Democrat Donna Edwards was elected to the House or Representatives Wednesday in a special election for Maryland's 4th congressional district. She will fill the remaining term for former Rep. Al Wynn, who resigned at the end of May.
Voters in Maryland's 4th congressional district are heading to the polls today in a special election to choose their representative to the U.S. House. The seat is open because former Rep. Al Wynn resigned at the end of May following his loss in February's primary election. Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley (D), has called a special election to fill the remainder of Wynn's term.
Don't feel too bad for Wynn. When he left Congress last month he took advantage of a loophole in congressional ethics laws that bar exiting representatives from becoming lobbyists for one year. Wynn, following the example of others before him, has taken a job merely "advising" clients at the huge federal lobbying firm he has gone to work for, but will not directly "lobby" the federal government. It's nice work if you can get it.
More information on the candidates running for Wynn's seat after the jump.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate this week will be keeping all options on the table while trying to complete legislation prior to the July 4 summer recess. Extended unemployment benefits are still awaiting approval, and a tax measure torpedoed by Senate Republicans last week will once again be on the agenda. In addition, confirmation hearings may proceed for five nominees to the Federal Election Commission, while the House may try to make another push for a new energy package.
The senate should take up an unemployment insurance benefit extension approved by the House last week. The Senate has already approved one such extension, as part of the Iraq War supplemental spending bill. President Bush has threatened to veto the war money if it contains domestic spending. However, the benefits might not survive in the Senate if they’re not attached to the war supplemental.
The big events this week were the House, after two tries, approving an unemployment benefits extension Thursday, while Senate Republicans filibustered and blocked two bills: a an energy package that cut tax breaks for oil companies while encouraging more renewable energy alternatives and a reversal of scheduled cuts in Medicare services payments to doctors. President Bush also announced another nominee to the Federal Election Commission and three states held congressional primary elections.
After failing to reach a 2/3 majority required for “fast track” passage on Wednesday, House Democrats pushed an extension of unemployment benefits through with a simple majority vote on Thursday. Originally slated for inclusion in an Iraq War supplemental spending bill, the legislation includes an additional 13 weeks of benefits beyond the 26 already allowed. States with high rates of unemployment would be eligible for an additional 13 weeks.
As far back as January, Democratic leaders in the Senate wanted to expand jobless benefits and were lately looking to the Iraq supplemental funding package as the conduit, despite repeated veto threats from President Bush. Statistics released this week showed that the unemployment rate jumped .5 percent, the largest increase in 20 years, and Democratic leaders cited the worsening situation as the impetus behind the “fast track” option.
There weren't many surprises Tuesday, when voters in Maine and Virginia chose their parties' nominees for the November congressional elections (as did North Dakota, though both parties' primaries for the one House seat were uncontested).
You've heard the term "greenwashing." It refers to corporations that try to appear "green" without reducing their negative impact on the environment.
Since 2002, the group Breast Cancer Action has promoted its "Think Before You Pink" campaign. It's fighting "pinkwashing," which is when corporations try to boost sales by associating their products with the fight against breast cancer. Pinkwashing is a form of slacktivism -- a campaign that makes people feel like they're helping solve a problem, while they're actually doing more to boost corporate profits. Pinkwashing has been around for a while, but is now reaching almost unbelievable levels.
By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas
We've moved past the presidential primary season, and through the summer and early fall we'll be focusing these election-day posts on congressional races. States holding nominating contests for House and Senate seats today include Maine, North Dakota and Virginia, and there are a few interesting match-ups to note.
Virginia should play a pivotal role in the 2008 election cycle, since Democrats have been making inroads there — especially on the congressional level — for the past few years. Still, only a few of the state's congressional districts have comptetive primaries today. At the top of the ballot, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is unopposed by other Democrats in the U.S. Senate race. Virginia Republicans, meanwhile, decided to nominate their candidate via convention, and chose Warner's predeccesor Jim Gilmore two weeks ago. Most of the activity is in House races, especially in the 8th and 10th districts.
Click through for more on the congressional primaries)
As Paul Schmelzer wrote on the Minnesota Independent website, "There were two National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend: the one I attended and the one Bill O'Reilly, Juan Williams and Fox News talking head Mary Catherine Ham didn't."
O'Reilly's show tried to manufacture controversy about the conference, which I and others from the Center for Media and Democracy attended. But before addressing that, how about some real news on a genuinely controversial issue?
During Sunday's closing plenary, FCC Commissioner and fake news foe Jonathan Adelstein pledged to push for multiple thorough investigations of the Pentagon military analyst program. So far, the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have launched inquiries into the Defense Department's secret cultivation of military pundits. But those investigations aren't enough.
By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas
The House and Senate have yet to reconcile their versions of an Iraq/Afghanistan war spending supplemental, though the House should take up the measure again this week. The level of domestic spending in the bill is the sticking point, so look for debate on offsets and unemployment insurance. Meanwhile, the Senate will consider a package of energy legislation, and might get to tax legislation already approved by the House.
Extended unemployment insurance has been a priority for majority Democrats all year, especially in the Senate: it was originally in that chamber’s economic stimulus package. Though the benefits were not included in the measure signed by President Bush in February, the Senate majority leadership has continued to promote them.
When time came to debate a new spending supplemental for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saw an opportunity to include domestic priorities in what the White House has traditionally called must-pass legislation. Extended unemployment insurance was one such measure attached to the defense spending.
John Stodder has written the most interesting commentary I've seen from within the public relations industry about former Bush administration press secretary Scott McClellan's new book. It's interesting in part because Stodder is an interesting figure. For those who remember this sort of thing, he was one of two executives at the Fleishman-Hillard PR firm (the other was Douglas Dowie) who were convicted in May 2006 of multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud in a scheme to overbill the city of Los Angeles for public relations consulting services.
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