The Wages of Wynn

In a race that received a significant amount of national attention and an influx of outside money, Donna Edwards defeated eight-term incumbent Albert Wynn for the Democractic nomination to represent Maryland's overwhelmingly big-D Democratic 4th Congressional district. Edwards was heavily backed by progressive labor interests, including the SEIU, who saw Wynn as too pro-business. Not all labor groups took the same tack, however. A month ago, Wynn was endorsed by the Maryland teachers unions:

Congressman Wynn has shown political courage in raising major concerns about the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Law," Clara Floyd, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association, said in a statement. "If we want to make sure that every child has access to great public schools, then Congress must provide the flexibility and resources needed to make that happen."

Which just goes to show that there's no so such thing as a free lunch in politics. If you're going to throw your weight around Congress pursuing this or that legislative agenda--in this case, opposing parts of the proposed NCLB reauthorization legislation that was considered late last year--then you have no choice but to step up and support the candidates you're leaning on when they're politically vulnerable; if you don't, the premises of your pressure tactics fall apart. This wasn't just an education phenonomena, some other AFL / CIO affiliated unions endorsed Wynn as well. The problem with taking the short-term benefit of influencing someone to your cause is that in the long term the quo always comes back to the quid and you end up crosswise with people who should be your allies while alienating the new person who kicks your guy out of office.