| Page 3 of 5 < > |
For Md.'s Cardin, the Delight Is in the Details
U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and his wife of more than 40 years, Myrna, met as children growing up "in a neighborhood where families knew everybody."
(By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Crenson said it was a neighborhood rich in tradition and dotted with synagogues. Cardin's late father, Meyer, and uncle, Maurice, both became lawyers and entered Democratic politics. The "family is a political institution in Baltimore," Crenson said.
Cardin said his father, the family patriarch, was elected to the Maryland House before the elder Cardin was married and served from 1935 to 1939. His uncle also served in the State House, from 1951 to 1966.
Cardin was raised with his older brother, Howard, who later served as Baltimore's state's attorney, in a two-bedroom house on Sequoia Avenue in the close-knit Ashburton section of West Baltimore.
"We grew up in politics," Ben Cardin said. "When I was 7 years old, I was on the corner handing out literature. . . . There were political meetings going on all the time. In our house. In other people's houses. I was there when I was a teenager . . . where they would talk about precinct work and organization."
Asked to name a political hero, he points first not to Democratic icons Franklin D. Roosevelt or Kennedy, but to a late Republican mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, Theodore R. McKeldin, who was instrumental in building up Baltimore's modern urban and transportation infrastructure.
McKeldin was also known as one of the first state politicians to court Jewish voters and advisers, and he attended Cardin's bar mitzvah. McKeldin "really opened up both city and state government for opportunity for more diversified representation," Cardin said.
Cardin said he was also deeply influenced by his father, who was the first of his family born in the United States and who went on to become a circuit court judge.
"He looked at politics as an opportunity to empower people otherwise who wouldn't have a chance," Cardin said. "My father taught me from the first day I was elected that you have an unbelievable opportunity to help people. You can open up doors. So use it. Don't waste time."
This is Cardin's first election without his father, who died last year at 97.
But his political support still begins with his family.
"When I first ran for the House of Delegates, even though it was a large district, as long as my family came out to vote I was safe," he joked recently at a breakfast meeting of old friends and relatives.
He said later that he got elected because "people had confidence in my family. They knew me from my family. It was the family connection."
