Posted on 06/26/2018 7:10:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A primary for a New York congressional district is the perfect proxy war for Democrats.
If you could create the ultimate proxy war for the two camps who have been fighting in the Democratic Party since 2016, it would be the primary contest between Rep. Joe Crowley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.
Crowley is part of the House Democrats’ leadership team, with close ties to Nancy Pelosi and Wall Street. He’s raised more than $3 million this year. He’s toed the party line on progressive policies, even participating in a recent demonstration on family separation, in which he blocked off an entire street with Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and John Lewis (D-GA), among others.
Ocasio-Cortez is a Latina Bronx native and community organizer who is more or less running on a viral campaign ad produced by a pair of Detroit-based Democratic Socialist for America (DSA) activists. She has raised just $200,000, mainly in small donations. She’s running on a boldly progressive platform, including Medicare-for-all, a federal jobs guarantee, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“This race is about people versus money. We’ve got people. They’ve got money,” Ocasio-Cortez says in the ad.
If this were any other year, it’s likely this race wouldn’t get any attention at all. A candidate with no money — even one with a compelling personal story — against one of the most powerful House Democrats wouldn’t even be a contest. After all, Crowley is a 10-term incumbent who is the fourth most powerful Democrat in House leadership.
But this primary has become a proxy for the debate over establishment Democrats versus democratic socialism that has reared its head in the party since Sen. Bernie Sanders’s blockbuster 2016 candidacy. It’s clear that Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters are hoping to use the fact that Crowley has so much money and power against him. And if she’s successful, it would be a huge upset — one not seen since Eric Cantor lost his primary to David Brat in Virginia in 2014.
Crowley has been in the House of Representatives since 1999. An Irish-American born in New York City, he’s represented the 14th Congressional District, which includes a Latino-heavy portion of the Bronx, since 2013.
But it’s not his longstanding presence in Congress that has brought him under scrutiny — it’s his deep ties to Democratic leadership. Close to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Crowley is the number four Democrat in the House and is widely considered to be positioning himself as her successor should Pelosi step down.
And it’s not an academic question. There are a lot of House Democrats who aren’t happy with Pelosi’s leadership and her firm grip on choices for prized committee seats. In the run-up to 2018, she’s become something of a punching bag on both the right and the left, with an increasing number of promising Democratic candidates running this year saying they wouldn’t support her for speaker if Democrats retake the House.
This could provide Crowley with an opening, but the New York Congress member has made it clear he doesn’t plan to challenge Pelosi if she runs for speaker in 2018 — which she’s made clear she will do.
“We will win. I will run for speaker. I feel confident about it. And my members do, too,” Pelosi said during an editorial meeting with the Boston Globe in May. Part of her rationale? That otherwise the table will be filled with “five white guys,” a nod to the rest of her leadership team and the leadership team of the Republicans. Crowley is, undoubtedly, one of those “white guys.” He also has a disadvantage being from New York, the home state of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
He has stepped up as a Democrat can fundraise for the party; the Washington Post reports he is spending his spare time “crisscrossing the nation to boost House Democrats in their bid to take back the majority in the November elections.” The price for attending a typical fundraiser with Crowley is $1,000 a head.
Despite his nearly $3 million in fundraising, his 2018 reelection bid has been far from smooth sailing. A March Politico story indicated that Crowley was so worried about the Latino presence in his district leaving him open to a primary challenger that he hired lobbyist Brian Meara in 2011, who has close ties to the state assembly, to shore up a prime district when the new maps are drawn after 2020.
After this story was published, a Crowley spokeswoman sent Vox the following statement: “Joe is extremely proud to represent the Bronx and has never hired a lobbyist to remove that portion of the district. The lobbyist was hired because of the overall re-districting process. To say otherwise is untrue.”
Some leftists suggested Crowley aimed to get arrested at a recent family separation rally purely because of Ocasio-Cortez’s challenge. Crowley told Vox he had been arrested for protesting at an immigration rally before; he said was just standing up for what he believed in.
“I come from a law enforcement family, but at the same time, I come from a family that taught me to stand up to bullies, to stand up for those who are less fortunate, for the underdogs,” Crowley told Vox.
Crowley also sent a surrogate to a primary debate, which led to a scathing editorial from the New York Times. “This is the second primary debate in which Mr. Crowley was a no-show. A spokeswoman for Mr. Crowley said he had scheduling conflicts that wouldn’t allow him to attend the two debates, inevitably leaving voters to wonder — what are we, chopped liver?” the editorial read.
