Rep. Elijah Cummings to help craft a party platform of unusual import

[NCTraveler]

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings has for years served as a kind of defense attorney for the Obama administration, deflecting Republican investigations as the top Democrat on the House committee charged with federal oversight.

But the Baltimore lawmaker will have an entirely different role this summer as Democrats prepare to nominate a presidential candidate in Philadelphia: He will have to be a conciliator, helping to stitch an unexpectedly divided party back together.

Cummings is the chair of the party's platform drafting committee, an ordinarily sleepy task that will take on new significance this year as Democrats try to appease Bernie Sanders' supporters and ensure that they maintain their energy for the party's front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in the November election.

The platform, in other words, will be a central part of the effort to reunite the party.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-elijah-cummings-democratic-platform-committee-20160603-story.html