Tienda Tigres UANL<\/a><\/p>\n Bustos has indeed become a public punching bag for progressives, absorbing blows for moderate and vulnerable Democrats. In return, Bustos has privately encouraged members to voice their support for her actions \u2014 particularly progressives who back the policy \u2014 according to multiple sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have time for games, we don\u2019t have time for hugs and kisses,\u201d Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in an interview, praising Bustos for taking a hard line to protect the party\u2019s incumbents ahead of a difficult 2020 campaign.<\/p>\n
The episode underscores Bustos\u2019 approach to the job as DCCC chairwoman amid an ideological clash that has defined the early months of the new Democratic majority. She is the first line of defense in Democrat\u2019s battle to hold onto the House, tasked with protecting more than two dozen seats in districts won by President Donald Trump, including her own.<\/p>\n
Her sometimes blunt attitude is a dramatic departure from previous DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján, who is known on Capitol Hill for being nonconfrontational and eager to please. But Bustos\u2019 style is one several members said is needed in this moment, as Democrats wage war against Trump and hope to not only hold the House but flip the Senate and White House next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you see is what you get,\u201d said Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), who fended off a liberal primary challenger last cycle. \u201cShe\u2019s up front about her positions and you have to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Clay: \u201cShe\u2019s brought a new perspective and sometimes you need to change the way you do things around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But other lawmakers, even the ones defending Bustos, have privately questioned her move to \u201cpoke the bear,\u201d as one member described her swipe at the left, and put in writing a rule that was essentially followed by the campaign committee anyway.<\/p>\n
Three months into her tenure as DCCC chairwoman, Bustos said she wanted to lay down the \u201cground rules\u201d and follow through on a commitment she made when she ran for the post to do everything she could to protect incumbents. Some lawmakers even specifically raised the vendor issue last fall during the DCCC race, according to one Democratic source. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other members of leadership have also defended the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a policy that the caucus supports, the leadership supports, and it plays the long game,\u201d Bustos said Wednesday when asked if she would reverse course on the new vendor policy. \u201cThat\u2019s where things are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the issue has clearly touched a nerve within the caucus.<\/p>\n
Democrats in the centrist New Democratic faction and more conservative Blue Dog Caucus are pleased with the Illinois Democrat\u2019s show of force against primary challenges. But, tellingly, many did not want to publicly comment on the change for fear of escalating what has the potential to become a civil war.<\/p>\n
Progressive Caucus leaders Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal have vocally condemned the policy change, calling it \u201cundemocratic\u201d and an effort to \u201cblackball\u201d talented consultants. Donors warned the two leaders that they would stop contributing to DCCC if the policy remained in place.<\/p>\n
In a heated meeting with Bustos last week, Pocan, Jayapal and Ro Khanna of California voiced their displeasure. Bustos stood her ground and appeared unwilling to change course. Khanna came out of the meeting angry, vowing to fight the policy until it was nixed.<\/p>\n
But in the days since, progressives have shifted tactics, saying they want to keep the debate private, with Khanna saying, \u201cthese things take time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re having ongoing conversations, but dealing with it in the public is counterproductive,\u201d Pocan said, when asked whether Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s tweets to her 3.8 million followers was helpful. \u201cI\u2019m dealing with it in the responsible way to make sure we get rid of the policy and that means dealing with it within the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez told POLITICO on Wednesday she doesn\u2019t have any additional plans to blast the DCCC on Twitter and said she\u2019s \u201cnot sure\u201d whether she is going to pay her member dues to the campaign arm. <\/p>\n
Though Pocan and Jayapal insist the conversations are not over with Bustos are not over, the three lawmakers appear to be talking past one another. Bustos said she would ask progressives to \u201cplay the long game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to be successful as Democrats, and going into 2020 with a very, very fragile majority, we got to be on the same team,\u201d said Bustos, adding that the new policy ensures the DCCC will spend \u201cevery cent we can to hang on to our majority and not work against ourselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
While running for the DCCC post, Bustos pitched herself as a Democrat with a unique ability to appeal to Trump voters while not shying away from taking on the president. The fourth-term lawmaker hails from a rural district in the northwestern corner of Illinois that Trump won in 2016 even as it reelected Bustos by 20 points.<\/p>\n
A former journalist and public relations executive, Bustos first impressed other Democrats as a co-chair of the caucus\u2019 communications arm last cycle. She, along with Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and David Cicilline of Rhode Island, helped craft Democrats\u2019 winning message \u2014 encouraging members to focus on economic issues instead of running solely on an anti-Trump platform.<\/p>\n
It worked. Democrats swept back into power in the House, flipping more than 40 GOP seats and electing the largest Democratic freshman class in four decades.<\/p>\n
Now Bustos is mentioned as a potential future leader of the caucus when Pelosi and her longtime deputies move on. But much of her future in Democratic leadership hinges on how she navigates her role as DCCC chairwoman \u2014 and whether Democrats hold the House.<\/p>\n
A natural and constant friction exists between the DCCC and lawmakers, no matter who holds the post. Members have to pay dues to the campaign arm \u2014 fees that Bustos raised across the board after taking the job. And the DCCC has been criticized for not doing more to defend incumbents from primary challenges in the past.<\/p>\n
But Bustos is steering the ship at a unique time: Trump is in the White House, Democrats hold the House majority for the first time in nearly a decade, and there is a new, combative progressive wing on bullhorns as dozens of newly elected moderates fend off claims that they\u2019re \u201cradical socialists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 50 different groups, and all of whom are screaming for attention from the DCCC and most of them believe that the DCCC is not responding sufficiently to their desires and requests, which is why I\u2019d never want the job,\u201d said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), adding of Bustos, \u201cI\u2019ve not experienced her wavering on anything, even the difficult and controversial issues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cheri Bustos isn\u2019t afraid of the insurgent left. The chairwoman of House Democrats\u2019 campaign arm has found herself in a very messy \u2014 and public \u2014 spat with progressives over the past week and a half. But the Midwestern moderate is refusing to budge, despite drawing ire from prominent progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}