Mediaboss Marketing

Last April, working the rope line after a campaign visit to Pittsburgh, Hillary Clinton stretched out her hand to greet Yong Jung Cho. The Democratic presidential candidate was walking into a familiar ambush a shouted question from a climate change activist, with a camera set to record.

Will you reject money from registered fracking lobbyists? asked Cho, who was working with the anti-fracking group 350 Action.

Clinton laughed. Go read the articles! she said. Ive debunked all of that.

Clinton went on to win the Pennsylvania primary, and the Democratic nomination, and Cho went onto co-foundWe Will Replace You, a new PAC thats warning Democrats of primary challenges if they dont fightPresident Trump everywhere they can. Among the groupsdemands:opposing all Trump appointees and all of Trumps legislative priorities; sing Congressional processes and rules of order to systematically bring all business to a crawl; and publicly supporting impeachment if Trump is found to have broken the law or violated the Constitution.

We were not happy to see some Democrats vote for so many of Trumps appointees, said Claire Sandberg, a co-founder of the group and the digital organizing director for Sen. Bernie Sanderss (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential bid. Seeing two Democratic senators vote for Rex Tillerson was absolutely appalling. Seeing 14 vote for Mike Pompeo was absolutely appalling. It seemed that Democrats in Congress were not getting the message, Sandberg said, referring to Trumpssecretary of state and CIA chief.

[Democrats are cheering Andrew Puzders defeat. But its really just a consolation prize]

And since then, weve seen [Sens.] Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill and Dick Durbin express the opinion that Neil Gorsuch deserves a fair shake, after Republicans refused to do that much for Merrick Garland, she said in comparing Senate treatment of Trumps and former president Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominees.

We Will Replace You is the latest of several projects designed to warn Democrats of consequences in their primaries or in 2018s general elections if they make deals with Trump. Justice Democrats, launched last month by progressive commentator Cenk Uygur, issued a detailed progressive platform and hinted at primary challenges if Democrats ignored it. Last week, a small crew of Sanders campaign veterans launched Draft Bernie for a Peoples Party, arguing that progressives needed to give up on the Democrats altogether and break the two-party system.

Even the most progressive candidates for DNC chair do not oppose large campaign contributions to party politicians from billionaires and super PACs, Draft Bernie co-founder Nick Brana wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed. How can we free our government from the influence of the oligarchs without even challenging their mechanisms of political control? Our country was much more sharply divided over slavery than it is over present-day money in politics and inequality. Yet Lincolns Republicans replaced the Whig Party in four years.

[Conservative group pressures Democratic senator Tester on Trumps Supreme Court pick]

We Will Replace You, like Sanders himself, is more focused on changing the Democrats. In addition to 350 Actions Cho, the PACs co-founders include 350 Action Executive Director May Boeve, Sanderss 2016 digital director Kenneth Pennington, former U.S. Student Association president Alexandra Flores-Quilty and Communications Workers of America National Political Director Rafael Navar. The activists experience, Sandberg said, suggested that they could apply pressure on Democrats whether or not they were raising fundsto challenge them.

The most effective thing you can do to persuade voters is mobilize volunteers to talk to them one-on-one, door to door, Sandberg said. That doesnt cost much money.

Still, the recent record of progressive primary challenges is mixed, with some victories in House primaries but high-profile losses in Senate races.

[Priorities USA memo: Focus on what Trump hasnt delivered can help Democrats]

In 2006, the last year that Democrats took back Congress from Republicans, some left-wing energy was directed at a successful primary challenge of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), a supporter of the war in Iraq. Lieberman went on to win reelection as an independent. In 2010, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee waged a near-miss primary fight against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.); Lincoln went on to lose reelection by a landslide.

So far in 2017, said PCCC co-founder Adam Green, the group has not talked to potential primary challengers of red state Democrats. It has, however, polled possible messaging against Trump nominees, to prove to wavering Democrats that theyd be in better shape politically if they cast no votes.

In one poll, the PCCC asked voters how theyd feel about now-Secretary of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin if they learned that hed submitted inaccurate information to the U.S. Senate, and hid $100 million of his wealth from the committee charged with approving or denying his nomination. InOhio, Wisconsin, and Florida, close to 70 percent of voters said theyd oppose him.

Right now, in some states, weve found that voters think Trump is taking on special interests and Democrats are defending them, said Green. Ill just quote something P.T. Barnum said if you want people to look at what youre doing, start a fight.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, noted that fewer senators were voting to approve Trump nominees, and he said he was confident that would-be challengers would come to see the good that incumbents were doing.

Theyre going to recognize that when youve got a senator whose values are in the right place, and is also popular in their state, its a good thing, Van Hollen said. I think the people will recognize the importance of senators who stand up for their states and also embody the right values.

But Sandberg argued that Democrats were relying on outdated ideas about politics when they insisted that the partys red-state senators needed to cut deals with Trump.

We question the underlying assumption that Democrats need to move to the right or make concessions to Trump in order to beat him, Sandberg said. In many places where Trump won by double digits, Obama had won by double digits, and Bernie did very well in the primary.

Read the original here:
New progressive PACs warn Democrats to oppose Trump or get primaried - Washington Post