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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOcasio-Cortez defends decision not to pay dues to House Democratic campaign arm
The HillAsked by The Hill if she intended to pay dues to the House Democratic campaign arm this cycle, Ocasio-Cortez replied, "I don't think so."
Ocasio-Cortez, whose unexpected win in a 2018 primary against longtime incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) propelled her to political stardom in progressive circles, has emerged as one of the Democratic Partys most prolific fundraisers in the House.
In the third quarter of 2019, she raised more money than any other House Democrat, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Her most recent federal filing shows that she raked in more than $1.4 million between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Perhaps, like her mentor, she'll become an (I) who organizes with the Democrats whenever it's convenient?
still_one
(92,396 posts)We will see how that works out for them
I wonder if she will have problems giving to cenk ungers justice Democrats?
George II
(67,782 posts)womanofthehills
(8,764 posts)I Personally love Bernie and A0C - and A0C has big name recognation
Among top lawmakers in Washington polled by INSIDER, just three House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are more well-known than Ocasio-Cortez.
https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-more-famous-than-top-republicans-trump-cabinet-2019-3
still_one
(92,396 posts)continue his anti-Democratic party rubbish
How they distorted and lied about Hillary was a disgrace
Of course it is no surprise that Sanders would hire.Jill Stein supporter Briana Joy Gray and Hillary hating David Sirota
RandySF
(59,225 posts)to primary incumbents, support nonviable candidates in purple districts and donate to certain colleagues in deep blue districts.
comradebillyboy
(10,175 posts)Nature Man
(869 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,887 posts)Fernanda Cabrera -NYC Council Man
George II
(67,782 posts)Badrun Khan (1st to announce), Jose Velazquez, Fernando Cabrera.
Badrun Khan was born in on the lower east side of Manhattan, and has lived in Queens for years. She has a huge ethnic following in Queens being the President of the Jalalabad Association (a Bangladesh Community with 14,000 members), and has been getting around up in the Bronx, too.
Jose Velazquez has lived in the Bronx his entire life. He was educated in the NYC Public School system.
Fernando Cabrera was also born in the Bronx and has lived there all his life. He's been a member of the New York City Council for 10 years, and is senior pastor of New Life Outreach International in Kingsbridge, Bronx.
arthritisR_US
(7,292 posts)Fernado.
womanofthehills
(8,764 posts)From end of Nov -
AOC, a Democratic socialist who reps parts of the Bronx and Queens, raised $1.42 million between July 1 through Sept. 30, followed by House impeachment czar and US Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who netted $1.26 million, and House Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.), who received $1.145 million.
The lions share of AOCs donations, $1.1 million, were under $200.
Political observers told The Post it is unprecedented for a rookie representative in office for less than a year to out-raise powerful veteran leaders such as Pelosi and Schiff.
https://nypost.com/2019/11/26/aoc-raised-most-money-among-house-dems-during-reelection-campaign/
David__77
(23,506 posts)There will be some factionalist talk just like there was about Sanders in advance of his re-election in 2018.
Id like there to be more in Congress like her - 10, 20, 50...
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Whether she's reelected as one of over 200 isn't a concern of mine, but I'm curious about how much of her money comes from people in her own district? Must be a fraction of the whole at best.
JustAnotherGen
(31,887 posts)Fernando reached out to me directly (I'm in NJ and a heavy donor) - I gave. I would also help his campaign set up meet and greets - I'm good at organizing those events, getting food and beverage donations, venue discount, etc etc.
We already picked out borough candidate (only one seat), Malinowski won't be primaried, I have time and money to help.
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Worse even than I guessed. The people who elected her to represent them are being enormously outspent by outside interests.
On-line fundraising can be just as corrupting as big checks when misused. This is not how democracy is supposed to work!
Our house Democrats overwhelmingly passed a giant democracy package that, among many other things, would provide public funding for elections.
That way, honorable local candidates who accept and adhere to public funding requirements will stand out against those rolling in moolah from special interests they're not supposed to represent instead!
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)lapucelle
(18,319 posts)********************************************************************************************************
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https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00041162&cycle=2020
David__77
(23,506 posts)arthritisR_US
(7,292 posts)background information, I couldnt support him. To me anyone who is anti gay is not a Democrat, they are the antithesis of a Democratic candidate.
womanofthehills
(8,764 posts)Just what we don't need is a Pentecostal minister who is running in a district he doesn't even live in
You might be in the wrong party.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/campaigns-elections/city-councilman-fernando-cabrera-challenging-aoc.html
George II
(67,782 posts)....but at least he lives in the state, which is the Constitutional requirement. The other two primary candidates do live in the district.
