Personally, I like Chris Van Hollen. He’d make a fine senator. But I like Donna Edwards more. And she’d be an electrifying senator.
Even the prospect of Edwards getting into the Maryland race to replace Barbara Mikulski has reporters and analysts defining it as a white vs. black thing, or a fight for Mikulski’s legacy as a trailblazing woman in the Senate. That’s unfortunate.
Van Hollen deserves consideration on his merits, not as a foil for some gender or race priority. And Edwards shouldn’t be treated as a black candidate or simply as the flag bearer for senatorial women. She’s an outstanding politician and advocate on her own.
I hope the two candidates will resist the temptation to emphasize their superficial differences and will fight it out on the high road. This won’t be easy, especially with the need to raise so much money. But I’d hate to see nasty divisions on the left open up over this contest.
I’ll be supporting Edwards, but that doesn’t mean that I think Van Hollen is a bad guy or a weak candidate to run against the Republicans. If they run this race the way it should be run, we can’t lose no matter who wins.
