Ellison no lock for DNC chair

[Gothmog]

The contest for DNC chair will affect the direction of the party for the next two to four years. I have met and like Keith Ellison but I do not want him to be DNC chair and I am encouraged that Tom Perez is getting into this race. Ellison would be the wrong choice for DNC chair in my opinion and this opinion is shared by others http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/keith-ellison-democratic-dnc-232613

One reason is that the shadow of the contentious presidential primary continues to hang over the party, and some DNC members view the Minnesota congressman as part of the faction that delivered a mortal wound to Clinton, despite his best efforts to convince them otherwise.

“Ellison is not the front-runner, Ellison has no chance at all,” said Tennessee committeeman William Owen, giving voice to that view. “I’m a Hillary person. Bill Clinton said, 'I’ll be with you till the last dog dies,' and I’m the last dog. I will not vote for Keith Ellison, I will not vote for a Bernie person. I think they cost Hillary the election, and now they’re going to live with Donald Trump. Donald Trump asks, 'What do you have to lose?’ Nothing, except life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

California committeewoman Susie Shannon’s take on Ellison, however, is more representative of the ascendant progressive wing’s view.

Ellison and a couple of the other leading contenders (including perhaps Tom Perez) are speaking to the Texas Democratic Party SDEC meeting on Saturday. http://juanitajean.com/heads-up-to-texas-friends/

All three of the announced candidates for new Democratic National Committee Chair will be in Austin this Saturday at 1:30 at the State Democratic Executive Committee meeting to speak. The meeting is open to the public and while questions and speeches from the floor are not allowed (or we’d be there for a month), you will be able to meet the candidates and hear them speak. Most Texas Democratic National Committee members will also be there. They are the ones who vote on the new chair and this is your opportunity to lobby them for your favorite candidate.

Saturday, December 17th at the Sheraton (701 E. 11th) at 1:30. Announced candidates: Keith Ellison, Jaime Harrison, and Raymond Buckley

Texas has a good number of members on the DNC and so this could be an interesting meeting.

[Barack_America]

1. "I'm the last dog"

From his lips to God's ears.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Tom Perez is a solid progressive and comes without baggage.

We are at war and the last thing we need to be doing is fighting one another.

[SaschaHM]

6. I wonder if he will still be a "solid progressive" if he throws his hat into the ring...

He's already being railed against on twitter for daring to go against the chosen one.

[Cha]

31. #TeamPerez

Mr. Weeks Retweeted Al Giordano
#TeamPerez he has the qualifications, experience, intelligence, leadership & bilingual. He represents the people with a proven track record.

https://twitter.com/algiordano

[dogman]

7. Does he still support TPP?

We do need a war if the Democratic Party decides to go back to the status quo. What does he offer as an organizer?

[Tarheel_Dem]

52. THIS

[DemocratSinceBirth]

54. He is as easily as progressive as the other people running for the position.

The TPP argument is dumb. Was he supposed to resign?

[FogerRox]

55. It appears that Perez created the

"Bernie does well only among young white liberals-" meme.

Then Perez an't figure out when to use his private or Official email accounts, bumping up against either the Hatch Act or the Official Records act.

Then there is life in a bubble

[DemocratSinceBirth]

60. E-mails

Did Putin hack em?

[bettyellen]

71. The white male meme was started by women and POC who noticed

We didn't exist - were mere "wedges" to be "set aside"
Jesus fuck, so insulting to hear you say we would not notice what was missing from his campaign - when it was us.

[dogman]

3. William Owen is not too observant.

Many Bernie supporters and Bernie himself supported Hillary. Post election data seems to indicate she lost among traditional Democratic voters which cost her the "Blue State" firewall. Status quo is the problem, the DNC needs new leadership.

[JustinL]

5. and Ellison has been racking up endorsements from Hillary supporters

John Lewis, Luis Gutierrez, Bill deBlasio, Chuck Schumer, the AFL-CIO, and the AFT have all endorsed him after endorsing Hillary in the primary.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

17. Yessss... thank you for pointing this out. KE has the foresight & work ethic to lead this fight & help dig the Democratic Party out of this ditch.