On the other hand we have this:
https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/H8NY15148/1161740/
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)in the primary for NYS lieutenant governor. Jumaane Williams also personally opposed both abortion and gay marriage.
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You told the poster supporting Cabrera
based on her support of that candidate.
Wouldn't that also mean that you think AOC "might be in the wrong party" based on her support of Jumaane Williams?
https:// twitter.com/AOC/status/1033030363914940416
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/09/24/in-crowded-speakers-race-one-councilmans-conservative-views-may-be-a-deal-breaker-114678
https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2019/4/padebate-politics-2019-02-14-gcn.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-metro-williams-abortion-marriage-public-advocate-20190206-story.html
Response to lapucelle (Reply #63)
ahoysrcsm This message was self-deleted by its author.
Me.
(35,454 posts)To open a district office yet? She feels pretty confident right now but may come to regret her decision.
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)Cuthbert Allgood
(4,965 posts)RandySF
(59,225 posts)Bettie
(16,126 posts)is still alive and well.
Nature Man
(869 posts)and could post to the Internet, they'd have probably reacted the same way.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)arthritisR_US
(7,292 posts)its simply stating the candidate you identify with the most.
womanofthehills
(8,764 posts)Can you explain why you like Cabrera?
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)alienate people...what is she better at doing here...??? And I'm talking among Democrats!
Response to brooklynite (Original post)
Post removed
tritsofme
(17,399 posts)So that doesnt seem too far fetched.
arthritisR_US
(7,292 posts)but a Democrat. Sounds to me that she doubts her party affiliation.
womanofthehills
(8,764 posts)Must we all line up and think the same...
padah513
(2,506 posts)UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)think she should be in the same party as Biden and then you say you think there is no room for progressives here.
It's the other way around!
EllieBC
(3,041 posts)Plenty of progressives dont think those who arent as left as they are have no place in the party.
PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)She may well have said that, but some talking head on CNN said she should leave the Democratic party.
But here's the problem for we progressives...
WHERE do we go?
Voting green is a waste and the Greens have more than their share of batshit crazy people.
Libertarians? No way. If I see you in the road needing help, I will help, even if your care costs me some money. A libertarian would not - not today's radical right libertarians. I mean, think Rand Paul.
So WHERE DO WE GO?
My ancestors are Irish, from the County Roscommon. They were peasants on a 14 acre potato farm and silly them, immigrated to the US because they didn't want to starve during the potato famine. But here's a story -
In 1649, Cromwell and his roundheads invaded Ireland. The Rump Parliament passed a law called the Irish resettlement act. Basically it confiscated land all along the east coast of Ireland and gave it to Cromwell's cronies. When my ancestors asked Cromwell where they should go, he replied, "To hell, or Connaught." Connaught is the state where County Roscommon in located.
During the potato famine, at least a million Irish died, and about 200,000 died during the great diaspora. They starved or died of disease on coffin ships to Canada, Australia, the US and other ports. My ancestors survived here. They fought on the Union side in the Civil War, and on my mother's side the Revolution and the War of 1812. The first world war. The second. Vietnam. The big suck.
My granddad was a union organizer, and faced off against the Pinkerton thugs in the mining strikes in Colorado. He was a pastor before that, and a teacher. He was a mayor of a small town in Missouri. His aunt was one of the original suffragettes who bled in the streets for the women's vote.
Now, let me share some words penned by an Irish survivor, an immigrant to America named Honora Horace Kelly.
We wouldn't die, and that annoyed them. They'd spent centuries trying to kill us off, one way or another, and here were were, raising seven, eight, nine of a family on nothing but potatoes and buttermilk. But then the blight destroyed the potato. Three times in four years our only food rotted in the ground. Nothing to eat, the healthy crops sent away to feed England. We starved. More than a million died - But we all didn't die. Two million of us escaped, one reaching back for the next. Surely one of the great rescues in modern history. Now look at us. Doing well all over the world. We didn't die.
And my story is only one of millions. AOC's ancestors immigrated. Tlaib's did. Katie Porter's did. Biden's did. We are a nation of immigrants. Our ancestors all came here for better lives, but like in the song, they ended up saying hello to the new boss, same as the old boss. It's these billionaires. They take and take and take, arrange giant tax cuts for themselves and then tell us we can't have healthcare because 'Americans don't want it.' and we can't have debt-free college because that wouldn't be fair to people who've already paid back their loans, and we can't have expanded Social Security because we have to rein in 'entitlements'.
