Democrats trying to unseat each other III

[lpetrich]

It may seem a bit early to start posting on progressive insurgents running for Congress next year, but I have some big news to report.

Brand New Congress on Twitter: "Brand New Congress began in 2016, ..." / Twitter

Brand New Congress began in 2016, full of hope, vision, and fortitude, with the focus of running hundreds of progressives to bring about a significant change in Congress.

We have experienced tremendous victories, such as the elections of two of our original endorsees, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush.

We have been a part of a multitude of conversations for policy reforms such as Medicare for All, ending mass incarceration, climate change action, reforming our immigration system, and fighting for our families.

There comes a time when you realize it’s the right time to pass the torch. That time has come for us.

Effective today, BNC will cease operations. It has been a great, long, and adventurous run.

In Solidarity,
Adrienne Bell
Executive Director

brandnewcongress.org/ - one word: "Archives"

Something like  Croatoan - the only complete word left behind by some early North American Anglo colonists who deserted their colony.

BNC's Executive Director:
Adrienne Bell on Twitter: "There comes a time when you realize it’s the right time to pass the torch. That time has come for us.
Effective today, @BrandNew535 will cease operations. It has been a great, long, and adventurous run." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

What happened?

 Brand New Congress was a PAC founded in the spring of 2016 by some Bernie Sanders campaigners as the Senator's campaign for President wound down. What did they come up with?

What's Next for Sanders Backers? Replace the Entire Congress! - Roll Call - July 29, 2016 at 5:00am

Roughly 20 volunteers with the new group “Brand New Congress” are on the ground in Philadelphia for the convention. Their mission is to spread the word about their goal to replace most members of Congress in two years. That means Democrats, as well as Republicans.

The group plans to organize more than 400 congressional candidates who run on Sanders’ progressive platform.

Brand New Congress organizer Alex Rojas described the strategy as “have this exciting presidential-style campaign with 400 heads.”

Alexandra Rojas, now at Justice Democrats.

“I’ve always been interested in how we can actually create all of these changes that Bernie’s been talking about,” Rojas said. “Presidency is not the place to gain enough power to actually be able to create all of those amazing changes.”

...
The group’s organizers have also laid out a detailed timeline for their goals. They plan to publicly announce their first 50 candidates by March 2017, and announce more than 400 candidates by July of that year.

Who would BNC try to recruit?

“In general, we are not looking for career politicians or activists,” the email read. “We want you thinking of your co-workers, teachers, health care providers, community volunteers, local small business people who really care for their workers and neighborhoods.”

The group is also not wed to one party. Organizers plan to run candidates in Republican and Democratic primaries, and in the general election as Independents.

From the looks of it, BNC was originally to act like a political party, but its founders made a fateful decision not to create a new one. I've yet to find any discussion of that issue by BNC's founders, however. But I'm sure that they'd noticed how irrelevant the Green Party is, if not an outright spoiler.

So instead of trying to create a new party, BNC's founders decided to work within the existing party system, running candidates as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents as appropriate. Bernie Sanders Republicans?

BNC was not as successful at recruiting candidates as originally hoped, only recruiting 30 for 2018. One of these was a Republican, the only one that BNC ever supported. He lost the primary. One of them was an Independent. He lost the general election. The remaining 28 were Democrats, and of these, 9 won the primary, and 1 won the general election: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

After 2018, BNC only supported Democrats.

In 2020, BNC supported 46 candidates, with 10 winning the primary, and 4 winning the general election, including both incumbents.

In 2021, BNC supported 3 candidates, with 1 winning the primary, and then the general election.

In 2022, BNC supported 35 candidates, with 13 winning their primaries, and 9 winning the general election, including all 6 incumbents.

So the shutdown is rather odd.

 

[lpetrich]

In early 2017,  Justice Democrats split off from BNC to focus on the Democratic Party.

