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Much ado over very little

WAMU/Joe Warminsky

The leading challengers in Maryland’s tightly-fought Senate Democratic primary share similar voting records and political philosophies. They’re so evenly matched that they’ve been reduced to quibbling over minor issues, as they did during a radio debate Tuesday. 

It was Representative Donna Edwards’ first negative television ad, released that day, that set off her House colleague Chris Van Hollen on WOLB’s Larry Young Morning Show.

In the ad Edwards suggested Van Hollen was squishy on guns and Social Security. He wasn’t pleased.

“Congresswoman Edwards really needs to stop misleading people,” he fumed. “And unfortunately she’s put this in an ad just this morning.”

Because their records are so similar, Edwards has taken to attacking Van Hollen for being open to compromise on benefit cuts to Social Security, and proposing a campaign finance exemption for the National Rifle Association.

She called it “a point of departure” between them. That may be, but there aren’t many.