[brooklynite]

46. I know some strong Hillary supporters on the DNC who aren't supporting Ellison...

I've also heard that Schumer et al aren't twisting any arms.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

10. William Owen is also being dishonest for suggesting Bernie & Keith cost Hillary the election... that's a lie and he knows it!

[Gothmog]

14. No you are wrong if you think that there is any sort of general agreement on your claim

Many strong Democrats disagree strongly with your analysis. The attempts to prove that Sanders did not hurt Clinton in the general election have been so weak that it is easy to say that there is general agreement.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

15. Bernie campaigned his heart out for Hillary!! That's a fact!!

[Gothmog]

18. Sanders did that after inflicting the maximum amount of damage in the primary

Sanders never really tried to get all of his supporters to go over to Clinton. I was a delegate to the national convention and many of the sanders delegates believed that Sanders could take the nomination away from Hillary Clinton at the convention. I was in the delegation where a good number of the younger sanders supporters walked in locked in arm to arm to demand that the Clinton delegates condemn Clinton and vote for Sanders. These delegates were somehow told by the Sanders people to go ahead and try this stunt. Again, I heard repeatedly that Sanders did not want to be too hard on his supporters and that we were told to be nice to the Sanders delegates and hope that they came around.

Sanders never truly attempted to reason with or deal with his supporters at the convention because he did not want to lose their support for future races. I know this in part because there whips and others who were monitoring all of the Sanders meetings and reporting back to the Clinton "whipping infrastructure" (a term that I learned in Philadelphia and love). Some of the Sanders supporters were totally out of control during the last two nights of the convention and the sanders campaign would not revoke the credentials of some really foul mouth Sanders delegates on the last night. We were fortunate in that the Sanders supporters used an unlocked/non-password protected list server to plan their stunts and the Clinton whips would warn us in advance when a demonstration was coming.

You are welcome to your opinion but I saw the consequences of Sanders campaign first hand at the convention. A great deal of effort was used to keep a group of Sanders delegates from disrupting the convention. Sanders evidently thought that a text message was sufficient.

After the convention, I found a number of Sanders supporters who were block walking for local candidates going out of their way to encourage Stein votes. One sanders supporter actually bragged about this practice at a young democrats meeting attended by one of my daughters.

You are entitled to your opinion but I saw the facts first hand at the convention and on the ground.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

22. Maximum damage?! A LOT less worse than what Hillary said in campaigning against Barack Obama... puhhleeease!

[Gothmog]

42. Denial is not just a river in Africa

Obama won because Clinton did not wait until the week before the convention to endorse him. Sanders played games with the platform and delaying his endorsement that encouraged the Sanders supporters to believe that he could be the nominee and that the process was rigged.

The fact that you think that the 2008 example helps your claim is simply wrong.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

48. It's a fact that Bernie treated Hillary with "kid gloves" compared to the harsh, and sometimes racially charged, way she & Bill treated Obama... unless, you're the one in denial.

[Gothmog]

49. Again you are so wrong that it is funny-it was Clinton who treated Sanders with kid gloves

It was Clinton who treated Sanders with kid gloves The Clinton campaign had a ton of material to work with. The GOP had an oppo book that was over two feet thick on Sanders. Sanders could attack Clinton and she had to treat Sanders with kid gloves. VOX had a good article on the potential lines of attack that Sanders would be exposed to if Sanders was the nominee. http://www.vox.com/2016/2/3/10903404/gop-campaign-against-sanders One of the more interesting observations in the VOX analysis is the fact that Sanders have been treated with kids gloves compared to what Sanders would face if he was the Democratic nominee. I strongly agree with the VOX's position that the so-called negative attacks against Sander have been mild. Form the article:

I have no interest in litigating any of these attacks here. Like any Democrat elected president in 2016, Sanders wouldn't be able to get much done, but he would block attempts to roll back Obama's accomplishments and have a chance to fill a few Supreme Court vacancies.

When Sanders supporters discuss these attacks, though, they do so in tones of barely contained outrage, as though it is simply disgusting what they have to put up with. Questioning the practical achievability of single-payer health care. Impugning the broad electoral appeal of socialism. Is nothing sacred?