Here are BNC's alumni:

• 2018: AOC 0.09, 0.10
• 2020: Jamaal Bowman 0.06, Cori Bush 0.10
• 2021: Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick 0.19
• 2022: John Fetterman, Maxwell Frost, Greg Casar, Becca Balint

I've given govtrack.us's ideology scores when available.


Brand New Congress (@BNCRevolution) / Twitter - only 2 tweets, including
Brand New Congress on Twitter: "Activists who were key to Obama and Sanders have an audacious plan: running 535 bipartisan candidates for office. (link)" / Twitter
noting
Brand New Congress: 535 progressive candidates, 1 ticket | Boing Boing

Some of the technology activists who were key to the Dean, Obama and Sanders campaign have a new, audacious program: they're going to run 535 bipartisan candidates for office in the 2016 election, backed by a single website for fundraising, grassroots organizing and messages, based on Bernie Sanders' political platform.

noting this announcement

We will make announcements prior to this when we reach 10 and 100 candidates, fueling our volunteer base and donations each time.

Our candidates will be working people from many backgrounds and fields who:

• Are good at what they do.
• Are proven servants to their communities, families, friends.
• Have consistently passed on opportunities to sell out.
• In general, have never held or sought public office.
• Agree completely on a unified economic, social justice, and climate change platform.

They want someone with demonstrated competence, someone with a demonstrated record of being helpful to other people, and someone who seems unlikely to go the way of Kyrsten Sinema.

I've also found
Brand New Congress (@BNCPlatform) / Twitter
and
Brand New Congress (@BrandNewPolicy) / Twitter
with a similarly small number of tweets, including the same ones as that 2-tweet one I mentioned earlier.

 

[lpetrich]

BNC's method of recruiting was to use others' nominations of candidates. AOC, for instance, was nominated by her brother. Justice Democrats also does that.


What happened to BNC? I can only speculate, since BNC elected 3 new candidates in 2022, compared to 2 in 2020 and 1 in 2018.

Andre Stackhouse on Twitter: "Woah! This is huge news. Brand New Congress was a huge deal after 2016 and played a pivotal role in electing The Squad.
It's now closing its doors.
s there any fight/strategy left within this once insurgent movement?" / Twitter

Black Unicorn Rose on Twitter: "@CaptainStack Sobering. #GreenParty better learn from this or they will be next in line with this kind of announcement. Not a game out here." / Twitter

The Green Party seems to mainly be a supporter of vanity Presidential runs, and it may continue to stumble ahead in that form.

Then some very unflattering gossip. I've gotten some hints about that about a year ago, and now someone is going into more detail.

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@CaptainStack I was there for 4 yrs. There was gross discrimination, misogyny, and verbal abuse internally, especially against women of color like myself & against candidates. In the end, 3 White leaders pushed out everyone but themselves and mismanaged the entire org." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "BNC closes it's doors. No surprise, unfortunately, when internally the entire DEI group was pushed out when White leadership became unemployed & needed $ work. There was more to this story, but not worth telling. We did some good work. Sad to see greed won." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@ZeynabDay @samuraiemily @RJohnston815
No surprise. They were paying C $1000s for "fundraising" when she only wanted to chat on the phone and not help candidates. T underminded everything. Other C of course funneled $$. Thats what happens when Neolibz lead & greed takes over." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Emily Jones on Twitter: "@dalatindiva Cheaters never prevail" / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@samuraiemily It took longer than I expected but without ppl working there who knew how to organize, fundraise & work with candidates- no surprise.
White elitists don't automatically have the skills. They didn't. And caring abt $ more than candidates is a losing strategy." / Twitter

I don't like the idea of racializing such things, but that may well be correct about upper-middle-class elitists.

