Biden endorsement wakes up DNC chair race
He's no longer in office, but former Vice President Joe Biden still managed to put a jolt into the race for Democratic National Committee chair this week.
After a few static weeks, the race suddenly came alive again after Biden formally endorsed fellow Obama administration alumna and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez on Wednesday, publicly confirming the tacit support top Obama administration officials had given to Perez.
Biden's move, in turn, generated a burst of activity by Perez's rivals, designed to counter the impression that Perez was gaining momentum. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of Rep. Keith Ellison's top backers in the DNC race, released a statement stressing the importance of supporting the Minnesota congressman. On Thursday, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg rolled out a big name of his own: he unveiled the support of former DNC Chairman Steve Grossman. A day later, Ellison's team released their own former vice president endorsement: Walter Mondale.
"It certainly ratcheted up. Suddenly the emails started again. It ratcheted up the focus and I think the energy on both sides perhaps," said Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett, who is undecided in the DNC race.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/detroit-dnc-forum-234625
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's what it is. The manner in which you dismiss it is perfect. 👍
"Past isn't prologue."
Fuck history and reality!!!! It was Clinton this time!!!
Clinton had no input for this post.
snip//
For Democrats, the latest affront came a day earlier, when Trump signed an executive order halting, for now, a U.S. refugee program and indefinitely suspending Syrian refugee admission. Buttigieg noted that as the candidates were speaking, "people who have looked to America as a beacon are trapped in a Tom Hanks movie at JFK airport," while former Labor Secretary Tom Perez called the move an attack on a program that already works.
After the forum, both Buttigieg and Perez said they were heading to George Bush Intercontinental Airport to join a protest against the order.
"We've got refugees who are vetted more than the Trump Cabinet was," said Perez, who throughout the forum advocated for a confrontational approach to Trump.
"That is bullshit! Plain and simple. Bullshit!" Perez said of Trump's claims of voter fraud in the presidential election. When it comes to combatting Trump, he added: "We can’t come to a knife fight with a spoon, folks. We’ve got to come with a bazooka."
More..
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/28/houston-dnc-chair-candidates-talk-fighting-trump-b/
Tarheel
This is from January 6th.. he's only gotten stronger..
By David Corn
snip//
Progressive Democrats gazing upon the fight for the leadership of their party ought to be delighted. The two leading candidates for chair of the Democratic National Committee—Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Labor Secretary Tom Perez—are each battle-hardened and experienced progressives with much to offer their partisan comrades. Yet the contest for the DNC's top post has widely been cast as a clash between wings of the party, with Ellison as the champion of the insurgent left and Perez as the candidate of the establishment. That depiction misrepresents the face-off and fixates on the wrong question: who has better progressive street cred? With the Democrats deep in the hole—a minority in both houses of Congress, out of the White House, holding only 16 governor slots and merely 31 of 99 state legislative chambers, and lacking a deep bench or a flock of rising stars—the tussle for DNC chief ought to focus on who can best do the nuts-and-bolts job of rebuilding the party from the ground level.
snip//
Then Perez joined the race. He was not a last-minute contestant shoved into the contest by Democratic establishmentarians looking to thwart Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House—though some Obama loyalists within the party were clearly not keen on Ellison. Perez, who has been busy finishing up at the Labor Department before handing over the keys to Trumpsters, merely needed more time to make his decision, according to his camp. Yet when Perez, who had endorsed Clinton in the 2016 race, announced his bid, several unions, including the AFL-CIO, which have worked closely with him, were already on the Ellison Express. (Perez has since been backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, the United Farm Workers, and the International Association of Fire Fighters, and the Democratic governors of Colorado, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Virginia.) And with Perez's entrance, some Sanders folks started claiming that the Evil Empire—that is, the poohbahs of the party—was once again seeking to crush a progressive insurgency. (Ellison backers have been ticked off that his Democratic opponents have pointed to a handful of Ellison's remarks and his associations with radical black Muslims in the 1990s to undermine his bid.)
This wing-versus-wing dustup is unfortunate for the party. The vote for DNC chair—the person who will be stuck with a mountain of mundane but important tasks and responsibilities—probably should not be predicated on symbolism. Nor should it necessarily be a contest over competing issue platforms—unless the issue divide truly defines the future course of the party. And that's not what is at stake here. Certainly, Perez, while serving in President Barack Obama's Cabinet, did not oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was backed by the president, and Ellison was a critic of the trade pact. But there's truly not much ideological distance between the two. They are both grassroots-minded progressives. Ellison, before being elected to the House, was a community activist and operated a civil rights, employment, and criminal defense law practice in Minneapolis. Perez, the Buffalo, New York-raised son of two parents exiled from the Dominican Republic, was once the head of CASA de Maryland, an organization advocating for and providing services to immigrants.
#TeamPerez
I assume this was some kind of autocorrect/typo, amIrite?
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