But c'mon. This stuff is patty-cakes compared with the brutalization he would face at the hands of the right in a general election.

His supporters would need to recalibrate their umbrage-o-meters in a serious way.

The attacks that would be levied against Sanders by the Kochs, the RNC candidate and others in a general election contest would make the so-called attacks against Sanders look like patty-cakes. The GOP and Kochs are not known for being nice or honest and as the article notes there are a ton of good topics available for attack. Again Trump had an oppo book on Sanders that was two feet thick. http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044

They ignored the fact that Sanders had not yet faced a real campaign against him. Clinton was in the delicate position of dealing with a large portion of voters who treated Sanders more like the Messiah than just another candidate. She was playing the long game—attacking Sanders strongly enough to win, but gently enough to avoid alienating his supporters. Given her overwhelming support from communities of color—for example, about 70 percent of African-American voters cast their ballot for her—Clinton had a firewall that would be difficult for Sanders to breach....

So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers....

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

The concept that Sanders did not hurt Clinton in the general election is simply factually wrong.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

50. You could not be more wrong... I didn't say anything about how Hillary treated Bernie, rather, I said she mistreated OBAMA in the 2008 primary...

How ironic that now you're complaining about Bernie hurting Hillary in the primary... and since when is democracy something to be frowned upon, especially here inside the DEMOCRATIC Underground?!

In any case, Bernie handled himself with utmost class and is to be applauded for his Herculean effort, after the primary, to get Hillary elected. Bernie's supporters like myself threw our support overwhelmingly to Hillary - in percentages greater than in 2008, thanks to the PUMA crowd - and I don't see how insulting Democrat candidates, and their supporters, who are dedicated to advocating a true and bold progressive agenda, helps the cause.

We need to unite for 2018 and the elections to come... join with us!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!

[Gothmog]

61. You are again totally wrong

Again you are ignoring the real world and the facts including a concept called math. Sanders ran a nasty campaign that was far nastier than the Clinton/Obama 2008 campaign. Sanders never had a chance of being the nominee. Clinton's lead in delegates over Sanders in 2016 was more than four times the lead that President Obama had over Clinton in 2008. Math is important in the real world. Facts are important also. You are simply wrong in your claims and you are ignoring the math.

Sanders had no chance whatsoever of overcoming Clinton's lead. In 2008, Clinton immediately endorsed President Obama and worked to elect him from day one. Sanders kept his campaign going until a week or so before the convention when he finally decided that he had squeezed enough concessions. Sanders conduct was simply wrong and unprofessional. Sanders did his best to hurt Clinton even though Sander had zero chance of catching Clinton or even significantly cut into her lead. Sanders delay in endorsing Clinton gave his supporters the false hope that he could be the nominee which in turn hurt Clinton in the general election.

I was a national delegate. Sanders was threatening to force four or five roll call votes until until the Saturday of the convention. Again, the Clinton campaign had a whipping infrastructure that kept all delegates informed. It was on Sunday before the convention when I learned that Clinton gave into Sanders demands to avoid these floor votes. Even then, Sanders did not seriously try to get his supporters to support Clinton. Again, the whipping infrastructure saw all of the texts sent by sanders to his delegates and the Clinton team was at all meetings of Sanders and his delegates. Sanders did not really try very hard to get his supporters to behave or support Clinton. Again, I was there.

Again, your claims are simply false and ignore a concept called math. Sanders had no chance of winning the nomination but his campaign was dirty and was designed to give his supporters the false hope that he could win. Sanders tactics hurt Clinton in the general election and are why I think that it would be a bad move to let any Sanders supporter be in charge of the DNC.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

74. Nope, your wrong... as the saying goes: "There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Your fuzzy math fails to factor in how the deck was stacked against Bernie right from the start... yet he handled it with grace, dignity, and class.

Nor did math show up in so many of the polls, which had Hillary up in most of the toss-up states and in blue states that she lost.

Inded, fuzzy math convinced Hillary she didn't need to campaign hardly at all in Wisconsin and we know how that turned out!

So much for math!