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@dalatindiva Four years of my life helping to build something that did a lot of good dismantled because it left it's mission is deeply sad to see. It breaks my heart." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@ZeynabDay I was thinking about that, chica. SMH. They ran it into the ground." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@ZeynabDay You would think with a Fetterman win their fundraising would have been through the roof. It must have gotten a LOT LOT worse after I left. SMH. Also, doesn't help to endorse candidates if you don't want to help them at all with thier campaigns." / Twitter

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@dalatindiva Yes. And they moved away from being anti-establishment, away from accountability, and independent to Dem Party light. From recruiting community members to an endorsing agency for Dems. Watered down the platform. We tried to tell them. We did." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@ZeynabDay By the time I left, the priority was candidates that could bring in money, there was little we were providing candidates. I offered repeatedly to help w Comms training, but CR blocked me again & again while T dismantled everything." / Twitter

Comms? Was it doing mock press conferences? Something that AOC described. They'd have staffers act like reporters with various slants. Left-wing, like Mother Jones; centrist, like the New York Times and the Washington Post; and right-wing, like Fox News. She recalled the Fox News one trying to rattle her with sexism like calling her "little lady".

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@dalatindiva When we went from recruiting candidates to focusing on only Dems candidates already running w higher fundraising, etc, it went to shit. Lost all its magic, uniqueness, revolutionary guts, and viability." / Twitter

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@dalatindiva Sorry you were dealing w that after they removed me." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Opinion Haver on Twitter: "Brand New Congress is shuttering. ..." / Twitter

Brand New Congress is shuttering. I suppose it was a worthwhile experiment, but I can't say they have much success to show for their 3 cycle lifetime.

It comes down to scale. BNC could provide some basic training and aid to candidates who would otherwise have no resources or help. I don't doubt the quality of that help, but Congressional elections are massive endeavors and anyone who needed BNC help was probably already doomed.

The model can (and does) work for legislative/local elections but someone running for Congress provides such a small fraction of the work that goes into their own campaign that they need way more help than BNC could provide.

I don't know if that was the real problem with BNC.

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@BrandNew535 We did some good work. Respectfully, would have been nice if the WOC were allowed to do their jobs instead of bending to unemployed White bigots who destroyed BNC a year ago for personal paychecks. It was a shame. We could have done great things." / Twitter

WOC = women of color

 

[lpetrich]

Blue America – Working to change America -- already endorsing candidates.

Lucas Kunce is trying again. #DraftLucas – Blue America and January 6— Lucas Kunce Launches His Campaign For Senate. What Better Day To Start The Process Of Removing Insurrectionist Josh Hawley? – Blue America
He ran for the Senate in 2022, and he got close to winning the Democratic primary: Trudy Busch Valentine 43.2%, LK 38.4%, others 4.7%, 3.9%, 2.4%, 1.8%, 1.4%, 1.4%, 1.1%, 0.9%, 0.9%

If he wins the D primary this time around, he will be up against Sen. Josh Hawley.

Maebe A. Girl is also trying again. It’s Maebe– For Sure – Blue America

She and Schiff had a cordial exchange of ideas in their past campaigns and she has no grudge against him.

“I commend Adam Schiff for his diligence and commitment to investigating Donald Trump,” she told me, “and respect his move to the left on many issues over the last few years. But as future Congresswoman for CA-30, informed by years of on-the-ground activism and volunteering in this community, my priorities will be different.”

AS's govtrack.us ideology score (2014 - 2022): 0.24, 0.24, 0.31, 0.23, 0.15 -- agrees with MAG

She ran in 2020 and 2022 for AS's Los Angeles seat, and now AS is running for the Senate.

• 2020: AS 59.6%, Eric Early (R) 12.6%, MAG 12.0%, others 5.6%, 3.8%, 3.4%, 1.8%, 1.3% -- AS 72.7%, EE 27.3%
• 2022: AS 62.5%, MAG 12.8%, others 8.5%, 6.4%, 4.7%, 1.6%, 1.6%, 1.0%, 0.9% -- AS 72.1%, MAG 27.9%

 

[lpetrich]

Dom Jones Is Determined To Ensure Basic Human Rights For All – Blue America

The jungle primary to replace Katie Porter in California’s blue-leaning 47th congressional— Irvine and Costa Mesa plus a storied stretch of coast from Seal Beach to Three Arches Bay below Laguna Beach— has drawn 4 plausible candidates, 3 conservative men (Republican Scott Baugh and right-of-center Democrats Dave Min and Harley Rouda) and a progressive woman, Dom Jones.