But we spend nearly 3/4 of a trillion on war, and give blood and treasure so a few billionaires can keep getting wealthier and wealthier.
Yeah, I'm a progressive. I'm not a socialist because I believe in entrepreneurship and in working hard, and I don't think a centrally planned economy works worth a darn. I'm not a green. I'm not a libertarian. I'm not a communist.
I'm a progressive. A genuine New Deal Democrat who believes in a robust role for government in mitigating the abuses of the profit motive. I believe in organizing ourselves around human need, and putting people over profit.
Well, enough of that. I'm a Democrat because I'd die before supporting any of these party-over-country Republicans. But I want change. I want real change. Not just people who pay lip service to change. I want healthcare, expanded Social Security, debt free college - basically to spend our tax money that we pay into this government, that is supposed to be our government - a government of, by and for us, the people, on programs that materially benefit us.
So, if I can't be a Democrat then WHERE SHOULD I GO? WHERE SHOULD AOC GO? Why is the tent not big enough for us?
Tarheel_Dem
(31,240 posts)https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287409217
PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)In any other country she would NOT be in the same party as Joe Biden. Nor would I.
When she makes this observation, it seems to upset some people, yourself included. However, in this country there are two major political parties, and because of the way our elections are structured and funded, it is virtually impossible for anyone in a third party to have the access Democratic and Republican candidates have - to state party and funding systems, to national donors and certainly to the ballot. That is the reality.
The Republicans have gone so far right as to be fascist. The last actual sanity in that party seems to have died out with Ike, and it is definitely not the party of Lincoln.
The other party, the ONLY other party that provides such access, in effect the ONLY game in town for any sane candidate, is the Democrats.
That, Tarheel, is the reality.
So, to state that fact, and then have people say, "Well, why don't you leave?" is what we would otherwise call 'blaming the victim.'
To wit, this fact - that in a country that had a number of parties, a parliamentary system, AOC would NOT be in the same party as Joe Biden, isn't AOC's fault, nor is it mine. Nor is it Bernie's. It has to do with our own funding and electoral structure.
Consider: if you are basically sane, meaning you fall somewhere in the middle two-thirds of the Bell curve, then the Democratic party is your party, whereas if you are an insane, homophobic, xenophobic, white nationalist bible thumping evangelical who wants to rip this country apart to hasten the apocalypse, then the Republicans are your party. That's just the way it is.
It follows, then, that it isn't fair to tell AOC to leave, just as it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you to leave simply because you may be a bit more toward the center or even center-right of the Bell curve. The Democratic party is all our home. AOC is simply working to get more progressives engaged and in there. Bernie, when he speaks of a 'political revolution,' is talking about our general voting-age population actually digging into issues that affect them and becoming engaged with local, state and national politics.
What is being talked about is real democracy - Think about the National Popular Vote Compact initiative that has already been passed in states that have a total of 189 electoral votes. If enough states pass it to get to 270, then we have in effect circumvented the electoral college, pulled all its teeth. And, we will then have achieved a true one-person-one-vote state in presidential politics.
I believe that to recapture this republic and to kill the 'American Empire' of the neocons, we need a much more universal engagement by the American public in the political process. That scares people, though, and rightly so. All we have to do is look at the right-wing crazy base of the Republican party to be horrified. So this political 'revolution' will necessarily have to do a lot with educating people about policies and how they are affected by those policies.
What happens, for instance, when we get rid of regulations on water safety? What happens when we stop worrying about automobile emission standards? What happens when we have a giant tax cut for billionaire parasites and corporate executives and at the same time significantly increase the 'defense' budget? How much will we actually expend over a ten-year period on healthcare within our current system? How much would we spend if we had single payer?
Is this possible? This boosting of intelligent civic participation?
Sure. I know people who are absolute morons when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy, foreign policy and social policy - who cannot even tell you who their US Senators are, or how many people sit on the Supreme Court - but can utterly dissect and analyze the Mizzou football team using some pretty high level critical skills. Or tell you all about each contestant on Survivor - strengths and weaknesses and likelihood of getting thrown off the island or whatever.
We have to switch that: get people engaged with the civic process, with governance.
Sorry for the giant word-wall. I do tend to do that. But like it or not, the Democratic party really IS a big tent in that it is the home for people like AOC and also the home for people like Klobuchar. And, in such a big tent, we will have constant debate. That's just the way it is.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,240 posts)ArcticFox
(1,249 posts)Directed at Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders on this site. It's sickening.