[Gothmog]

78. The deck was stacked because Sanders failed to win the vote of African American and Latino voters

Math is math. The fact that you do not understand or agree with the math is meaningless. Sanders only appealed to a very narrow demographic segment in the Democratic Party and lost badly with African American and Latino voters. African American and Latino voters are key segments of the party and you can not ignore their votes simply because these groups refused to support Sanders.

As of the Super Tuesday primaries, Hillary Clinton had a pledged delegate lead that Sanders had no chance of overcoming. At the end, Clinton had more than four times the lead in pledged delegates over Sanders compared to the lead in pledged delegates that President Obama had over Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Math is a good thing. Ignoring the math will not help your case.

[Gothmog]

79. Bernie Math

[brer cat]

37. Thank you for this report, Gothmog.

Your first-hand experiences have been informative and enlightening.

[Glassunion]

43. In the end though, it was those same young voters who turned out for Hillary.

She kicked ass in both under-40 demographics.

The fracture in the party had absolutely nothing to do with the DNC's conduct under DWS's lead. Right? That could not have hurt Hillary in the least.

[sheshe2]

51. Excellent report.

Thank you Gothmog.

[Gothmog]

57. You are welcomed

I enjoyed the National Convention but hated having to deal with the Sanders supporters

[sheshe2]

59. Not surprising in the least, Gothmog.

[Gothmog]

62. I had a Sanders supporter yell some really obscene things to me and my daughter

One sanders delegate really harassed one of my fellow Clinton delegates at the convention so much that he and one of the whips were worried about the Sanders delegate becoming violent. It was not fun

[sheshe2]

63. That is beyond the pale.

I am sorry that you and your daughter were so viciously attacked. It reminds me of another campaign and I will leave it at that.

[Gothmog]

64. Yelling at a lawyer is not productive and I raised a really tough kid

This was my youngest who I have not yet convinced to go to law school. She is the best debater of the three kids

[sheshe2]

65. I think you have raised your kids well, Gothmog.

Good on you and who they have become.

[Gothmog]

66. My youngest had a visitors pass for the first night of the convention

It was a great night to attend. I was really happy to be able to share this event with her You should see some of the stuff she brought back from the convention. Planned Parenthood was giving out some trump condoms

[sheshe2]

68. Condoms against Trump!

Lol~ perhaps we can avoid another future Trump by flushing him down the toilet after sex. Dayum I love PP!

[Gothmog]

12. Owen speaks for a good number of Democrats

I personally agree with Owen. I am glad that he is on the DNC and so that he gets a vote. If I go to the Texas Democratic Party SDEC meeting this weekend, I hope to see more good Democrats with this position

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

16. Owen sure as hell doesn't speak for me!!

[Gothmog]

19. But Owen is a member of the DNC has a vote on who will be the next chair

[dogman]

28. If anything was learned from this election, making the Party smaller is not an answer.

Hillary lost the rustbelt to defecting Democrats, not Independents. The Democratic Party needs a winning strategy, we have seen the failure of the status quo. Maybe if the Texas Democratic Party wakes up, they can win in Texas.

[SaschaHM]

4. I wonder if Perez will ....

secure some big endorsements like Biden and Obama. If this becomes an all out 2016 primary proxy war, Perez or some outside unity pick takes it.

[AngryAmish]

8. I wonder if this is going to be a party where African Americans can feel welcome

I guess we will find that out, no?

[SaschaHM]

9. If this race becomes the primary proxy battle that it is shaping up to be...

I'm not sure picking the candidate that represents the guy AA voters soundly rejected is making them feel welcome.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

11. I'm with you!

[Gothmog]

13. Agreed-Sanders lost the AA and Latino vote in Texas by a good percentage

[Uponthegears]

21. Because nothing says love

Like disqualifying a black man who has been one of the most powerful voices for black people in Congress soley because he didn't support Hillary.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

23. Dead ballz on!!

[BainsBane]

40. He isn't the only black candidate for DNC chair

Yet you don't consider Harrison for a second because he didn't endorse Bernie. Let's not pretend there is some sudden concern for AA voters. We weren't in a coma during the primary. And that you so contemptuously dismiss the TN Democratic Party with its large percentage of African Americans is all too reminiscent of the attitude toward black voters--demeaned as the "confederacy" -- during the primary. Bernie is after all the candidate who insisted that allowing states with large black populations to vote relatively early in the primary distorted "Reality."

