Several Democrats – including a DNC chair candidate, an Obama cabinet secretary, and a potential 2020 presidential candidate – penned a collection of mini op-eds for the Washington Post outlining their vision for the party and its future. All of them are worth reading.
Category: Democratic State Parties
Ray Buckley Makes It Official, Enters Race for DNC Chairman
New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman and DNC vice chair Ray Buckley has officially announced he is running to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The full text of his announcement (note that he is promising “radical reform of how the DNC operates”) has been posted on his Facebook page:
I’m in!
I am a candidate for Chair of the Democratic National Committee. I look forward to a robust discussion with you on the future of the Democratic Party and I ask for and hope to earn your support.
Make no mistake, if I am elected chair there will be radical reform of how the DNC operates. You and every member of the DNC will be called on to fully participate in the governance of our party. The DNC will be a team effort unlike what we have seen for many years. Every voice should be respected, every face reflected in the Democratic Party. The party cannot just be about winning the White House. We have thousands of other races, including state, county and local races, that we need to win as well.
To me, the Democratic Party’s message is simple: we firmly stand for the opportunity of every American to achieve the American dream. There should be no walls obstructing anyone’s success, both literally and figuratively. We are a dynamic, diverse party that represents the hopes and aspirations of millions of Americans. Our party must also continue to strive to include every voice and every idea from our grassroots.
I ask that you share with me your ideas – both big and small – for how the DNC can best do its job of helping to elect Democrats. Collectively we can be the change that is needed.
After we talk and you’ve had time to reflect, I hope you will decide to support me and together we can get to work reforming the DNC, strengthening our state parties, and rebuilding our grassroots nationwide.
I will be reaching out to you soon to discuss the future of our party, but please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Ray Buckley
According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, Buckley has already picked up a few endorsements:
- Joanne Dowdell: DNC at-large member.
- Martha Fuller Clark: First vice chair of NH Democratic Party, and state senator representing the 21st Senate district. She was also the first superdelegate to support Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention
- Bill Shaheen: DNC committeeman from New Hampshire, husband of Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
- Kathy Sullivan: DNC committeewoman from New Hampshire.
A Look Ahead at the Possible 2020 Democrats
Because it’s never too early to start speculating for the next presidential election, the Washington Post handicapped the Democrats’ possible field of presidential candidates for 2020. One key observation:
Although this most stunning upset in modern presidential history has produced (and will produce) a thousand aftershocks, one of the most unlikely and important is that the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 is now open.
That opening is made all the more remarkable by the fact that there is simply no logical heir (or even heirs) to President Obama or Clinton — no obvious candidate waiting in the wings to step forward and rebuild the party. Vice President Biden appears to have decided that he is done running for office. As a two-time loser, Clinton is done, too. And after that, the bench is, well, pretty thin.
The outcome of the last election did two things: it postponed the Republican reconstruction most people thought would happen after a Donald Trump loss; and it accelerated the need and timetable for a Democratic reconstruction, which many thought wouldn’t happen until after a Hillary Clinton presidency. To elaborate on the latter point, most Democrats and political observers would probably have assumed that the party would have another four years (or eight) during a Clinton presidency to develop its bench in state and federal government. Needless to say, that plan changed and they’re scrambling to start the rebuilding process, particularly at the state level where the party has suffered many losses during the Obama years.
The good news for Democrats is they have a favorable map and calendar for statewide races for the next two years, not so much for congressional races, particularly the Senate. [Keep in mind, a lot can change in two years. This is the outlook as it stands right now.] This gives them an opportunity to recruit candidates and test new messages and strategies and build up their bench in the run-up for the 2020 presidential election and redistricting. The bad news is they have a lot of catching up to do.
California Democrats Have Supermajorities in Both Houses of State Legislature
Nearly three weeks after Election Day, the Associated Press finally called the race for California’s 29th Senate District in favor of Democrat Josh Newman, giving state Democrats a 2/3 supermajority in both houses of the state legislature in Sacramento.
Why does this matter? According to the Los Angeles Times:
With a supermajority, a political party can raise taxes, place measures on the statewide ballot, enact laws immediately with an “urgency” clause and override a governor’s veto. In theory, it’s an enormous amount of power.
In short, one of the bluest and the most populated states in the country got even bluer for the final two years of Governor Jerry Brown’s term.
Democrats Looking Ahead to Governors’ Races in 2017 and 2018
Politico has a good look at the governors’ races coming up in the next two years, and how they offer the Democratic Party’s best immediate chances as a path to rebuilding in the wake of the recent election.
Coming up first are the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races and statewide legislative races scheduled for late 2017. Candidates in both parties are already moving in these races. I will write a preview/outlook of these states and races in December as a look for what’s ahead in the new year.
