The seven DNC candidates are participating in a debate organized by the Huffington Post hosted at George Washington University being streamed live online. Read the live blog below the break…
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Tom Perez’s campaign for Democratic National Committee chairman announced four big gets today: governors John Hickenlooper (Colorado), John Bel Edwards (Louisiana), Gina Raimondo (Rhode Island) and Terry McAuliffe (Virginia).
CNN’s Marshall Cohen points out the significance of the endorsements:
Some context: Two of those states (Colorado and Virginia) are considered swing states but have been Democratic success stories over the course of the past decade in statewide and presidential elections. Rhode Island is in reliably Democratic New England. Louisiana – which has elected statewide Democrats in the past but has turned more Republican in recent years – is probably the most surprising endorsement of the bunch. Democrat Foster Campbell just lost the run-off race for the Louisiana Senate seat a few weeks ago.
Tom Perez pulled off a hat trick with organized labor today, following up his endorsements by United Farm Workers and United Food and Commercial Workers by earning the endorsement of the International Association of Firefighters for his campaign to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The statement reads in part:
In the race for Chair of the Democratic Party, our union believes Tom Perez is the person who has the right mix of personal background, progressive values, experience and total commitment to all workers, in all regions and states across the country to do just that.
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To have Tom as the Chair of one of our nation’s two major political parties would be a significant victory for workers across America.
This endorsement represents a break from the AFL-CIO – which the IAFF is a part of – which endorsed Keith Ellison on December 8.
Outgoing Secretary of Labor Tom Perez picked up two big labor union endorsements in his run for DNC chairman. From United Farm Workers:
Tom Perez is a civil rights leader, a labor champion and an organizer who has successfully run large organizations. That is why the United Farm Workers endorses him to lead the Democratic National Committee. This is the first time the UFW has ever backed a candidate for chair of the DNC, but these are different times and Tom Perez is a different kind of candidate.
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We need a leader who can get things done, not one who will divide our country. We need a unifier who has stood for the very values for which Cesar Chavez fought. That person is Tom Perez.
From United Food and Commercial Workers:
The Democratic Party is at a crossroads, and it needs leaders with strong progressive voices as well as unique skills and experiences to lead the party forward. While there are a number of very good candidates in the DNC chair race, Tom Perez offers the party what it so desperately needs – bold leadership and ideas, strong experience managing an organization at the state and federal level, and someone singularly focused on rebuilding the party across the country.
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In light of the challenges the party faces, Secretary Perez has the experience and vision for the changes the DNC must make, and is the right leader who can make these changes happen. We enthusiastically support his candidacy.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the story, the North Carolina state legislature – which is controlled by Republican supermajorities in both chambers – passed two bills that would limit the powers of the incoming Democratic governor Roy Cooper, bills that were signed into law by the outgoing Republican incumbent Pat McCrory who just lost his reelection bid.
Keith Ellison weighed in on these developments during a conference call:
“The DNC has an election protection program, and this is at the heart of their mission,” he said. “It needs to step up right now to say this is outrageous, and get lawyers to oppose this undemocratic action that is happening right now. You gotta be in the fight.”
Tom Perez issued a statement:
I have not seen any official statements or public comments about North Carolina from any of the other candidates. If they do make any, this post will be updated to include them.
The Texas Democratic Party held its quarterly meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee in Austin yesterday, and invited the candidates for DNC chairman to address the organization. I was traveling all day so I was not able to monitor it and live-blog or tweet it like the Ohio event a few days earlier, but TDP uploaded the video of the event to Facebook. I should point out that this is Sally Boynton Brown’s first event since declaring her candidacy 24 hours earlier, so this is the first time Democrats are hearing from her directly. Here are a few real-time tweets from people who were there:
UPDATE: Texas State Democratic Executive Committee member Josh Greene sent the link to this edited video of the five candidates’ speeches that has been uploaded to YouTube.
Scoop by NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald:
“The Democratic Party stands at a crossroads, and needs leadership that will expand our vision to more Americans — while also intensifying our commitment to our core values. Keith Ellison is that leader,” de Blasio said in a statement provided to NBC News.
