On Race Issue, Cardin's Caution Won't Play Well

Rep. Ben Cardin, right, who is running for U.S. Senate, talks to residents at the Rock Creek Terrace Apartments. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

When Ben Cardin steps up, the talk is about the agencies and acronyms that have made up his daily diet during his 19 years in Congress. Look around the room, and people are staring longingly in the

direction of the shrimp on the buffet table. The congressman leaves it to his wife, Myrna, to speak with full heart and moist eyes about her husband's integrity and principles.

Wonkishness is Cardin's weakness and his strength. His aides point to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes and argue that Maryland voters, and especially in the D.C. suburbs, where many people work in government-related fields, prefer serious candidates and don't put much stock in flash. But that is what you say when you have a gray candidate.

Where Cardin's rhetoric does rise above his flat-lining base, he can sound a bit like Mfume. In fact, here's a passage that is word-for-word what Mfume told a Prince George's group two weeks earlier: "Forty-six million people in this country without health insurance -- that's a national disgrace! We can do better than that!" Cardin staffers say there's no mimicry of the opponent here; rather, both men are adopting a theme the national Democratic Party has put out for any candidates to use.

Cardin says he has no major policy differences with Mfume. Instead, he emphasizes his time in Congress, his well-organized campaign and his hefty advantage in funding -- it's the electability argument that pushed John Kerry over the top in the last round of Democratic presidential primaries.

Although Cardin does not expect to win Prince George's, he intends to spend a lot of time in the county, sending the message that he takes no one for granted. Cardin can win the primary even if Mfume takes Prince George's, but Cardin cannot beat Steele in November if Prince George's County's black voters stay home or defect in large numbers.

The shadow of 2002 gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend looms large over Democrats in Maryland. The perception that she took the black vote for granted has many blacks watching Cardin carefully. On this day in Mitchellville, he may not collect many votes, but he wins plenty of respect, and for now that's enough.

E-mail:marcfisher@washpost.com