Donna Edwards... A U.S. Senator? You Bet!

Despite nonsense from the Beltway media, the only "surprise" about Barbara Mikulski's retirement announcement yesterday was that she made it yesterday. There was no chance she was running for another term. She'll have served in the Senate for thirty years (the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, when you recall that she was also in the House for a decade, from 1977-1987). And she's 78-- and not in the greatest of health.

Now we'll be hearing about all these preposterous Senate wannabe's for the next year and a half-- from conservative multimillionaire John Delaney and soundly rejected ex-Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown to an undistinguished former senator's son and Military Industrial Complex shill Dutch Ruppersberger. Every politician in the state would like this job.

The most natural place to turn, however, is Congresswoman Donna Edwards. Others being mentioned are Chris Van Hollen, Elijah Cummings, Martin O’Malley (who has already announced he's not interested in running), Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. Van Hollen is in line to be Speaker and talk about his big $1.7 million war-chest could as easily be about that climb as about a Senate race. Speculation on the nearly pointless Republican side of the aisle is even sillier.

Former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) could be atop their list. He’s also has been exploring long-shot White House bid. Ehrlich served one term as governor of Maryland but lost to O’Malley in 2006. He challenged O’Malley again in 2010 but got crushed by 14 percentage points.

Rep. Andy Harris, Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh, current Lieutenant Gov. Boyd Rutherford and Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who lost a Senate bid in 2012 and House bid in 2014, are also potential candidates.

Two other names to watch are Ben Carson and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

Carson has moved to Florida, but the retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon still has a house in Baltimore County. He’s currently near the top of many polls in the GOP presidential race, and his political adviser told The Hill that’s where his focus is right now.

Steele has a high profile from his time as chairman of the RNC and as an analyst on MSNBC. He served as Ehrlich's lieutenant governor and lost a 2006 race to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

You'll be hearing more from us about Donna Edwards in the coming days. For now, let me just say her ProgressivePunch crucial vote score for 2015 is 100% and her lifetime crucial vote score is 96.16. She has lived up to her promises to represent ordinary working families... and her constituents love her. She was reelected in November with 70% of the vote and in 2012, the presidential year that will be a lot more like 2016, she won with 77%. She's been a great congresswoman and she'll be a great U.S. senator. If we were to launch a Draft Donna Edwards page, would you support it?

Two In One Day-- Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Retiring?

I don't know how trustworthy this somewhat shady right-wing teabagger blog is but The Vail Spot is reporting that hot on the heels of Evan Bayh's pathetic departure from the public forum, Barbara Mikulski (age 74 years old and ailing) is also on the verge of announcing her retirement. He claims to have "impeccable" sources but I'm not claiming he's an impeccable source, so take it with a grain of salt. Mikulski, unlike Bayh, is a dependable vote for the interests of working families. In the 111th Congress, for example, she's tied with Patrick Leahy as the 23rd most progressive member of the Senate. (Bayh, in contrast, is the 58th, between Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson.)

Presumably Chris Van Hollen would try for the Senate seat, although Maryland progressives would no doubt prefer Donna Edwards. Edwards is not just the BEST member of the Maryland delegation, she would also be the first African-American to serve in the Senate from a state that is nearly 30% African-American and where African-American voters keep the Democrat Party in a state of dominance. The fact that a woman would replace another woman, who was, in fact, Maryland's first woman Senator, isn't the worst of ideas either.

I wonder if Mikulski will decide this is the right time to also come out of the closet. It would be nice that not every gay senator is embarrassed to stand up proudly and just be themselves-- and something tells me we won't be hearing from Lindsey or Miss McConnell along those lines any time soon. I'm not sure when this video, released today by Maryland Democrats, was shot, but in it Mikulski says she's neither shy nor retiring. (She should come out anyway; people would love her for it.)