Top progressives, DCCC reach ceasefire over 'blacklist'
Top liberals have reached a détente with the House Democratic campaign arm in a dispute over a policy that inhibits primary challengers to incumbents — a move intended to unify Democrats in this year’s battle to protect their majority and defeat President Donald Trump.
Some of the House’s most influential progressives, including Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), said they will contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, despite a contentious new rule that blacklists campaign consultants who work for candidates taking on sitting Democratic members.
The decision by the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus represents a thawing of monthslong tensions with DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (Ill.), who had fiercely defended the policy over bitter objections from high-profile Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.).
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The group — Bustos and about two dozen progressive Democrats — sat down privately last week to discuss the 2020 cycle, during which she thanked liberals in the room who have agreed to pay their dues, according to people familiar with the meeting.
“I intend to pay the full dues. I have a view that, in 2020, we have to come together to ensure the defeat of Donald Trump and the retaining of our majority,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), another sharp critic of the DCCC policy who began paying dues in January.
A rank-and-file member like Khanna, who isn’t in leadership or on an exclusive committee, is expected to pay roughly $150,000 in party dues during the election cycle.
“My view has always been that I think that policy should be changed,” said Khanna, who ousted a Democratic incumbent, then-Rep. Mike Honda, in 2016. “But we have to make sure that we’re supporting the effort.”
So far, Ocasio-Cortez remains the most prominent exception to the newly improved relationship between progressives and the DCCC.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/22/dccc-dues-congress-progressive-caucus-101796