From The Hill (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/430355-dnc-punts-on-measure-to-reduce-role-of-corporate-pac-m
oney) Emphases mine:
DNC punts on measure to reduce role of corporate PAC money 02/16/19 01:55 PM EST
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has punted on a resolution that would have created a task force to reduce the role of corporate PACs in party fundraising.
At a general meeting of DNC members in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, party officials said that they would instead refer the matter to the party’s Platform Committee in 2020, giving the Democratic National Convention final say on the measure next year.
The measure referred by members would have required DNC Chairman Tom Perez to establish a task force to study corporate PAC money in party fundraising within 60 days of the DNC’s winter meeting this week.
—snip—
Former President Obama introduced a ban on corporate PAC money as a candidate in 2008. The DNC removed that ban in 2016 amid a contentious Democratic primary that brought the issue of special interests and corporate campaign contributions front and center.
Some members have called for a complete ban on corporate PAC money in Democratic politics. But other Democrats say that banning such contributions would essentially tie the party’s hands in its push to defeat President Trump in 2020.
A growing number of Democratic candidates up and down the ballot have rejected corporate PAC contributions to their campaigns in recent years.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who’s seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said last month that she would not take campaign money from corporate PACs and urged her Democratic challengers to do the same.
Since then, several presidential hopefuls, including former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), have pledged to reject money from such groups.
HMMMMmmm…!!!
I wonder why they did that!!!???
Not.
Read on.
From Vox
The Democratic National Committee has voted down a ban on corporate PAC donations
The DNC isn’t ready to give up corporate PAC money. Feb 16, 2019, 7:00am EST
An internal fight is roiling the Democratic National Committee over whether to forgo corporate PAC money and make a big statement against money in politics as the 2020 presidential election starts to shift into high gear.
A small group of committee members thinks the DNC needs to show it’s serious about banning corporate PAC donations, taking the same step as many presidential candidates who have pledged to forgo corporate PAC money. Others in the DNC want every tool possible to defeat President Trump.
The DNC said it would only take money from corporations in line with the organization’s values in 2016. But its Resolutions Committee that met in Washington, DC, this week stopped short of banning for-profit corporate PAC donations altogether. The committee instead chose to study the issue over the next 18 months.
Some complained that amounts to doing nothing.
—snip—
No!!!
Really???
Why would anyone would think that!!!
Not.
Twice!!!
“We haven’t quite come to grips as a party with the fact that people do not trust us. As much as we think that they should, they simply don’t,” said Christine Pelosi, chair of the California Democratic Party women’s caucus. Pelosi, who is the daughter of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, submitted the resolution to bring back the ban on corporate PAC money former President Barack Obama introduced as a candidate during the 2008 election.
Pelosi nodded to Democrats’ sweeping midterms win in 2018, which was carried by a number of candidates in Trump-friendly districts who ran their campaigns without corporate PAC money. A total of 52 Democratic House members are no longer taking corporate PAC contributions, including 35 new members who won in 2018.
The idea of getting money out of politics is extremely politically popular and transcends party lines, according to recent polling. As the DNC touts grassroots fundraising, Pelosi argued the organization needs to get serious about walking the walk before its first debates this summer.
“Y’all want to fight at the convention? You’re going to have one,” Pelosi said during the Resolutions Committee meeting. “We’re going to have a presidential debate, they’re going to ask what side we’re on. I just want us all to be ready. We’re going to need a very, very good PR strategy to explain why we made the decisions that we made.”
And here we have typical Nancy Pelosi-style mealymouthing and double speak. Even if it is coming out of her daughter’s mouth. Nancy the ventriloquist. Bet on it.
I repeat:
“We’re going to need a very, very good PR strategy to explain why we made the decisions that we made.”
The PR “strategy” is very clear. Table the idea after saying nice things about it, and then wait for the foofaraw to subside, helped no doubt by the usual under-the-table deals and rigged polls that will allow a creature of corporate America…quite likely Joe Biden, also known as “The Senator from MBNA” in his prime…to be the Dem candidate.
Scylla to Trump’s…or whoever succeeds him should Trump not be able to run…Charybdis.
But other DNC members have been much more hesitant, up to the top ranks of the DNC.
“My No. 1 focus, frankly, is to get rid of Donald Trump,” said committee member Charlie King, the former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. “Sometimes perfection is the enemy of the good.”
—snip—
“The real question here [is] … what are we saying to the people across this country, whose votes we need, not only to eliminate this president but to adopt an agenda for change?” said Larry Cohen, a DNC member and board member of the Bernie Sanders-affiliated group Our Revolution.
—snip—
The DNC is talking about how money in politics is bad — while continuing to take it
Despite being the party that rails against corporate money influencing politics, the DNC is still taking it. For years, Democrats have positioned themselves as the morally superior to Republicans when it comes to money in politics. But the money is still flowing.
The DNC quietly did away with Obama’s corporate PAC donations ban in 2016, in the middle of a presidential primary where the corrupting influence of politics became a major campaign issue.
And corporate influence could be seen all over the 2016 DNC convention in Philadelphia; even flags on light posts featured logos of corporate sponsors. Corporations hosted numerous events and parties during the convention that politicians and their staff attended, getting facetime with lobbyists — per an account from former Vox reporter Jeff Stein.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders railed on the outsized role corporations and millionaires and billionaires had in America’s politics when running against Hillary Clinton.
The fact that more Democrats running for president and Congress have taken the no corporate PAC pledge is a sign the party is trending in Sanders’s direction on this issue. House Democrats also rolled out a sweeping anti-corruption bill called HR 1 as their first bill of the year.
Many in the party will argue Democrats should use every resource they can get to defeat Trump — even as many candidates themselves forgo corporate PAC money. But others are decrying it as hypocritical, asking the DNC to hold itself to a higher standard and think about the message it sends to voters.
Business as usual.
DNC business.
Opposing legal graft with one hand while taking it with the other.
Vintage Pelosi.
Bet on it.
But the vintage is now beginning to show its age.
Bet on that as well.
Later…
AG