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Ocasio-Cortez couldn’t be a bigger contrast from Crowley. She was born in the Bronx to working-class parents. Her mother is Puerto Rican. Her father is from the South Bronx. She’s a former staffer for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. She’s 28, which would make her one of the youngest members of Congress if she were elected.
She’s certainly portrayed herself as a woman of the people, playing up her working-class roots in her viral campaign ad.
The video, which shows Ocasio-Cortez riding the subway and doing community organizing work, was created by Means of Production, a media production company run by DSA activists Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes. She’s earned endorsements from newer progressive groups like MoveOn and gotten extensive coverage in the Intercept.
But perhaps what’s most exciting for progressives about her campaign is the degree to which she is running to Crowley’s left. As a member of the DSA, her website is a laundry list of every blue-sky lefty policy: Medicare-for-all, housing and jobs guarantees, gun control, ending private prisons, abolishing ICE, and investment in post-hurricane Puerto Rico.
She’s also become something of a media darling, getting coverage in Vogue, BuzzFeed, and the Nation. She wants this New York district to be represented by a bold progressive who doesn’t need to be elected with the help of Wall Street.
If Ocasio-Cortez manages to pull off an upset against Crowley, it would be a story of the complacent establishment taking voters for granted. It would be the story of how the Democratic Party is getting pulled to the left. It would be the story of how it’s not just progressive policies that are reshaping the party, but also people of color.
Though Ocasio-Cortez is decidedly to the left of Crowley, there’s no doubt that Crowley has been a champion of progressive policies. If Crowley were to lose, it would be a shakeup not just of the policies that Democrats support but how they go about getting elected.
Crowley could be in a similar situation to Cantor — a strong fundraiser that suddenly found himself knocked off by an insurgent candidate who is running on someone who isn’t a creature of Washington.
Until now, Democrats have seen big money in politics as simply a deal with the devil that had to be made. Democrats are so often outspent by Republican mega-donors that they viewed courting big-dollar donors and corporations as just part of creating a level playing field.
But if one of Democrats’ top fundraisers and likely successor to Nancy Pelosi can be toppled — and that’s a big if — perhaps Democrats need to rethink that deal.
If Crowley manages to emerge unscathed, well, the message will likely be that those big-dollar donors are just the cost of doing business.
Good Insider Baseball info, here. A Bernie Bot is taking on the 4th highest ranking Democrat in Congress. :)
Let’s hope the extreme nutball wins.
L
so? IF she wins, she still beats the republican, right?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eventually the Spanish speaking peoples who have colonized our country are going to want their own representatives.
The Democrats who have been figuring on using them for a permanent majority will be surprised when they are supplanted by the La Raza party.
That’s a distinction without a difference...............
The Kook Socialists have taken over and will not win general elections.
Well, of course. This IS New York & DC we’re talking about.
It’s just interesting to me that someone of his high ranking is even BEING forced to Primary by the Left. I see this as more damage to their, ‘brand.’ This type of chaos needs to be encouraged. ;)
Crowley denies it publicly, but has been positioning himself to replace Pelosi. She can’t be happy about that.
Exactly.
And so it begins ... white elected officials in the Democrat party are going to be extinct.
What a great choice for voters: a straight-out LaRaza commie or a common crook who doesn’t even live in the STATE he purports to represents and who is 100% bought off.
Crowley sounds one cynical dirtbag—be a shame if he got outflanked on the left. ;-)
White Dems to the back of the bus.
Crowly has been a reliable big government Democrat for years. His lifetime liberal voting record is about 95%. So why is he being rejected by them?
He's not dark enough.
one splash in a coming wave.
She beat him!
CNN CHOKES on the news:
A 28-year-old Democratic Socialist just ousted a powerful, 10-term congressman in New York
As Trump warns, be careful what you wish for. In this case the Dems should have only one reaction - GULP!. The are no longer the Democrat party, they are now The violent Democrat Socialist Party.
GMA was touting this as a sign of ‘Democrat energy’.
What this actually is: The uber far left has taken control of the party, and will become even more socialist/communist as the old guard falls one by one.
I have said this for years. The Democrat Party of old is now officially over. It will become the party of minorities and minorities only. Whites need not apply. The Left has made them powerful, now it must live with them in control..................
Exactly. Another nail in their coffin. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.