On her way to the U.S. Senate, Katie Porter, disappointingly, has endorsed Dave Min, a terrible choice that puts the seat in jeopardy of a Republican takeover. Time and time again, voters have made it clear when offered a real Republican and a Republican lite candidate calling himself a Democrat, they pick the real Republican.

Pervez Agwan Is Battling Big Oil And $ Head-on, In Their Own Backyard – Blue America

His team is running a grassroots campaign that is not taking, in his own words, “a cent of corporate PAC dollars, a dime of fossil fuel dollars, or a penny of special interest dollars. We’re taking the fight to the oil and gas industry and their corporate funded politicians in the heart of Texas’ most diverse congressional district: TX-07.”

 

[lpetrich]

The Dems Have Ignored State Legislative Races For Too Long– And Has Paid A Price– That’s Changing – Blue America -- March 10 -- then describing prospects for VA, NJ this year, and MI, MN, PA next year.

In the midterms last year, Democrats defend every state legislative chamber in their control this year - CBS News -- November 21, 2022 / 11:41 AM

Democrats were able to defend every state legislative chamber in their control this year — making it the first midterm elections since 1934 in which the party in power has not lost a chamber.

They were also able to flip chambers in several states, a shift from previous midterm cycles where Democrats have struggled at the state level. In Pennsylvania, Democrats narrowly gained control of the state House for the first time since 2010. They flipped the Minnesota Senate and both chambers in Michigan, giving the party a trifecta in both states. In Wisconsin and North Carolina, Democrats prevented Republicans from gaining supermajorities, protecting Democratic governors' veto power. And in New Hampshire, control of the House remains unknown, nearly two weeks after the elections.

The R's won there, 201-197.

MI, MN, PA

In the few months they’ve held control, Democrats in these three states have taken action on abortion. The Michigan Legislature repealed a 1931 abortion ban triggered after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and Minnesota Democrats codified the “fundamental right” to abortion.

Only in MI and MN, nothing yet in PA.

Minnesota Democrats rapidly advance the most progressive agenda in a generation - "Concern about voter pushback is seemingly absent, with Democrats saying voters sent them to St. Paul to act."

Minnesota has guaranteed abortion rights in state law, set ambitious new clean energy goals and is about to allow unauthorized immigrants to get driver's licenses and restore voting eligibility to people released from prison.

...
Walz has already signed more than a half dozen bills into law this session, including proposals to make Juneteenth a state holiday and ban discrimination based on someone's hair texture or style. Proposals are simultaneously racing through the process on other major priorities, including legalizing recreational marijuana, implementing a paid family and medical leave program and requiring sick and safe time for workers.

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Woohoo " / Twitter
noting
John Croman on Twitter: "Minnesota Senate passes universal school meals bill. Four Republicans joined all 34 Democrats in voting yes. (pic link)" / Twitter - yes 38, no 26

 

[lpetrich]

Not just MN, also MI.

Gov. Whitmer and Democrats flex new power in Michigan - "In her State of the State speech, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vowed to further defend abortion rights, expand protections for LGBTQ people and pursue stricter gun measures."

Whitmer also appealed to bipartisanship, specifically on her proposal for free universal preschool, part of a larger plan to reduce costs for Michigan families.

“I know we might have different perspectives here, but I sure hope we can all get around supporting 4-year-olds across Michigan,” she said.

Michigan Democrats Take Decisive First Steps Toward Ensuring Bodily Autonomy – housedems.com

Michigan House Democrats introduced two new bills yesterday that would make additional necessary changes to the state’s unenforceable 1931 abortion ban. House Bill 4031, sponsored by state Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield), would remove the felony abortion law from the Michigan Corrections Code of 1953. House Bill 4032, sponsored by state Rep. Stephanie A. Young (D-Detroit), would eliminate the ban from the state’s Code of Criminal Procedure.

