MD-04

Students at the University of Maryland, College Park are coming out strong for blogosphere favorite Donna Edwards, who is running against Democratic incumbent Al Wynn:

November 12, 2007 (COLLEGE PARK, MD) Students at the University of Maryland, College Park are organizing along with activists, families and other community members from all over Prince George's and Montgomery County to support Donna Edwards in her bid to beat DINO Congressman Al Wynn (MD-4). Edwards is running a strong campaign to unseat Wynn, who consistently sides with Republicans on key votes such as authorizing the war in Iraq, the 2005 bankruptcy bill, Dick Cheney's energy bill, repealing the estate tax, and other pieces of radically conservative legislation.

Wynn is backed by the same Prince George's County political machine that has produced an array of corrupt and out-of-touch politicians in local and state government. He is also helped by hundreds of thousands in oil, nuclear energy, Walmart and telecommunications PAC money.

This is good to see.

Edwards is a blogosphere favorite. Blue Majority - the Act Blue page supported by Daily Kos, Open Left, MyDD and Swing State Project - has raised almost $40,000 for Edwards on the site, and Edwards has raised almost a quarter of a million total on ActBlue. Most bloggers see Wynn's seat as a prime pickup opportunity to replace an extremely conservative Democrat with a progressive fighter. Edwards' chances are good, as she came close to beating Wynn in 2006.

I think this is solid decision on the part of Maryland youth. Hopefully these students will be able to add real value to Edward's campaign, and, by turning out the youth vote for a more progressive representative, and earn young voters and local youth organizers some cred in the blogosphere.

You can read more here at the Free State Politics blog.

Does anyone know if there is an organization in Maryland equivalent to the Bus Project or Forward Montana? I've never heard about Maryland having a solid youth infrastructure, but it is very close to DC (Wynn's district is adjacent to DC, actually) . . . I wonder if any DC groups will throw some resources in to GOTVing young voters in the district.

Regardless, this is definitely something to follow.