Discussion: Khanna Floats Compromise After Flare-Up Over DCCC Stifling Primaries

1 Like

“I think there could be special circumstances perhaps for frontline members. That would be one possibility. There could be other compromises that could work,” Khanna told TPM

Kudos to Khanna and company for trying to extricate the DCCC from the disgusting mess it has made.

And kudos to TPM for being there to report on potential solutions.

 

@cameron_joseph

16 Likes

Proud of my rep Ro Khanna! I’m very glad to hear him promise to maintain party unity while still pushing for fairness. It’s nonsense like this DCCC policy that gives legs to Bernie fans to help Trump instead of keeping focused on defeating him.

There are districts like mine that are deep blue and the only serious challenge to an incumbent is within the party.

7 Likes

The point of the election is to give the voters a choice. If an incumbent has no primary opponent then all that is required is to not be as bad as the Republican challenger; and maybe it does not matter what the voters think.

5 Likes

“said he thought there might be a solution where the committee changed its policy so that it only applied to strategists who went after sitting members in swing districts.”

This doesn’t fix anything.

5 Likes

“Compromise” has become a dirty word these days. We ignore its necessity at our peril. Our Constitutional system is founded on the idea of compromise.

4 Likes

Calling BS on this one. This is an effort to stop the likes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and it’s total BS. Mr. Crowley needed to be defeated. He wasn’t representing the Bronx or Queens, he was representing Wall St. Wall St. is the problem, not the solution. There are many members of the Democratic Caucus that should be replaced.

This solves nothing

5 Likes

“After a week of furious battles over House Democrats’ campaign arm move to blackball any operatives who back primary opponents to members”

This type of shit is why we can’t have nice things and why I never register to the Dem party. Fucking idiots.

5 Likes

The first thing you do when you are elected is make sure you never have to face another opponent ever again. Establishment Democrats do that by a combination of gerrymandering and suppression of primary challenges.

I am sorry, but the DCCC can go to hell.

4 Likes

They shouldn’t be protecting candidates, they should be protecting races, and the best way to do so is to put up the best candidates in the primary and let them hash it out. The primary voters for the Democrats did a really good job in 2018 to pick candidates that represented their district and could win; in some cases that meant throwing out the old, in some cases it meant keeping the centrist, and in most cases we ended up with a far better, more representative set of Democrats in Congress, ones that are doing a good job to make our government work better. There’s no reason to think the same won’t happen again…we need good candidates to stand against the Republicans, ones who work hard to point out how Democrats will make our lives better and Trump/Republicans want to ruin the US with their policies. If there are candidates who can’t do that, they need to go and be replaced by ones that can, and who can win.

7 Likes

??

NY-14 isn’t close to being a swing district, so the DCCC restrictions wouldn’t apply to it under Khanna’s compromise.

This is absolute crap. A compromised democracy is not a democracy.

Pelosi and her DCCC hate democracy and don’t want Democratic voters to have a choice because it threatens her personal power and her stream of bribes.

When did our national motto become ‘my way or the highway?’ I’m so tired of people ascribing the worst motives to those who disagree on anything.
This is how the Democrats will lose - focusing on internal battles and demonizing each other. As the old saying goes, ‘democracy is the worst form of government- except for all others.’ When you expect perfection you constantly will be disappointed. Let’d keep focus where it belongs: on Trump, McConnell, and the GOP,who are destroying whatever degree of democracy we still have.

3 Likes

That is what they’re doing. Incumbents win something like 80-90% of the time, and have for decades. Protecting the incumbent is the best bet, broadly, of protecting the race in the general election. I agree they shouldn’t be hamstringing primary competition, but the DCCC actively backing incumbents is statistically the best way to ensure you keep that seat.

2 Likes

Cute little justification you have there. Been against democracy for a long time?

And there are races where that makes sense…it didn’t make sense with AOC and she was able to win despite not getting support. It has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and in any case the DCCC should not be seen to block challengers during a primary, unless there is something shady going on (I really expect Republicans to start running sabotage candidates in Democratic primaries in every campaign they can soon).

1 Like

If it isn’t already, it seems to me that the DCCC should be focused on electing Democrats, not necessarily re-electing incumbents. In fact, unless there’s a district that needs a Democratic candidate to unseat a Republican, I don’t think the DCCC should be involoved in the Primary at all.

If DCCC money can help put up a viable candidate, then by all means help out. Otherwise, let the voters of the district pick their primary candidate, and then the DCCC should provide support to that candidate in the general election. Otherwise, this is just a slush fund for whomever the party leadership chooses to “bless.”

3 Likes

I’m not sure where you’re going with this because it sounds like you’re referring to more than compromise within the Democratic Party but…

“Compromise” has become a word that in the context of compromising with an extremist GOP means at best complacency towards the destruction of democracy. Outside of that, normal vast majority of people are pro-compromise.

And when one party wields “compromise” as a weapon to further their aim to take, steal even, total power that is not compromise.

Mitch McConnel is shortening the debate for Lifetime Judicial Appointments to 2hrs so they can cram as many radical extremists into the courts as possible. Today he is also berating Democrats for their lack of compromise for opposing this Senate rule change. [Merrick Garland]

3 Likes

I don’t have a problem with them backing incumbents but I think they should just ignore the primary challenger unless they’re a potential hazard (ethically or otherwise compromised in a way that could lose us the general election win).

1 Like

I think the DCCC should stop funding any candidates during the primary altogether and save their dollars for the general election. Then they could fund every Democratic candidate instead of ignoring those that need the support the most: Dem candidates in red districts. I live in CA-1 (Most of the very northern part of CA) and the DCCC has NEVER given our candidates a single dollar. We had a great candidate last election (Audrey Denny) and even $50,000 would have gone a long way to help. We have a terrible Republican Rep., Doug LaMalfa, who is a conservative, entitled, lying excuse for a Representative. A strong showing from the Dems. would, even if not successful, would require the Republicans to spend more money on a “safe” district and might cause him to moderate some of his more extremist views. Every time the DCCC calls me for a donation, I tell them when they start giving us funding, I’ll start making contributions to them.

5 Likes