Maryland Senate: Ben Cardin, Looking Beyond Race

Here's today's column on the Maryland Senate campaign:

Ben Cardin doesn't say a word about race. The congressman from Baltimore makes his pitch in the atrium of Leslie and Jonathan Nesbitt's lush home in Mitchellville, where a few dozen black professionals have taken time on a lazy, hot Saturday to hear the white guy who is the alternative to a historic face-off between two black candidates for U.S. Senate from Maryland, Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Michael Steele.

But race is what's on people's minds, and they say so:

"I hope you don't mind some unsolicited advice," says Billy Terry, a Washington lobbyist who lives in Prince George's County and supports Cardin in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary. "Don't run away from race. Don't concede anything to anybody. If you say to me, 'I'm committed to rooting out any injustice,' I'm with you, my friend. Don't run away from race -- talk about it."

Cardin, obviously pleased by the comment yet discomfited by the admonition to hit the issue head on, responds by talking about something called the Helsinki Commission, which has to do with human rights in Europe, and his fight on behalf of the Roma, the gypsies of Europe.

A giant "huh?" hangs over the room.

A few minutes later, Rodney Emery tries: "I'm asking you to be honest about a very tough question," says Emery, a lobbyist and former congressional staffer. "I have a friend in Silver Spring who is supporting Mfume, and if Ben Cardin wins the primary, he's going to vote for Steele in November because he says, 'I want my son to realize that another African American can serve in the United States Senate.' What can you say to my friend?"

"People should vote on qualifications, not the color of our skin," Cardin replies. He returns to his main theme: "I have the type of campaign that can win. We are talking about the balance of power in this country. Michael Steele will be a reliable supporter of the president. I hope what you would say is, 'I'm voting for the best person.' "

Ben Cardin is ever reasonable and rational. On the issues, he keeps the audience nodding. He is clearly on their side. But is that enough? Will it suffice in majority-black Prince George's County, where the possibility of an all-black Senate race has created some buzz? Will it work in the D.C. suburbs, where Cardin is barely known, yet where campaign aides say this contest will be decided?

The men who asked the race questions pronounce themselves satisfied, if not exactly bowled over. But they were already disposed to vote for Cardin. Others in the room aren't so sure.

"I'm historically a Democrat, but my mind is open," says Corliss Lawrence, a human relations consultant who lives in Upper Marlboro. "I'm sick of all this polarization. I like someone who can really build bridges -- that's why I really like the governor of Virginia," meaning ex-governor Mark Warner.

Her husband, James Lawrence III, a financial examiner, has followed Mfume's career but knows little about Cardin. Like many here, Lawrence admits that all things being equal, he leans toward the black candidate. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't give him a leg up, but I've got to have more than that. Race is not controlling."

Go to hear Mfume and you get a stirring tale of redemption and achievement, an emotional odyssey in which a poor son of an elevator operator emerges from the gang life to become a congressman and president of the NAACP.

When Ben Cardin steps up, the talk is about the agencies and acronyms that have made up his daily diet during his 19 years in Congress. Look around the room, and people are staring longingly in the

direction of the shrimp on the buffet table. The congressman leaves it to his wife, Myrna, to speak with full heart and moist eyes about her husband's integrity and principles.

Wonkishness is Cardin's weakness and his strength. His aides point to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes and argue that Maryland voters, and especially in the D.C. suburbs, where many people work in government-related fields, prefer serious candidates and don't put much stock in flash. But that is what you say when you have a gray candidate.

Where Cardin's rhetoric does rise above his flat-lining base, he can sound a bit like Mfume. In fact, here's a passage that is word-for-word what Mfume told a Prince George's group two weeks earlier: "Forty-six million people in this country without health insurance -- that's a national disgrace! We can do better than that!" Cardin staffers say there's no mimicry of the opponent here; rather, both men are adopting a theme the national Democratic Party has put out for any candidates to use.

Cardin says he has no major policy differences with Mfume. Instead, he emphasizes his time in Congress, his well-organized campaign and his hefty advantage in funding -- it's the electability argument that pushed John Kerry over the top in the last round of Democratic presidential primaries.

Although Cardin does not expect to win Prince George's, he intends to spend a lot of time in the county, sending the message that he takes no one for granted. Cardin can win the primary even if Mfume takes Prince George's, but Cardin cannot beat Steele in November if Prince George's County's black voters stay home or defect in large numbers.

The shadow of 2002 gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend looms large over Democrats in Maryland. The perception that she took the black vote for granted has many blacks watching Cardin carefully. On this day in Mitchellville, he may not collect many votes, but he wins plenty of respect, and for now that's enough.

By Marc Fisher |  July 16, 2006; 11:31 PM ET
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