House Campaign Committee Tries to Push a Progressive Out of 2018 Primary
March 3, 2018 in Blogs

The Democratic Party’s Washington-based insiders overseeing their 2018 efforts to win back a U.S. House majority are trying to undermine another progressive candidate—this time it's Greg Edwards, an African-American pastor running in Pennsylvania’s 7th district.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, is pressuring Edwards to get out of the race, according to reports by progressive groups working with Edwards and the Washington Post, which said DCCC officials were asking local Democrats if they thought Edwards could be persuaded to run for a state senate seat instead. Pennsylvania’s congressional districts were just redrawn by the state Supreme Court after Republicans were found to have violated their state constitution, which apparently prompted the DCCC’s intervention, according to the Post.
But the optics for the DCCC are terrible, and seem to confirm a deepening pattern. Only a week ago, the DCCC posted opposition research (usually used to attack opponents) about a Texas progressive congressional candidate, Laura Moser, on its website. That effort backfired, helping Moser to raise nearly $80,000 in days, and now she's coming in second in pre-election polls for Tuesday’s primary, which would position her for a runoff election.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Tom Perez, Democratic National Committee chairman, told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” series, referring to the DCCC's attack on Moser.
But the DCCC is its own sphere inside the larger party universe. It's a creature of House incumbents, and its biggest task is re-electing officeholders and trying to win 24 more seats needed for a majority. While that purview makes it inherently centrist, the DCCC apparently has little intention of heeding the chairman’s message, even as Perez takes steps to break with the past and partner with grassroots organizations.
The effort …read more
Source: ALTERNET
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