By Nathan Carrick

Staff Writer

Deborah Vollmer can take it no longer; she has to say something. "I've always considered myself a fairly civil person," she said. But in the middle of a Q&A session this past September with Rep. Chris Van Hollen at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Vollmer shouted out an unsolicited question.

"Why did you vote for the Continuing Resolution Bill four days ago, which includes $14 billion in funding for Iraq?"

In her eighth campaign for congress (her sixth in Maryland's 8th district), the Iraq War is the number one issue in Vollmer's platform. She's running against the incumbent, Van Hollen, who has won the past two elections with roughly 75 percent of the vote and who's seat in considered safe by the Web site CQpolitics.com.

But that doesn't dishearten the 59-year-old Bethesda resident. In fact, she feels like she builds momentum with every attempt. "People might hear I'm running again and say, oh, there she goes again, but every time you run, people start to associate your name with the issues," Vollmer said.

A retired lawyer with her law degree from the University of Maryland, Vollmer spent her career working for social justice. She started practicing as a staff attorney for Cesar Chavez and The United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO. After that, she worked for the Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance as a staff attorney. Still later, when she opened her own law practice, she concentrated on court-appointed criminal defense for low-income people. She also handled civil litigation cases, including civil rights and environmental protection issues.

Before she moved back to Montgomery County in 1997, Vollmer won the Democratic nomination for California's 21st Congressional district in 1992 and 1994 where she ran against Republican incumbent Bill Thomas. Then in 1998 and 2000 she finished second in the Democratic races, and in 2006 against Van Hollen she earned 7,000 votes, 1,000 more than the winning Republican nominee.

And as far as issues go, Vollmer admits that she shares an almost identical platform with another perennial candidate: Dennis Kucinich, congressman from Ohio and two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just below the nametag she wears on her lapel announcing her own candidacy for congress is a pin supporting Kucinich's campaign for president.

"You can actually vote for me twice in November," Vollmer said. "Once for congress, and I'll also be on the ballot as a delegate for Dennis Kucinich."

Other than the immediate withdraw of troops from Iraq, the issues at the vortex of Vollmer's campaign are national ones. If Iraq is number one, numbers two and three are health care reform and the push to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I was talking about universal health care before I ever heard about Dennis Kucinich," Vollmer said.

The irony is that despite running on a platform comprised almost entirely of national issues, her campaign is as grassroots as a campaign can get. So far this election she has spent less than $1,000 and turned down several donations. In 1998 she spent just $2,500, and in 2000 just $5,000.

Her campaign flyers are one-page documents printed at home and copied locally for 5 cents a page. She does a majority of her campaigning at the Montgomery Farm Woman's Co-Op Market, just three blocks from where she lives.

"Our most pressing issue is Iraq," Vollmer said. "Chris Van Hollen isn't doing enough to get us out. He's got a mixed voting record and isn't acting like a leader but more like a timid follower."

"I'm a realist," Vollmer said. "I know I probably won't win, but I think there's a shot. I have to be a kind of idealist, but I don't live in a bubble. Some people say we create our own reality, and I think we can do that, in a sense. My chances of getting nominated rest on what the people want. My campaign is different because it empowers people to get me into office."