Wynn's Foe Focuses On Breakaway Votes
Popular Lawmaker Put on Defensive

By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 24, 2008

U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Md.), elected to Congress in 1992 as the nation's first representative of a majority-black suburban district, often argues that the best way to bring more constituents into the aspiring middle class is to promote small business and create jobs.

It's why he hosts an annual job fair and another for local contractors who want business with the federal government. It's also why he says he voted in 2005 to repeal the estate tax and became a surprising advocate for casinos in Annapolis in 2003, thinking they would create more jobs than slot machines would.

"It influences a lot of my policy decisions," he said. "It's a somewhat different philosophy of how you deal with some of the social ills that confront the African American community."

In his 15 years in the House, Wynn's supporters say, he has been a vigorous voice for traditional Democratic causes, particularly raising the minimum wage, union protections for federal workers and proposals to expand health insurance for low-income children, vetoed by President Bush last year.

But Wynn has also shown a willingness to step away from his party on some key issues, particularly, he has said, when driven by his philosophy on small and minority business, leading him to votes that have created an opening for challengers. Prince George's County lawyer Donna F. Edwards came within three percentage points of defeating Wynn in 2006 and is running against him again this year in a campaign that has attracted national attention.

Four other less-known Democrats -- Michael Babula, Jason Jennings, George E. McDermott and George E. Mitchell -- are also running against Wynn in the Feb. 12 primary; Robert Broadus, Peter James, Vincent Martorano and Michael Moshe Starkman are competing for the GOP nomination.

Wynn's detractors say he votes too often with Republicans for a representative from an overwhelmingly Democratic district, which comprises portions of Prince George's and Montgomery counties. When Edwards ran in 2006, she criticized his 2002 vote to authorize the use of military force in Iraq. Wynn has said for several years that the vote was a mistake.

This year she is emphasizing his other breakaway votes even more. Where Wynn sees efforts to help small businesses, Edwards see positions influenced by corporate interests who have contributed heavily to Wynn's campaigns.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wynn has raised almost half of his funds for this campaign from corporate political action committees, including more than $63,000 from electric utilities and $12,400 from oil and gas interests. The numbers are based on finance reports filed at the end of September. Updated reports will be made public Jan. 31.

"When you're taking money from special interests . . . it raises the question of whether you're able to do the public interest instead of the corporate special interest," Edwards said recently.

It is a strategy she hopes will help her edge into Wynn's popularity in Prince George's and be particularly effective in Montgomery, where overwhelming support buoyed her previous effort.

Sensing the opening, Edwards's campaign has attracted a coalition of liberal causes, including environmental groups and Emily's List, which supports female candidates who favor abortion rights, as well as heavy investment from the Service Employees International Union.

She also has been able to draw on a network of contacts from national causes forged through years of work as an activist, including as executive director of the nonprofit Arca Foundation and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Wynn says that his votes represent nuanced positions on complicated issues and that he has been unfairly targeted by the groups that back Edwards. Edwards has pledged not to take donations from corporate political action committees, but Wynn says much of her support comes from outside the district. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Edwards's last finance report indicated that 86 percent of her donations were from outside Maryland.

Until Edwards's candidacy, Wynn, 56, a Georgetown-educated lawyer who spent years in the Maryland State House before going to Washington, faced little opposition for his seat, capturing an average of 83 percent of the vote in campaigns against both Democrats and Republicans.

But in 2001, Wynn led a coalition of black lawmakers who opposed a campaign finance bill that banned "soft money" given by unions, corporations and individuals to political parties, not individual candidates.

Working with then-Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), Wynn lent his name to an alternative that would have put a high ceiling on soft money donations. He said the donations were critical for voter registration efforts led by parties and for helping underfunded minority and female candidates.

"At the time, it was immediately cast as anti-reform and a poison pill," said Anthony J. Corrado Jr., a professor of government at Colby College who has studied the issue. He noted that Wynn was not alone in arguing the need for soft money to promote the party system.

Wynn says today that his opposition to the successful legislation has been unfairly characterized.

"I argued for balance," he said. "That's been interpreted as being opposed to campaign finance; therefore, I'm not a progressive. It's a simplistic analysis, and it's unfortunate."

He also has come under fire for several 2005 votes, including on repealing the estate tax. Wynn said he was convinced at the time that the wealthy should be taxed during their lifetime but that taxing estates could prevent business owners from passing their life's work to their children.

"It was a matter of preserving small businesses and preserving jobs -- local restaurants, car dealers, businesses with 200 to 300 jobs," he said.

Since his close 2006 race, Wynn said he has changed his position on the tax.

Also in 2005, Wynn supported a bill that makes it harder for debtors to file for bankruptcy. Wynn said that he argued for protections for those with low incomes but that small businesses lose out when those who could afford to make payments on their debts instead wipe them out through bankruptcy filing.

Edwards has made the vote a centerpiece of her campaign, saying it increased hardships on the financially pressed, including those losing their homes through foreclosure.

"When Congressman Wynn should have been watching, he was protecting the banks and the credit card companies and he wasn't protecting consumers and homeowners," she said.

David A. Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said Wynn's defense that some of his most controversial votes were driven by a desire to protect small businesses will convince only some voters. But he said Wynn's popularity has been rooted in more than legislative stands.

"He's one of those politicians who tends more to the home front than makes a real name for himself in Congress," said Bositis, who focuses on black electoral politics. "How important [those votes] turn out to be depends on the mix of voters."

Indeed, Wynn has touted the benefits to the district of his seniority, which brought him a subcommittee chairmanship. In a news release, he noted that a spending bill passed this month by Congress included $69 million for projects in his district.

He has been endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), which he calls a sign of his liberal credentials, and says Edwards has ignored the importance of compromise for bipartisan solutions.

The NAACP will sponsor a candidates debate Feb. 4 at the Prince George's Community College.

Staff writer Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.