The Democrat National Committee (DNC) continues on its downward spiral as many longtime officials have lost their jobs on top committees.
However, it doesn’t appear it will help things since reports suggest that the progressives within the party view it as “retaliation” since they opposed DNC Chairman Tom Perez.
Everything went downhill in the summer of 2016 when leaks showed collusion within the DNC to push Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the primaries. The news led to Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to resign as chairwoman.
Hillary ended up receiving the nomination only to fail big time against President Donald Trump.
NBC News listed the ousted officials:
- Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman and longtime DNC official who ran against Perez for chair before backing Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Buckley lost his spots on the Executive Committee and DNC Rules Committee.
- James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute and prominent Sanders backer, is no longer co-chair of the Resolutions Committee and is off the Executive Committee, a spot he has held since 2001.
- Alice Germond, the party’s longtime former secretary and a vocal Ellison backer, who was removed from her at-large appointment to the DNC.
- Barbra Casbar Siperstein, who supported Ellison and Buckley, was tossed from the Executive Committee.
Zogby said he’s “concerned about the optics” and “impact” of the moves and that all he wants to do is “heal the wound of 2016.” Buckley said the move is “all just very disappointing.”
Germond expanded on her feelings:
“It is quite unusual for a former party officer who has been serving on the DNC for forever to just be left out in the cold without even a call from the chairman,” Germond said. “So I assumed it had something to do with myself support for Keith.””I understand that I fought very hard for Keith Ellison. And I understand that to the winners go the spoils,” she added.
Of course the DNC denied retaliating against these members. Instead, the moves happened because officials want “to diversify and freshen the party’s leadership.” Some names that came up included black transgender activist Marisa Richmond and Dreamer Ellie Perez:
“This year’s slate of at-large DNC member nominees reflects the unprecedented diversity of our party’s coalition,” said DNC spokesperson Michael Tyler.”This slate doubles millennial and Native American at-large representation, provides unprecedented representation for our allies in the labor community, and increases the presence of Puerto Rican at-large members at a time when the Trump administration refuses to take responsibility for the millions of Americans who are still suffering through a major humanitarian crisis.”
Or the DNC is ignoring a good portion of its party. During the convention in July 2016, tons of Sanders supporters stormed out once Hillary officially received the nomination.
The next day, those and more supporters protested outside the DNC as President Barack Obama delivered a fear-mongering speech about Trump. As Leslie pointed out, the people appeared more angry about the rigged primary and Hillary as their candidate than they were about Trump or the Republicans.
A few days later, Kemberlee blogged about the lengths the DNC went to in order to make sure Hillary had a full house during her acceptance speech and drown out Sanders supporters. This included hiring paid seat-fillers, especially for states that showed the most support for Sanders like California and Vermont. The DNC even installed white noise machines “above areas in which swaths of sanders delegates were likely to be found.”
After the election, the DNC held a meeting with then-interim chairwoman Donna Brazile and things got a little heated between her and a staffer named Zach. From HuffPo:
“Why should we trust you as chair to lead us through this?” he asked, according to two people in the room. “You backed a flawed candidate, and your friend [former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz] plotted through this to support your own gain and yourself.”Some DNC staffers started to boo and some told him to sit down. Brazile began to answer, but Zach had more to say.“You are part of the problem,” he continued, blaming Brazile for clearing the path for Trump’s victory by siding with Clinton early on. “You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy.”
No, they did not learn. Things remained heated once the DNC elected Clinton loyalist Perez as chairman. Then in May the DNC formed its Voting Commission that consists of only Clinton surrogates and no Sanders supporters.
Also, the RNC has been raising way more money the DNC since the election. In all, the RNC received $86.5 million in the first seven months of 2017 while the DNC only made $42 million. The RNC also has zero debt while the DNC has $3.4 million.
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