How some people can think they get to claim the "Democrat" badge and deny it to someone else is beyond me.
Wawannabe
(5,678 posts)He is the one claiming the badge for his 2020 and 2016 presidential runs and ONLY for that. AOC appears to be bashing the party from all sides. Why wouldnt people be upset?
I am. I fervently hope that Bernie will not be the nominee, Ill not be voting for him in the primary and I offer no apologies.
arthritisR_US
(7,292 posts)still_one
(92,396 posts)Tells you exactly what a divisive person he is
Hekate
(90,793 posts)...to their own advantage. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Just how is it "hatred" to take note of what they say and do and quote it back in their own words? I have never understood that line of reasoning, so perhaps you can help out by explaining it.
still_one
(92,396 posts)comments about their disdain for the Democratic party
George II
(67,782 posts)sheshe2
(83,900 posts)12. It's almost unbearable seeing all the hate
Directed at Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders on this site. It's sickening.
How some people can think they get to claim the "Democrat" badge and deny it to someone else is beyond me.
Did you object when Obama was called a POSUCS? The brick post about Hillary? It was sickening. One is gone the other remains.
RandiFan1290
(6,243 posts)They know they can attack us from the 'left' and get away with it.
liskddksil
(2,753 posts)like Marie Newman who is running a primary challenge against Congressman Dan Lipinski. Lipinski recently signed a letter asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe V. Wade which is personally disqualifying for a Democrat in a safe seat. As such I refuse to give money to DCCC.
BuffaloJackalope
(818 posts)Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)still_one
(92,396 posts)would have beat him if it wasn't an open primary, which the justice Democrats are big advocates of, which allow non-Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary. Newman lost because of republican cross over votes
However, Lipinski was the exception, and the 2018 midterms demonstrated that by the dismal showing of the justice democrats endorsements against the Democratic incumbents in 2018 midterms
Those incumbents were NOT dinos. This was the same bullshit some self-identified progressives tried to pull in the 2016 general election by not only refusing to vote for the Democratic nominee, but encouraging others to do likewise
In those critical swing states, Hillary lost by less than 1% while Stein received 1% of the vote. Every Democrat running for Senate in those critical swing states lost to the establishment, incunbent republican, and those Democrats were progressive by any standard, not the justice democrats purist standard that there was noo diifference between republicans and Democrats
Your point is excellent., the justice democrats of who is and is not a DINO is rubbish, as that was their view tooward both Hillary and President Obama
By whose dffinition is right on target
Johonny
(20,888 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,365 posts)... while reaping the benefits of shared sacrifice.
Hekate
(90,793 posts)delisen
(6,044 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)because of her annoyance factor. [A major difference separating her from other freshman. Especially, those who won non-automatic Dem seats - those who elected Speaker Pelosi].
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts).
Mandatory readings for Democrats are:
Daniel Rodgers, "Atlantic Crossings."
Eldon Eisenach, "The Social and Political Thought of American Progressivism"
Theodore Roosevelt, "Confession of Faith," Acceptance Speech at the 1912 Progressive Party Convention
Jurgen Habermas, "Knowledge and Human Interest" & "The Tasks of Critical Theory"
and the
"Port Huron Statement"
That should be good for a primer before I add more.
.
George II
(67,782 posts)Gothmog
(145,558 posts)I have donated each cycle to Congressman Al Green who is in a very safe district because he has to donate an amount each cycle to the party to help out other candidates. That is part of being a member of the party
delisen
(6,044 posts)what others build.
David__77
(23,506 posts)Thats its right, certainly.
melman
(7,681 posts)Renew Deal
(81,871 posts)She just might end up as the losing candidate for Staten Island
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,965 posts)And we are somehow shocked that AOC doesn't want to support DCCC? And we blame AOC for that? How about we blame the DCCC?
And she is still going to give the same amount of money that she would give to the DCCC to Democratic candidates.
But, yeah, screw her for actually having the gall to challenge incumbents. A challenge that the voters of her district clearly wanted since she won.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)How does this work? Did she join a club with expectations of regular dues? Or are the dues more of the nature of voluntary because she benefits from their efforts in a passive way, but "it sure would be nice you helped" sort of thing.
Is it possible that this could into a bad situation with the campaign arm suing her?
Anyway, the article paints her as though she is a deadbeat avoid her responsibilities, which is ridiculous of course.