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Opinion: Democrats “playing with fire” in presidential race, party leader warns

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Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen has a message for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (one that the New York Times, with an eye mainly on her, also delivered today): Tone it down.

The Maryland congressman, who as the fellow charged with expanding the party’s House majority this fall has a particular interest in the political climate, revealed he had let both the Clinton and Obama campaigns know of his ‘concern that the increasingly negative tone in the primary could hurt our prospects in November -- not just for the eventual nominee but also for our congressional candidates.’

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Continued rancor ‘will make it more difficult to heal the wound,’ said Van Hollen, who has remained neutral in the primary campaign. ‘It means we spend more time beating up on each other and less time drawing the distinction between the Democratic position on issues and John McCain as a continuation of the Bush era. ... I do think we’re playing with fire.’

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, another Marylander who also is neutral, described the tenor of the race between Clinton and Obama as ‘probably not much different than the tone of a normal campaign for president of the United States.

‘What is not normal at all,’ he added, is that the competitors embody two major Democratic constituencies -- African Americans and women.

‘Therefore, groups are offended, as opposed to ...

just individual candidates,’ he said. ‘I would hope the candidates would keep it positive. I think their differences are minimal.’

Van Hollen said a consensus had grown around Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean’s call for undeclared superdelegates to make there preferences known by July 1.

‘I strongly support Howard Dean’s call,’ he said. ‘I think it would be a big mistake to take a divided party into the convention in Denver and have these divisions play out on national television.’

Hear The Times’ Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus discuss Tuesday’s election and the next step in the Democratic presidential competition in the video just below.

-- Matthew Hay Brown

Matthew Hay Brown of the Baltimore Sun writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau.

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