More on Van Hollen on Raskin and Ruben

The latest on the increasingly bare-knuckled battle for the District 20 senate seat is that Rep. Chris Van Hollen did issue a statement highly critical of incumbent Sen. Ida Ruben's campaign flyer. The flyer attacks challenger Jamie Raskin as not a real Democrat and claims that he opposes abortion rights. Van Hollen's statement was a short but devastating; he likened Ruben's tactics to Karl Rove's and implied she is dishonest. If this were a Republican primary, maybe this statement would assure Ruben's reelection but District 20 is a very progressive rock-solid Democratic district so being likened to Karl Rove is not a vote winner.

Ruben and Van Hollen have feuded for years. Ruben was furious when Van Hollen replaced her as Vice Chair of the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation Committee in 2000. Ruben strongly backed District 15 Del. Mark Shriver in the Democratic congressional primary in 2002. While a natural reaction, this choice was risky and Ruben ultimately lost that bet. Rep. Van Hollen is now far more powerful and presumably has good reason to have even less friendly feelings toward Ruben than when they served in the Senate. One tricky wrinkle for Van Hollen is that Rep. Al Wynn, who also represents District 20 in the U.S. House, has endorsed Ruben.

Nevertheless, it is a very dangerous position for Ruben since Raskin will certainly do his best to make sure that Democratic voters are aware of Van Hollen's statement but not of the long-standing bad blood between Ruben and Van Hollen. Ruben cannot exactly rush to explain the situation either as it will only serve to reinforce claims that she is ineffective and unable to get along with her Senate colleagues. The endorsement of Raskin by Montgomery County's chapter of NOW also undercuts Ruben's false claim that Raskin is anti-choice. My guess is that MoCo NOW isn't in the habit of recommending pro-life men over pro-choice women.

Ruben undoubtedly feels that Van Hollen's defense of Raskin is particularly unjustified after the Seniors Organized for Change debate in which Raskin cast Ruben as practically being in lockstep in the Bush-Cheney Administration even though she is clearly a liberal Democrat. However, like life, politics is not always very fair. One can also argue that there is a difference between a debate to a limited audience in which both candidates can defend themselves against attacks and a mass mailing which presents only viewpoint.

Ruben may have lobbed a bomb at Raskin but it has blown up in her face.