House Races In Md., Va. Echo Quest For Change

"When I'm your representative in the United States Congress, I will not be bought, I will not sell you out, I will represent you every single day ," said Edwards, 48, a petite woman with a distinctive gap-toothed smile she didn't use much that night.

"And I will bring our troops home from Iraq now. This is unconscionable. And my opponent will say, 'Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for it.' Well, sorry is just too late."

Wynn, a large man dressed that night in a black suit and turquoise tie, seemed taken aback by the unrelenting attack. "Passion and volume," he told the crowd, "are no substitute for truth."

Wynn said that, like many Democrats, he was misled by the Bush administration about the war. Wynn told the NAACP group that Edwards distorts his positions, and he mentioned what he has done for the district: securing more money for a new Metro station, gang intervention, emergency services and new roads. "There's a stark difference between rhetoric and results," he said.

Wynn, 54, has represented the district -- a twisting slice of Montgomery and Prince George's counties that stretches from north of Germantown through parts of Silver Spring and Bowie to Fort Washington -- since 1992. He has steamrolled any opposition and has become a political power in Prince George's County, where about two-thirds of the voters live.

Although Wynn's voting record is generally graded as liberal, he has split several times with the national party and with other Maryland Democrats on some environmental issues, the Bush administration-backed bankruptcy bill and repealing the estate tax.

"We can't take back the House and have people [like Wynn] undermining Nancy Pelosi and her progressive leadership," Edwards said in an interview, referring to the House minority leader. "No matter what, Maryland's 4th District will have a Democrat. It will just have a real one with me."

Edwards, who lives in Fort Washington, is executive director of the Arca Foundation, which funds progressive causes around the country, and she has served on the boards of Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters. Locally, she has led community concerns about the scale and scope of the National Harbor project in Prince George's.

Gloria Steinem is a supporter, as is actor and activist Danny Glover, whose voice can be heard on automated phone calls to voters. "I've run a couple of different national organizations, so I have many, many friends," Edwards said, and her campaign contributions reflect that. She has raised more money from California than Maryland.

"In a solidly Democratic district, it's a good year, because our voters, Democratic voters, are tired of the absolute silence of congressional Democrats," she said.

"This is the first credible challenge Al Wynn has faced. I want him to know that he's in the fight of his life."

In Va., Trail Blazed by Kaine

When Democrats talk about their hopes for Virginia's 10th Congressional District, they mention three numbers: minus 9, plus 4 and 600,000.