MD-04 - Donna Edwards - The Most Important Potomac Primary Victory for Alaska Politics

I'm particularly happy about Donna Edwards' crushing primary victory in Maryland's 4th District for three reasons. The first is personal: Ms. Edwards is the only out-of-state candidate we've ever donated to more than once.

The second reason might not have much resonance in Alaska, but it is hard to tell yet: There are growing signs that Democrats nationwide want more change in their party than the Party leadership seems to be able to digest. We went through that in Alaska in 2006 with Sarah Palin's crushing primary defeat of incumbent Frank Murkowski in the gubernatorial primary. Palin was heavily outspent - just as Edwards was by the incumbent Democratic Representative Albert Wynn. In the 2006 GOP Alaska Primary, voters rejected the anointed one of their party establishment for somebody without ties to discredited modalities of doing politics as usual.

But that was Alaska Republican politics, a populist revolt against an increasingly obvious dysfunctional corrupt party, that has dominated our state's agenda for 14 years. Donna Edwards challenged a leading statewide figure in the Democratic Party.

Here in Alaska, the Democratic Party has been out of power long enough that I have to explain to my 21-year-old daughter what it was like, for her to envision Democrats influencing our state's policies, either in Juneau, or in Washington, DC.

Which brings me to reason three. As I've written here before, I've been volunteering for Diane Benson since the summer of 2006. Although I respect Jake Metcalfe and have a lot of respect for Ethan Berkowitz, I don't see them as agents of change for our future to the degree Benson could be. For several reasons - most of them outside the details of these three fine Alaskans' platforms.

People of color, women of color, are being treated with far more respect this cycle nationwide by voters than they are by the establishment press. Here in Alaska, Benson has been largely ignored by the Anchorage Daily News, especially in terms of her strong record over many years as an advocate for civil rights, womens' rights and protection for victims of sexual abuse.

When, last fall, her campaign gave the ADN over three days notice on her press conference announcing her request for a U.S. House ethics investigation into the probably unconstitutional conduct of Rep. Don Young in inserting a highly questionable earmark into the 2005 omnibus transportation bill after House passage, the ADN sent nobody to cover the story. Their excuses then were totally lame.

They've since written about the seriousness of Young's misconduct more than once, but contrary to their e-mails to the Benson campaign last fall on their lack of coverage of Benson's ethics investigation request, they've studiously avoided mentioning her role in the outrage over this issue.

I'm on the verge of saying the ADN and other Alaska media outlets have treated Benson with less respect because she's a woman of color. But that wouldn't be fair. They've avoided her because they follow the money, just as Veco and Conoco-Phillips and Exxon and a host of other monied interests who buy lots of ads in their space or time have trained them to. The fact that Benson is a woman of color is only a very small part of why she isn't considered to be somebody on the par of her two primary opponents. As Al Wynn just learned, to his surprise, we're entering a new age in terms of voter outrage.

All this being said, the Alaska Democratic Party needs to deal with the bullshit of having the Congressional Primary in late August. Whoever wins the battle to contest Don or his GOP successor this coming November, needs more than the ten weeks she or he will have to put a viable campaign together.

Donna Edwards has just been given eight months. Our next check to her campaign goes out the day after payday.

Update - Wednesday: Case in point - today's ADN carries an editorial about George Wills' anti-Don Young op-ed, referenced at PA last weekend. Again, the ADN fails to mention Diane Benson's important role in questioning Young's earmark rewrite. Why is it this out-of-touch Neanderthal wonk from inside the Beltway has more resonance with the ADN editors than this courageous Alaska Native woman?