The mayor of the country’s largest city has positioned himself as a national progressive leader and is the latest in a long list of liberals supporting Ellison. But de Blasio also has longstanding ties to Hillary Clinton, whose 2000 Senate campaign he managed and whom he backed in the Democratic presidential primary.
In his endorsement, de Blasio called Ellison “a unifier who worked tirelessly for both Bernie Sanders and then Hillary Clinton, he will bring the party and the grassroots together while broadening and deepening the Democratic Party’s connections to the American people.”
And the mayor praised Ellison as a “grassroots organizer,” who “has delivered real results like voter turnout in his native Minnesota,” while also being a “passionate fighter for economic fairness.”
The endorsement comes just before Tom Perez’s official entry into the race to be the next chairman of the DNC. According to a Politico survey of the voting members of the Democratic National Committee, Ellison is the frontrunner right now but he has not put this race away. De Blasio is up for re-election in 2017.
The Democratic Governors Association released an open letter to the candidates running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee listing the five criteria the DGA will use to evaluate candidates. From the letter:
1) Real, measurable commitment to investing resources in winning gubernatorial and state legislative races in 2018 and 2020, years that will decide the fate of redistricting;
2) A commitment to investing in organizing in states with competitive gubernatorial and legislative races — not just in states with competitive presidential or congressional elections;
3) A commitment from the candidate to serving full time as chair;
4) Commitment to provide resources to state parties for organizing and communications staff; to provide technical assistance for redistricting; provide training and support to recruit and support next generation of Democratic leaders;
5) A commitment to working with Democratic governors and other state policy leaders on advancing policies that grow our economy and strengthen the middle class.
Politics1 is reporting that outgoing Secretary of Labor Tom Perez will enter the race for chairman of the Democratic National Committee:
No other news organization has confirmed this as of this writing. If this reporting is accurate, Perez would presumably have to resign from his cabinet position in the immediate future so he can begin the process of campaigning for the DNC job.
Politico reported earlier today that Perez had stepped up his outreach to voting members of the DNC in recent days, though their story notes he was still considering a possible run for governor in Maryland in 2018 as well. Perez is “expected to hold a call with DNC members this week to discuss his intentions.”
Keith Ellison is seen as the frontrunner in the race now because of the number of endorsements he has racked up and the very public campaigning he has been doing for the job since the election last month. The other candidates in the race as of this writing are New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley and South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison. Perez could potentially be Ellison’s biggest challenger, given his proximity to President Obama and the fact that he was considered as a possible running mate for Hillary Clinton this past election, although the potential downside to his candidacy is the risk of the DNC chairman race becoming a revisited proxy war for the Clinton-Sanders 2016 primary battle. Politico also noted that NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue is still considering entering the race as well.
The schedule for those campaigning for chairman and vice-chairman positions has stepped up recently, following recent events organized by Young Democrats of America in Memphis and the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus where the candidates could speak and make their arguments. The campaigning will step up in the new year, when the DNC has scheduled four regional forums across the country for the candidates to make their case to Democrats ahead of the party’s winter meeting in Atlanta where the new chairman and vice-chairs will be chosen, scheduled for the end of February.
UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting Perez has told three senior Democrats that he intends to run for DNC chairman.
The AFL-CIO released a statement this morning endorsing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The key part of the statement:
“Representative Ellison meets the high standard working people expect from leaders of our political parties,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “He is a proven leader who will focus on year-round grassroots organizing to deliver for working families across America. Under his leadership, the Democratic Party will embody the values that our members stand for every day.”
UPDATE: NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald points out a key caveat to the AFL-CIO endorsement:
The endorsement comes with an asterisk, critics note, as Ellison’s name was the only one on the AFL-CIO endorsement ballot. Trumka gave voters just three options: Support Ellison, make no endorsement, or abstain.
Harold Schaitberger, the president of the firefighters’ union, blasted the endorsement in a letter to Trumka, calling it a “contemptible…attempt at a coronation.” Schaitberger, whose union less progressive than others, added that the outcome “will not be the ‘unified endorsement’ that you hope to proclaim.”
The other thing to keep in mind is the possibility that the outgoing Secretary of Labor Tom Perez might decide to throw his hat in the ring for DNC chairman, though there are also rumors he is considering a run for the Maryland governor’s race in 2018.
politicalwilderness.com 