Even further down the line are the 2018 midterms. The Senate calendar that year is particularly difficult, and the likelihood of retaking the House of Representatives is slim. However, 26 out of 36 governor’s mansions up for election (or re-election) are held by Republicans. This means that if Democrats can retake some of those states, their party will be in place and in control for the 2020 census and redistricting.
The great unknown right now will be the dynamics of the country and individual states going into those election cycles. Looking at it one or two years ahead, the two obvious factors that will have an impact will be the state of the economy, as well as the popularity of the Republican-controlled Washington DC (President Trump and the McConnell/Ryan Congress).
Lots more on this subject to come in the future.
Howard Dean’s Iowa Scream Revisited
Howard Dean hasn’t said or tweeted much recently since announcing his candidacy for the DNC job, but this Esquire article from earlier in the year just came to my attention, which is well worth the read: an oral history of Howard Dean’s infamous speech and scream after the 2004 Iowa caucuses.
Full disclosure: I was working at CNN during Howard Dean’s presidential run, and one of my assignments at the time was working with then-CNN producer Kate Albright-Hanna, who is interviewed in the Esquire story. Every few days, she would send a package to her office at the Washington bureau (where she and I both worked) with raw tapes that she had filmed while traveling with the Dean campaign. I would have to log the material so she could review it and could start putting together a script for what would become the CNN Presents documentary “True Believers: Life Inside the Dean Campaign.” I think the final count was something like more than 150 tapes of raw footage that was shot for this project. (According to Kate’s producer’s notebook, it was more than 400 hours of footage shot over a course of six months.) I didn’t log them all, but as I recall I easily did close to 40 or 50 tapes by myself. As I recall, the final cut of the documentary was a very fast turnaround which had to be written, edited and approved for air between the New Hampshire primary on January 27 and Super Tuesday, which was on March 2.
Until I researched and wrote my own book years later, this was the biggest project I’d ever worked on in terms of length and quantity of source material. It was an exhausting and exhilarating experience for me very early on in my career, getting to see a presidential campaign from a perspective that was that close and that unvarnished. It wasn’t fun logging all those tapes, but the experience definitely helped to validate my career choice.
DNC Candidate Jaime Harrison Expresses “Concern” Over Nikki Haley’s Lack of Foreign Policy Experience
The big news early this morning is that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Carolina governor Nikki Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations. This in spite of some jabs between the two of them during the primaries:
South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison – who is running for the DNC chairman job – released this statement:
UPDATE: For fairness and context, read this Associated Press story on the background and credentials of the last four U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations.
UPDATE II: Some more context on the background of another U.N. ambassador, from Bush 41 biographer Jon Meacham:
DNC Candidate Ray Buckley Hints at “Very Big Changes” to Superdelegate System
If you aren’t following New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley on Twitter, you should. Here are some recent tweets from today with his views on the DNC:
Obama-Sanders Split Exposed in DNC Chairman Race
The New York Times has a good writeup on the behind-the-scenes dynamics happening in the race to lead the Democratic National Committee. Officially, the Obama administration is staying neutral in the race, but the White House is quietly looking for an alternative to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who has accumulated the most endorsements so far in the race. At issue, according to the report: “Elevating Mr. Ellison would amount to handing the party to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Mrs. Clinton’s primary race opponent, and his liberal followers.”
The concerns with Ellison are his inability to do the DNC job full-time as a sitting member of the House of Representatives, as well as his previous criticism of Obama and his previous praise of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. (Aides had agreed to make Ellison available for an interview to the NYT for this story until they were told he would be asked about Farrakhan.)
Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm and Labor Secretary Tom Perez are said to be viewed favorably as candidates by the administration. Granholm had already publicly taken herself out of the running several days ago, but it’s not clear if the administration has lobbied or spoken with her since those comments. Perez’s post-administration plans are not yet known. He may throw his hat in the ring for the DNC chairmanship or he may bide his time and run for governor of Maryland in 2018.
UPDATE: I should note that while Ellison is the presumptive frontrunner in the race right now because of the number of endorsements he has picked up and the political muscle behind them (Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, etc.), those endorsements won’t mean anything when it comes down to the actual vote. According to NBC News, “The election won’t be held until late February during a meeting in Atlanta, and the only votes that matter are those of the several hundred members of the Democratic National Committee.”
Potential DNC Chairman Candidates Withdraw from the Race
According to NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.) have withdrawn from consideration for the DNC chairman election.
Two names from the Obama administration have also surfaced: Vice President Joe Biden (who, according to a spokesman, declined interest in the position) and outgoing Labor Secretary Tom Perez. Keep in mind Perez was considered as a potential running mate by Hillary Clinton earlier this year, and NBC News also points out that he may opt to bide his time and run for governor of Maryland in 2018 against incumbent Republican Larry Hogan.
As of this morning, the candidates who are in the race or have expressed interest are:
- NH Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley
- Former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.)
- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
- SC Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison
- NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue
politicalwilderness.com 