Michigan Senate votes to repeal right-to-work law in victory for organized labor | The Hill

The state House has approved its own version of the legislation, but must agree on the final language for the bill. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has said she will sign the bill into law if it comes to her desk.

 

[lpetrich]

With New Power in 4 States, Democrats Prepare to Push for Previously Blocked Priorities - Route Fifty - December 30, 2022

Democrats will reach their new peak after picking up complete control of four states in the 2022 midterm election: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota. They also lost a trifecta in one state: Nevada.

...
In Maryland, for example, Governor-elect Wes Moore has already said he will try to revive a light-rail line in Baltimore that his Republican predecessor, Larry Hogan, killed eight years ago.

...
In Massachusetts, Maura Healey, the incoming governor, named a cabinet-level climate advisor and wants to make climate-related technology a centerpiece of her economic development strategy. Outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed two major laws to mitigate the damages caused by greenhouse gases, but only after pushing for dozens of changes and even vetoing a prior proposal.

And after a midterm no less.

 

[lpetrich]

From  List of United States state legislatures - US state legislatures have a grand total of 7,410 seats. During the Obama years, the Democrats lost some 1,000 seats to the Republicans. They are now starting to return.

Democrats in Michigan Are Showing National Democrats How to Actually Wield Power

Democrats usually waste their electoral majorities. So it’s shocking when the party uses its power to actually pass progressive and pro-worker legislation, as it just did in Michigan — including repealing the state’s right-to-work law.

For several decades now, a basic political dynamic has recurred in Washington. Afforded political power, Republicans push their agenda as fiercely and aggressively as possible, using every tool at their disposal. Among Democrats, something like the opposite is more typically the case. Awarded a sweeping mandate in 2008 and a governing trifecta in 2009, to take a recent example, Barack Obama and his administration refused to go to the mats for the public option for health care, refrained from overhauling America’s financial system, and backed away from promised reforms that would have made it easier for workers to organize unions.

I remember Bill Clinton wimping out on his claimed priorities, and Barack Obama doing likewise.

The same has often been true at the state level. As Thomas Frank observed in his 2016 book Listen, Liberal, many solidly blue states are effectively governed from the technocratic center-right. After their landslide midterm victory in 2010, meanwhile, Republicans newly elected to governors’ mansions and statehouses across America quickly moved to transform erstwhile Democratic bastions into laboratories of conservative policy. In both Wisconsin and Michigan, historic strongholds of the American labor movement, a barrage of anti-worker laws soon followed.

Technocratic center-right - like Bill Clinton's and Barack Obama's presidencies.

In a single day alone, ignoring the anguished cries of their Republican counterparts, Michigan’s Democrat-controlled legislature passed a new gun control law, voted to repeal the state’s unenforceable abortion ban, and enshrined protections for LGBTQ citizens. Significantly, legislation to end the state’s Snyder-era right-to-work law was just passed through the Michigan house and senate and is now on its way to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk for approval.

 

[lpetrich]

Twilight of the Technocrats? - Feb 2017 - not long after Hillary Clinton's defeat by Donald Trump

One of the highest-paid staff at Clinton HQ in Brooklyn, Kriegel developed a devilishly complex algorithm called “Ada” that reportedly guided all of the campaign’s most critical strategic decisions — from which states to send the candidate and her surrogates to where and when to run ads and invest resources. So panoptic was Ada’s reach that it frequently overrode the judgment and local knowledge of Democratic activists on the ground.

As the election finally reached its denouement, Clinton’s big data algorithm was supposed to be her secret weapon. Instead, just like her candidacy, it proved to be a historic dud.

Then asking if her sort of politics will also suffer that fate.

"Even the most powerful algorithm cannot compensate for the flawed assumptions of its programmers." -- in short, garbage in, garbage out.

More than perhaps any waged before, the Clinton campaign invested an inexhaustible faith (not to mention considerable financial resources) in the wisdom and effectiveness of experts, its upper echelons dominated by a generation of Democratic insiders steeped in Third Way thinking and analysis.