If you're going to exclude states controlled by Republicans from having a say in the DNC chair, that excludes the majority of them. It's also ironic considering you all insisted Clinton was derelict for failing to focus on white male voters in GOP controlled states. The arguments shift so rapidly according to convenience that it becomes impossible to see any concern other than Bernie. In fact, it's obvious that Nothing matters but Bernie.

Ellison happens to be a solid progressive, but if he were a pro-life, Islamophobe, and opponent of the Iran peace deal, the crowd who makes decisions entirely based on who endorsed Bernie in the primary would still support him, as we have seen with one congressional candidate after another.

I think it unfortunate that some party members are rejecting Ellison because he is Sanders choice. I would hope he could make the argument that he is not beholden to Sanders and would not carry out the divisive attacks on Democrats that Sanders makes his hallmark. I've never known Ellison to be divisive, but that his chief proponent regularly directs his ire at the party makes Ellison's task more difficult.

[Uponthegears]

45. This is the second time you personally attacked me

It better stop now.

I grew up in fucking Sunnyside in Houston where my dad was born and he and my mom moved back to after he retired from the military so he could try to change things. I left home in '67 when I was barely 18 to move to CA to join the BPP. After the "event" (I wasn't there) I was sent to college overseas, became involved in leftist social causes, and ended up working with the Maryknolls in Guatemala until I just couldn't stand watching the SOA-trained "defenders" of global capitalism murder families without paying a price for it. Now that may offend you all to heck, but it sure as hell doesn't make me white. ("And that you so contemptuously dismiss the TN Democratic Party with its large percentage of African Americans is all too reminiscent of the attitude toward black voters--demeaned as the "confederacy" -- during the primary." <<< try this somewhere else, you missed here)

I came back here, graduated from law school and spent over three decades representing almost entirely people of color from death row inmates to victims of police brutality. I've campaigned in the South for every Democratic nominee FOLLOWING Bill Clinton, including Hillary. I'm sorry if the fact that I supported the candidate who came nearest to my political views during the primary offends you so much that you think you can spew a bunch a garbage at me about "sudden concern for AA voters."

Oh, btw, Jaime hasn't announced (well, not that I've heard). I met him during the general. He a good person and has done as good job as possible in SC. If he wants it, I might go with him, but (and I am sorry if reality offends you) I'd like to hear how he plans to translate strong showings (particularly in our community) in South Carolina but no electoral votes into strong showings with electoral votes all around the country.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

73. In no way were you personally attacked by bb.

[BainsBane]

77. Not sure how I insulted you

In the other thread I objected to your projection of a world of shit onto me. You insisted I controlled the party and went into a long rant about Bill Clinton and the 1990s, without as much as asking me where I stood on any of those issues. You have no idea who I voted for in previous primaries (hint: none of them were Clintons), and you didn't care to ask. Then in the following post you accused me of attacking Sanders and his supporters when I said nothing of the kind nor thought it. At that point i quit reading.

I don't care who you or anyone else supported in the primary. That contest has been settled for months. What I think is unfortunate is that the DNC election has reignited those divisions. On that I do fault Sanders, not for nominating Ellison, whom I like very much (he is my congressman after all), but for Sanders continued divisive comments following the election. My suspicion is that we might not have seen the party people mentioned in the piece above stake out the positions they did absent Sanders' post-election recriminations.

Because of your recent posts to me, I did assume that your support of Ellison related to his endorsement by Sanders. Am I wrong about that?

Harrison has been going to state party committees and making his case for his election as DNC Chair. I read in a newspaper article that he was in recently in Texas at the same event Ellison attended. That certainly looks like a formal candidacy to me. He also has Jim Clyburn's endorsement, which used to carry a great deal of weight in the party (eg. Obama in 2008).

