Some great news today out of Maryland:
Rep. Donna F. Edwards, long seen as an underdog in the race for Maryland's open U.S. Senate seat, now has a slight lead and is winning among several critical Democratic constituencies, a new poll for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore shows.
The Prince George's County Democrat has opened a significant margin among women, African-Americans and voters in the Baltimore region, considered the most important battleground in the contest to replace retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.
When respondents were asked to consider the entire field of 10 candidates, many of whom have not campaigned, 34 percent of likely Democratic primary voters supported Edwards and 28 percent Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Montgomery County. When respondents' choices were limited to those two, Edwards' lead grew to 10 percentage points.
The numbers have the potential to rewrite the conventional wisdom in the race, which loosely mirrors the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination in that it pits a veteran political figure, Van Hollen, against a self-proclaimed outsider, Edwards. Van Hollen has raised far more money and has a significantly longer list of endorsements.
"He still has a great opportunity, but she's now changed the dynamics of the race," said Steve Raabe, president of OpinionWorks, the Annapolis-based firm that conducted the poll. "She's come up to Baltimore and she's established herself here."
The Sun poll involved 400 likely Democratic primary voters, interviewed between March 4 and 9. The margin of error in the Sun survey is 4.9 percentage points. This is very encouraging news, especially with the U.S. Senate primary election coming up on April 26th. We still have a little bit of time ahead of us and we needs to be ready. Click here to donate and get involved with Edwards’ campaign.