In word and affect, it spoke the language of white-collar professionals in New Democratic coastal heartlands and showed open disdain for some of the party’s traditional, less affluent constituencies and their aspirations. It eschewed the rhetoric of populist contestation in favor of bipartisan détente with factions in the Republican old guard and gleefully chased the votes of suburban conservatives. It publicly courted both Wall Street and Silicon Valley and proudly touted the support of their leading viceroys. It emphasized personality and qualification, judgment and temperament, over ideology. And had it prevailed as expected, it would have governed accordingly.

In the sum total of its posturing, strategy, messaging, and wounded bemusement in defeat, the Clinton campaign represented the apogee of the liberal center’s technocratic vision in all its shimmering hubris and ultimate, self-defeating futility.

Then talking about Brexit and politicians like Marine Le Pen of France. "Yet far from reflecting soberly on this near rout, or the failures that may have produced it, devotees of technocratic liberalism have rallied one after another to fortify their orthodoxies."

"Finding themselves suddenly cornered, liberal technocrats have increasingly lashed out at mass democracy itself, blaming it for Trump’s victory and Brexit, and advocating its enfeeblement as a solution."

 

[lpetrich]

"The Technocratic Fallacy"

As Lily Geismer has observed, the Democratic Party’s shift under Clinton was accompanied by the continued transformation of its New Deal voter coalition into one that elevated a new cohort of technocratically minded white-collar professionals over historic working-class constituencies: ...

quoting from Atari Democrats

For all its pretensions of transcending the schism between left and right, the Third Way shift amounted to a hostile takeover of the center-left by a new generation of center-right technocrats whose main achievement was welding a refurbished lexicon of liberal progressivism to the processes already initiated by the likes of Thatcher and Reagan.

To this end, the political grammar of figures like Clinton and Blair synthesized and dulled many of the traditional idioms of liberalism, conservatism, and social democracy, redeploying them in the service of manifestly neoliberal causes. A sweeping, pro-corporate agenda of labor outsourcing, privatization, financial deregulation, welfare reform, and means-testing was implemented on the back of antiseptic management-speak incessantly declaring itself loyal to no ideology at all.

What “worked” became the kinds of regulations and investments that would most benefit industries like tech and finance, what qualified as “ideological” being anything out of sync with the professional managerial class and its various political, cultural, or economic outlooks.

Barack Obama's administration carried forward that sort of politics, it must be noted, and I like AOC's assessment of it on Pod Save America in mid-2019. She said that it does not do much good to say that one is less horrible than the other side when one won't do anything for one's voters - she said that that is "bullshit".

The Biden Admin has moved away from Clintonism, even if not by much.

 

[lpetrich]

Moderate PAC Goes After Democrats with GOP Donor’s Money - January 25 2023, 1:00 p.m. - "The Moderate PAC, created to go after progressive primary challengers, received all its money from one source: Republican megadonor Jeffrey Yass."

A cadre of moderate Democrats and Republicans are joining together to revamp a political action committee to fight against progressive primary challengers to establishment Democrats.

With President Joe Biden’s former campaign manager as the PAC’s only consultant and a defense contractor executive as its treasurer, the Moderate PAC — not to be confused with the older Moderate Democrats PAC — stands to be an exemplar of the Democratic Party’s corporate-friendly, centrist wing. Its financial heft, though, comes from the other side of the aisle: So far, Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania, is virtually the only one putting money into the group.

Justice Democrats Executive Director Alexandra Rojas: “The corporate-backed establishment will stop at nothing to prevent more bartenders, nurses, principals, community organizers, and regular people from entering the Democratic Party in Congress. They would rather buy elections than let working-class progressives even run. They will do everything in their power to make themselves richer at the expense of robbing poor and working-class Americans.”