[Uponthegears]

80. Actually, you hit the nail on the head

How am I supposed to take the suggestion that I, as a black man, only support Keith Ellision, who has been one of the few politicians to consistently stand up for black people who don't fit white folks' view of "good" black people, e.g., Michael Brown, BLM protestors blocking interstates, angry protestors in Ferguson, the NBPP at the polling station in Philly in 2008, etc. because he endorsed Sanders?

On the other hand, how am I supposed to take this most recent comment?

The answer is very well. It was articulate and I thought really honest. It might push some anti-Bernie lines that just aren't true, but I am more than willing to let that stuff lie because it just doesn't matter now when we have to get some direction together

We are not the villains we have been painting each other.

Thanks

[Tarheel_Dem]

58. What do African Americans have to do with this? Ellison does NOT represent me, and I'm AA. nt

[Uponthegears]

20. Tennessee has a veto-proof Tea Party legislature

And a billionaire GOP governor. It's Democratic Party is so impotent that Tea Party nutcase Mark Clayton won the DEMOCRATIC US Senate primary in 2012 with nothing but crossover votes.

Not surprisingly, the state party leaders who put Mr. Owen in a position where he even has a vote for DNC chair are unrivaled in ineptitude EXCEPT by a national party leadership that has lost both houses of Congress, the Presidency, the Supreme Court (barring an act of unprecedented political courage), and enough state governments that Republicans are on the cusp of being able to call a constitutional convention.

Could it be that a change is in order?

[gulliver]

24. What about Granholm?

I have yet to be too impressed with Ellison. I want someone who is funny and tough. Also, Granholm was governor of Michigan, outranking a mere Congressman by a mile.

[oasis]

25. Gotta be someone who can raise money. Bernie supporters reject big money.

Citizens United is here to stay. The Democratic Party can't put itself at a disadvantage in future elections.

[Cha]

30. Hey Aloha, oasis.. I'm on #TeamPerez..

Mr. Weeks Retweeted Al Giordano
#TeamPerez he has the qualifications, experience, intelligence, leadership & bilingual. He represents the people with a proven track record.

https://twitter.com/algiordano

Good points!

[oasis]

32. Hey Cha. Your support of Perez seems to be a smart choice.

Thanks for the info.

[Cha]

33. You're Welcome!

[CentralMass]

26. I support Keith Ellison

https://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2015/07/how-keith-ellison-made-congressional-progressive-caucus-political-force-matter

[SaschaHM]

27. I'm with Tom Perez.

The more I read about his background and the work that he has down in both the Justice Department and the Labor Department, the more I'm inspired by him and his ability to lead the DNC in opposition to Trump.

[Cha]

35. I agree, Sascha.. thank you. #TeamPerez

Tina Herod ?@tina_herod · 5h5 hours ago
@AlGiordano #TeamPerez All the way. Great values and is a team builder

https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamPerez?src=hash

[Cha]

29. #TeamPerez he has the qualifications, experience, intelligence, leadership & bilingual.

Mr. Weeks Retweeted Al Giordano
#TeamPerez he has the qualifications, experience, intelligence, leadership & bilingual. He represents the people with a proven track record.

https://twitter.com/algiordano

Tom Watson Verified account 
?@tomwatson
"the most important U.S. labor secretary since Frances Perkins" - great Tom Perez profile http://prospect.org/article/subtle-force-tom-perez …

https://twitter.com/tomwatson/status/809239536924524544

Gracias, Gothmog!

[Gothmog]

36. Agreed

[Cha]

47. KICK!

[BainsBane]

34. I never heard anything divisive from Ellison.

And During the primary attended a number of DFL events where he spoke. He didn't as much as mention his support for Bernie. He instead focused on voter turnout.

During the GE, he promoted Clinton at a number of events for volunteers.

I suppose it's possible he said some divisive things, but I never heard them.

That said, I don't have a position on DNC chair. I like both Perez and Ellison. If Ellison becomes chair, it means I lose him as my congressman.

[brer cat]

38. I think he is needed where he is. nt

[RedWedge]

39. Keith Ellison cost HRC the election? Lulz.

[Gothmog]

41. Sanders cost Clinton the election and many Democrats will never support a sanders supporter

[Barack_America]

67. If people like you can't get over that, the Democratic Party is screwed.

Hillary lost because she ran a poor campaign and was a weak candidate in the Rust Belt.

