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Senator Barbara Mikulski announced today that she will not be running for re-election next year, bringing her 30-year tenure in the Senate to an end. This sets up what could be an interesting race to succeed her. The natural candidate might be Chris Van Hollen, the most high-profile of the state's House members. But keep your eye on Donna Edwards, who represents a district centered in Prince George's County (inevitably described as "vote-rich").
The latest Voteview rankings put Edwards as the 11th-most liberal member of the House, but unlike your average passionate liberal, she's also an extremely shrewd politician. In 2006, having spent her career in nonprofit advocacy, she challenged Al Wynn, the Democrat who had been cruising to easy re-elections for years, but had become increasingly conservative. Wynn won by a hair, but two years later Edwards ran again and obliterated him in the primary.
I have no idea if Edwards is interested in running, but she's always had big fans in the progressive community nationwide. If she ran, she'd be able to raise a lot of money from the netroots, and the fact that she'd be only the second black woman ever elected to the Senate means her election would be a pretty big deal.
There's no shortage of ambitious Democrats in Maryland, and I'm sure that at least a half-dozen are gazing out the windows of their offices today, contemplating what it would be like to be a United States senator. Could be a very interesting primary.