Moderate PAC prepares to flex against progressives

The Moderate PAC, an organization of centrist Democrats, plans to raise $20 million to defend a handful of Democratic lawmakers — as well as open-seat candidates — in 2024 primary fights with progressives, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The PAC is looking to scare off progressive groups like Justice Democrats from targeting moderates or tipping the scales for any seat in which an established Democrat might retire.

Back to The Intercept.

The article did not mention the group’s ties to the Biden campaign and the defense industry, nor the Republican funder.

As the number of progressives in Congress has continued to grow since 2018, the revamped PAC is one of several organizations launched in recent years to target progressive Democratic primary challengers and protect centrist incumbents.

On the plus side, it looks like they are running scared. They lost Joe Crowley, they lost Eliot Engel, they lost Lacy Clay, they lost Kurt Schrader, who might be next?

 

[lpetrich]

Then discussing Jeff Yass, a finance billionaire who is a vice chair of the Cato Institute, a right-libertarian think tank. He is notable for this: How Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass Avoided $1 Billion in Taxes — ProPublica Most recently registered as a libertarian, he has donated to the campaigns of lots of Republicans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and also to some conservative Democrats.

“Yass is a threat to democracy in Pennsylvania,” six organizers wrote in an op-ed last week titled “A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That’s a problem.”

Yass has amassed his wealth in part by successfully avoiding paying taxes and used his financial influence to push candidates and policies for his own benefit, they wrote. “We need to call Yass’ donations what they are: money from a billionaire seeking to buy power,” the organizers wrote. “No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass — Democrat or Republican.”

A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That's a problem | Opinion - Pennsylvania Capital-Star - "No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass – Democrat or Republican"

 

[Jarhyn]

Then discussing Jeff Yass, a finance billionaire who is a vice chair of the Cato Institute, a right-libertarian think tank. He is notable for this: How Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass Avoided $1 Billion in Taxes — ProPublica Most recently registered as a libertarian, he has donated to the campaigns of lots of Republicans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and also to some conservative Democrats.

“Yass is a threat to democracy in Pennsylvania,” six organizers wrote in an op-ed last week titled “A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That’s a problem.”

Yass has amassed his wealth in part by successfully avoiding paying taxes and used his financial influence to push candidates and policies for his own benefit, they wrote. “We need to call Yass’ donations what they are: money from a billionaire seeking to buy power,” the organizers wrote. “No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass — Democrat or Republican.”

A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That's a problem | Opinion - Pennsylvania Capital-Star - "No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass – Democrat or Republican"

You realize this is an endorsement, as read by every 2-bit QOP cash grabber, to waddle right up to Yass, unzip his fly, and start sucking his dick in the middle of public?

 

[Jarhyn]

Then discussing Jeff Yass, a finance billionaire who is a vice chair of the Cato Institute, a right-libertarian think tank. He is notable for this: How Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass Avoided $1 Billion in Taxes — ProPublica Most recently registered as a libertarian, he has donated to the campaigns of lots of Republicans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and also to some conservative Democrats.

“Yass is a threat to democracy in Pennsylvania,” six organizers wrote in an op-ed last week titled “A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That’s a problem.”

Yass has amassed his wealth in part by successfully avoiding paying taxes and used his financial influence to push candidates and policies for his own benefit, they wrote. “We need to call Yass’ donations what they are: money from a billionaire seeking to buy power,” the organizers wrote. “No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass — Democrat or Republican.”

A deep-pocketed donor from Pa. is moving onto the national stage. That's a problem | Opinion - Pennsylvania Capital-Star - "No one in public office should take money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass – Democrat or Republican"

You realize this is an endorsement, as read by every 2-bit QOP cash grabber, to waddle right up to Yass, unzip his fly, and start sucking his dick in the middle of public?

Personally I'm really close to taking the offer, but not for the money. Rather, so that I can bite his dick off.

 

[lpetrich]

Andre Stackhouse on Twitter: "Woah! This is huge news. Brand New Congress was a huge deal after 2016 and played a pivotal role in electing The Squad.
It's now closing its doors.
Is there any fight/strategy left within this once insurgent movement?" / Twitter
Brand New Congress's Twitter account no longer exists, at least not in public.

