in February. He's far less well known than nonprofit executive Donna F. Edwards, who soundly defeated Wynn and will take on the Republican nominee in November.
Wynn announced he will resign from Congress on May 31. That meant Gov. Martin O'Malley was left with the choice of leaving his seat vacant until January or holding primary and general elections to find a temp to fill in until then. Instead, he proposed legislation, which passed the assembly last week, that will allow the district to hold just one special election, featuring candidates chosen by the party apparatus.
That pleases many people in the state, who believe it's a way to cut down on the expense of what is widely-considered to be an elaborate and costly formality standing in the way of Edwards assuming her seat a bit early.
But not Jennings, who got 1.1 percent of the vote in February -- exactly tying fellow Democrat Michael Babula for fourth place in the contest.
He says he would have run against Edwards in a Democratic primary to be the temporary representative -- and in a low-turnout special primary, who knows the outcome? He noted many people told him they were interested in voting for him but were so disenchanted with Wynn they felt the need to back Edwards to get him out of office.
A special primary election, sans Wynn, would have been a chance to see how much of Edwards' support came from those who were simply trying to oust Wynn and how much "constitutes the development of the base of Ms. Edwards," Jennings said.
Jennings said the cost of two special elections was a concern to him too but suggested O'Malley could have eliminated the primary process by declaring an open general election, in which anyone interested could have run.
Even so, Jennings said he will seek the Democratic party's nomination in the process established by the legislation. In fact, he said he plans to start calling Democratic central committee members in Montgomery and Prince George's to let them know he's interested. "Otherwise, they might not even know," he said.
By Rosalind Helderman |
April 15, 2008; 12:03 PM ET
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Rosalind Helderman
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Posted by: Robin Ficker Broker Robin Realty | April 15, 2008 1:54 PM
Dear comment Maryland I phoned COfcr.Leonard Haams 6months ago or so but an living in San Gabriel CA then it was to aleviate response to Pacific Coast fire employee aid he was busy with an civic center event or so recent out of LA India the country buys Jaguar and Jeep to begin manufacturers I barely drive a Nissan but thats ok when I went to India the suspension bridge towards the Taj Mahal was lined with back to back BMWs noted tho at $40,000 a pop that anything in radiology supersedes notes on supsension fluids but the new LAPD building here doenlt supreme court the april 15 compounded by the Benedict visit unless Arnold supersedes George in religion and other precedents. Have a good day noted that EXXON GOP was near $45billion any amount similar to Microsofts donation to the Methodist trust for An virus R&d NOTING gas prices should come down if the t-bill Karl Ichan could maneuver out of brown vs education while george meats head on with the vatican oh well drive systems engineering and space cash outlays no Fulbright &Jaworski for enron and the 457 attorneis flooding the supreme court prior to Pennsylvanias debate for Texass' difficulties at church note the Baltimore Jaguar secretary
Posted by: Anne Marie Counsell | April 15, 2008 5:53 PM
In most other states, when a Congressional seat is vacated early, the Governor simply appoints someone to fill in the remainder of the term. I'm sure Maryland thought having a special election rather than an appointment was more democratic...however in reality this is a huge waste of taxpayers' money. It will cost over $1 million to hold an election with next to no turnout, to fill a seat for 6 months. Meanwhile the voters have already shown they want Ms. Edwards as their next representative, and she will surely win the special election.
It's already bad enough in Maryland that many of our statewide and local election cycles don't coincide with the Presidential elections, which then requires us to spend more on the additional elections in off-years. If the gubernatorial, mayoral, city council, and county executive (all four year terms) elections were scheduled/combined with the Presidential elections, the state would save huge amounts of money without any harm to democracy (in fact, more people would probably wind up voting in the smaller races than they do currently, since they could vote in all races at one time). Now we're going to require this special election. Where is the pragmatism Gov. O'Malley showed all those years as Baltimore Mayor? With all the budget woes, he should realize there are more important things on which this money could be spent in PG county.
Now there's criticism being directed towards Ms. Edwards that by not holding both a special primary and special general election, she's being given favorable treatment. Don't blame her. The blame should be on Al Wynn, who decided to cash in with the lobbying world, rather than serve out the remainder of his responsibility.
Posted by: A Maryland Voter | April 21, 2008 11:59 AM
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SB 1014, the
Donna Edwards Protection Act, which did away with the Primary Special Election and which was lobbied hard by Donna Edwards, may end up in Federal Court. We shall know more in a couple of weeks. African Americans were wrongly denied the vote for so long. This new law is a giant step in the wrong direction.