Comfortably ensconced after eight years in Congress, Rep. Albert R. Wynn ought to be finding it easy going as he makes his way through the church-and-community-meeting circuit of his latest campaign.
He's an established, well-financed Democrat who commands considerable respect in the heavily Democratic suburbs of Washington. His opponent, John B. Kimble, is an unconventional Republican perhaps best known for a past attempt to generate publicity by offering to pose for Playgirl magazine.
But Kimble has enlisted a most unlikely ally, someone who claims to know all of the congressman's dirty laundry and doesn't mind sharing it - his estranged wife.
Ever since Jessie Wynn signed on as Kimble's campaign chairwoman and began airing her marital grievances in telephone and Web site messages, Maryland's 4th District race has achieved national notoriety as having all the subtlety of a Jerry Springer television show.
"It's an unusual, uncomfortable situation," the congressman acknowledged Wednesday, leaving a Southern Maryland courthouse where he and his wife had fought for hours over their 6-year-old daughter, who is at the center of a bitter divorce battle.
How uncomfortable? First came a recorded phone message from his wife, who like Wynn is black, that was sent to thousands of homes in the district of largely black, affluent neighborhoods in Prince George's and eastern Montgomery counties.
"Hi, this is Jessie Wynn," she said. "Albert Wynn does not respect black women. He left me for a white woman. Please send your donations to Kimble for Congress."
The embarrassment didn't end there. When the congressman held a crab feast, his soon-to-be ex-wife stood outside with Kimble, holding a banner proclaiming the same startling message.
She posted more this month on Kimble's Web site. "Let's talk about Nov. 19, 1998," says one entry. "Three weeks after he won the election, [Wynn] hired a moving company that came in the house and took all of our furniture out of the house, even the bed we slept in. Please make the switches I have."
Though all the accusations have created a sensation amid Maryland's otherwise sedate congressional races, political observers predict it will have little, if any, influence on the outcome.
Wynn, 49, a lawyer who served for a decade as a state legislator, claimed his congressional seat after a hard-fought campaign in 1992 when Maryland created its second predominantly black district.