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@CaptainStack I was there for 4 years. Helped build it. I can say I think the energy is still out there for insurgent campaigns. I think local and state is the key. And critically important right now." / Twitter

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@CaptainStack There is a fight left and it's in the insurgency. The issue is BNC went Dem-light and moved away from our once anti-establishment momentum. Stopped community nominations and recruiting candidates that way. As well as dropping the accountability promise. It's heartbreaking." / Twitter

Mathemactivist on Twitter: "@ZeynabDay @CaptainStack That's awful to hear. Such a great org at the start." / Twitter

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@mathemactivist @CaptainStack It does make me sad to see it close its doors. We did a lot of work and I'm still proud of the policies we were able to bring to national attention like Medicare for All, Green New Deal, Abolish ICE and others." / Twitter

Zana Day Lefties stop the hero worship! on Twitter: "@mathemactivist @CaptainStack And proud of many of the amazing candidates, community members, supporters, and volunteers I had the privilige of working with and getting to know through the years." / Twitter

Clark County OH Green Party on Twitter: "@BrandNew535 We are saddened by this. The Green Party supported the Brand New Congress movement, and we still will. For everyone who is disenfranchised by this, join the Green Party and help reform politics as we know it for the betterment of America." / Twitter

Latina #MutualAid on Twitter: "@CCOhioGreens @BrandNew535 BNC changed and pushed out people of color, discriminated against candidates of color, and had serious issues with misogyny and racism. I was there for 4 years. And it's a shame." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Some of BNC's last tweets were thanking some of its candidates who had run and lost last year, and congratulating some of its winners. BNC's Instagram account is still going: Brand New Congress (@brandnewcongress) • Instagram photos and videos

Brand New Congress - YouTube - its most recent content is 6 years old - that's 2017.

However, its offshoot Justice Democrats is alive and well: Justice Democrats (@justicedems) / Twitter - "Building The Bloc."

But after losing Joe Crowley, Michael Capuano, Eliot Engel, and Lacy Clay, Big Money has awakened.

Deconstructed Podcast: How Progressive Democrats Were Railroaded in the Primaries by AIPAC and Allied Groups - February 26 2023, 3:01 a.m. - "A people-powered insurgency threatened to reshape the Democratic Party. Then came the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its allied super PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel."

Noting
How AIPAC and DMFI Outspent the Democratic Insurgency - October 16 2022, 3:00 a.m. - A People-Powered Insurgency Threatened to Reshape the Democratic Party. Then Came AIPAC and Its Allied Super PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel.
and
Deconstructed Podcast: Israel’s Rightward Turn - January 6 2023, 3:00 a.m. - "Ultranationalists are in the driver’s seat in Israel’s new government."

Starting off by describing Maxwell Frost backing off from earlier support of Palestinians, then

Alright, but from there, we can say: Well, it’s better not to be elected than to compromise one’s principles. That’s a fair ethical standard.

But if we allow a system to prevail that requires a candidate to make those compromises just to be considered for office, we guarantee we’ll only get compromised candidates; if we allow a system where the choices are either to lose nobly or to win on the terms of multimillion-dollar Super PACs, we’re the ones who lose. Democrats have it in their power to set rules around outside spending in primaries but have simply chosen not to do so. This is a story on the consequences of that choice.

Then going into detail about AIPAC and DMFI vs. progressive candidates.

Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, Indivisible, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and the Sunrise Movement worked in coalition with J Street on a number of races that DMFI and AIPAC played in, and where they could muster enough money, the candidates had a shot.

Joe Dinkin, national campaigns director for the WFP said, “If you look at the races we lost, we were outspent by the bad guys 6, 8, 10 to 1. If you look at Summer’s race, it was more like 2-1.”

She survived AIPAC-DMFI, but barely. She won the primary by 0.9% and the general election by 11.4%, much less than what he predecessor Michael F. Doyle would usually win.