| Why did you decide to run for Congress?
I’ve lived in Maryland’s fourth Congressional District for 25 years. I’ve spent a lot of time engaged in my community, and in my professional life, on national policy. In recent years, I took a serious look at the record of our incumbent and found it appalling. He doesn’t represent what I believe are the values of this district, and I know he’s never been challenged on that.
I’m also able to do this now because my son, Jared, is almost 18. He just graduated high school and is getting ready to go to college. Although I thought about running a couple of years ago, I couldn’t envision doing that and being the kind of mom I wanted to be. I’m an involved and engaged mother. Even though in my job as executive director of the ARCA Foundation, I did a lot of travel, I always managed to organize and balance things so that I could focus on being there for him. So with him going to college, this is a good time for me.
Why do you consider yourself a Muckraking Mom?
Because I’ve never really separated the hard work of being a mom full-time with being an activist and an advocate. For me those things go hand in hand. So in my community, when I fight against slot machines, or work to clean up a road (We just picked up 25 bags of trash off a neighborhood road), all those things are very personal to me. I want my son to graduate college and feel like he would like to come back to the community where he’s grown up.
My husband Mark and I joke that when Leo grows up he has to live next door.
Jared doesn’t have to live next door, but it would be nice to have him within earshot.
You are running on issues that affect people in their daily lives, from health care to energy policy to the war in Iraq. How does being a mom affect what issues you feel are most important?
Looking at my opponent’s record, he’s been very wrong on several really critical issues that define who we are and who we want to be. When I think about the war in Iraq, I think about the heavy toll it is taking not only on men and women serving there—some of them from Maryland, and some from the fourth Congressional District—but also the toll it is taking taking our country economically for future generations. The spending is now over $300 billion. Right now it is really tough, almost impossible to set important priorities at home when the war is taking so much of our resources—and it’s a failed war effort at that. These are issues that are really important to our community. Do we have enough money to fund the No Child Left Behind program? No, because we have different priorities. Can we rebuild our infrastructure for energy? No, because our priorities are misplaced.
You’ve raised less money than your opponent, Albert Wynn, for your race. Having worked in the field of campaign finance reform for years, you know that the person who raises the most money more often than not wins. What is your strategy?
Having worked on campaign finance reform for many years, and at Arca, funding efforts for reform, this run for Congress still set an entirely different light for me on the difficulty of being a challenger who has something to say and something to give to our community. In this country it’s really complicated to do that. I realized at the outset that I would not get money from industry PACs, like my opponent does, not from the telecommunications, oil, and banking industries.
But I don’t want that money because I believe in the power of individual citizens in the fourth Congressional District and throughout our country who will enable me to make this run successful. In first quarter I raised almost $200,000, and that’s not small change for a challenger. We have to probably double that in order to win this race, but it’s possible and doable. It will mean real people will win out over corporate interests.
This race is showing the real need for campaign finance reform. My opponent’s record on reform is that, in 2002, during the Congressional debate about whether to ban unregulated soft money contributions to federal parties, he supported allowing individuals to contribute up to $75,000 to federal parties. [Muckraking Mom adds: Wynn’s amendment, to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act failed. It was co-sponsored by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who this week announced he will not run for reelection. Ney is under scrutiny for his close ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.]
In my view, it’s the people who own elections, not the special interests. I want to work in the interest of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. I want to build our communities. We ought to have a system that enables people like me to run for election without being at a financial disadvantage.
Right now women hold just 15 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives. Of these 67 women, 12 are African American women. How does being a woman and a mom affect your approach to being a member of Congress?
You learn how to organize yourself and be focused on what you can accomplish because the day is only so long. On a policy level, it’s a different way of looking at things. It’s much more holistic. Many of the women members of Congress are very clear on focusing on issues supporting families. I think we have a lot to say about issues, about war and peace and spending priorities. I would certainly bring that framework to the Congress.
When I look back now I realize that before I was a mom I was not very patient. I thought everything had to be done yesterday. I think I’ve just learned and grown so much. Running for Congress is a tough job and so are other things I’ve done. Jared was born when I was in my third year of law school. But looking back at this, there’s not anything I’ve done that’s been more challenging, also not anything I’ve done that is more rewarding. I know that gets said but it’s the absolute truth. |
