Three progressive groups in New Mexico jointly oppose recent acts by the Democratic National Committee and its chair, Tom Perez, that benefit centrist candidates and hurt working people.

The Adelante Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, the New Mexico Working Families Party, and the Central New Mexico chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America criticize the DNC’s change of debate rules and appointments by Perez.

As reported in Politico on Jan. 31, the DNC has dropped its donor threshold for the Nevada debate to be held on Feb. 19. This opens the door for the debate to possibly include multibillionaire candidate and former Republican mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, who has said he would not accept campaign contributions. The change of debate criteria came after Bloomberg donated $800,000 to a joint fundraising committee of the DNC and state Democratic parties. Yet the DNC refused to change the debate qualifications in December 2019 when a group of Democratic Party presidential candidates, led by Cory Booker, called on the DNC to ease criteria to allow for more diversity on the debate stage. It appears that the DNC is susceptible to big-money influence at the expense of the viewpoints of candidates of color.

Continue reading Progressives in New Mexico Denounce Recent Actions by the DNC and Committee Chair Perez →

by Jerilyn Bowen

As we progressives know all too well, the neoliberal power brokers in the Democratic Party have long been dead set on preventing those of our persuasion from obtaining a decisive voice in the party.  Top example:  the national party establishment overrode the grassroots uprising of the Sanders campaign in 2016, contriving to prevent Bernie from getting the presidential nomination and thereby throwing the country to the wolves.  Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by three million but Bernie would almost certainly have done what needed to be done to win in the electoral college as well.  Given his demonstrated grassroots support in the industrial and midwestern states that narrowly handed Trump victory, Bernie would likely have taken the White House, bigtime.  And we wouldn’t now be living this nightmare the Republican cartel is inflicting on the country.

So what did Democratic Party centrists learn from the avoidable debacle of 2016?  That election was theirs to lose and they blew it.  Did they then recognize the error of their ways and move to open the party doors to the influx of vital energy coming from grassroots progressives?  No, they did not.  Instead, following the remarkable and most fortunate 2018 midterm House victories, they moved to circle the wagons to protect their hegemony against the invaders who were instrumental in bringing that victory about.  Among other things, under the leadership of Cheri Bustos in 2019 the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) instituted draconian new rules designed to prevent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (MA), and Ro Khanna (CA) from running for office by denying anyone who challenges a Democratic incumbent the funding they need to hire consultants and vendors.

Continue reading AOC Turns the Tables on the DCCC and So Can We      →