Comey and Putin played a role, but Sanders sure as hell didn't.

[Gothmog]

70. You are wrong

[RAFisher]

76. It's pretty remarkable isn't it? Some people still think Clinton was this perfect candidate.

Sadly she lost. I think some people still can't accept that Clinton had shortcoming. Instead they blame it on Sanders.

[flamingdem]

44. Tom Perez looks like the man for the job

My issue is the baggage, it's too bad

[oasis]

53. Kick for Perez.

[Gothmog]

56. Why I really like Tom Perez

This article from Perez has one of the main reasons why I am supporting Perez. I am an election law junkie and I have volunteered a great deal in voter protection efforts. During the Bush administration, the Civil Rights Section and the Voting Rights division of the Civil Rights section of the DOJ was destroyed by the bushies. Partisan hacks were placed in non partisan slots illegally including an idiot named Christian Adams who spearheaded the New Black Panther silliness.

AG Holder and Tom Perez rebuilt the Civil Rights section of the DOJ and the voting rights division. They did a great job and Perez was the lead of the Civil Rights division when he was promoted to Sec. of Labor. This is from Perez's article on why he is running https://mic.com/articles/162459/tom-perez-dnc-chair#.K1AO41GLd

After putting myself through college with Pell Grants and working on the back of a garbage truck, I passed up offers to join white-shoe law firms, instead choosing a career as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Justice Department prosecuting racially motivated hate crimes and protecting workers from exploitation.

Years later, I led the department's civil rights division as we pushed for progress across the country. We went toe to toe with Republican leaders in states like Texas who want to turn back the clock on voting rights; we stood up to rogue sheriffs like Joe Arpaio who want to immigrant-bait and immigrant-bash; we cracked down on police misconduct and held police departments accountable to their responsibility to uphold the Constitution while protecting communities; we worked aggressively to enforce laws protecting women's access to reproductive health services; and we fought for marriage equality in every state.

GOP voter suppression will be a major issue for the DNC and Perez is the best person to deal with this issue

[firerises]

69. Well

Unfortunately, most of the Latino Politicians in the Democratic Party are a bit milquetoast and rather bland. The few that are interesting aren't exactly from the Clinton side of the party.

I really can't see how Tom Perez can energize the party and prepare us for the fight that is ahead. He's not a very interesting guy. He doesn't give great speeches. He's not super charismatic.

I just don't see how he can grow the party.

Keith impresses. He's a great speech-giver. Very emotional and reaches the key intonations one needs when speaking. He can definitely energize people.

After the failures of DWS and Kaine to produce victories; properly energize or rally the base around Democratic legislation; and grow the party, we need someone who can.

I'm fine if that's someone from the Clinton side of the party. But they would have to be interesting. Not Tom Perez. Maybe Cory Booker would be a better bet? Or Obama himself.

[Cha]

72. #TeamPerez

Judith Fardig
?@FardigJudith
.@LaborSec Tom Perez would be a breath of fresh air as #DNCChair. Delighted to be able to tell him in person. #TeamPerez

https://twitter.com/FardigJudith/status/809508398156816384/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[NobodyHere]

75. I'm not familiar with the candidates

But we need someone loud and vocal.

Someone who will not hesitate to point out Republican bullshit.


Running a fair primary will also help.

[Gothmog]

81. New questions complicate Ellison's bid for DNC chair

These allegations may hurt Ellison http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/311270-old-finance-woes-haunt-ellisons-dnc-bid

Opponents of Rep. Keith Ellison’s bid to be the next Democratic National Committee chairman are raising new questions about the Minnesota Democrat’s past to make the case that he’s unfit to be the party’s next leader.

Ellison's critics in the DNC and some supporters of Labor secretary Tom Perez, the other top candidate, are pointing to the Minnesota Democrat’s past tax troubles, campaign finance violations and minor legal issues that once led to his driver’s license being suspended as evidence that he’s ill-equipped to lead the DNC.

Some of those instances date back to the 1990s. All of the issues have been rectified and were previously used in attacks against Ellison during his first run for House in 2006.

Why elect a DNC chair who has baggage?