De Blasio’s National “Contract With America” Strategy Leaks

[DonViejo]

David Freedlander

Everyone from Susan Sarandon to Van Jones is helping draft and push de Blasio’s new “Contract with America,” which will push for paid sick leave and free, universal pre-K.

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During the 2013 mayoral campaign, de Blasio used his support of paid sick leave to pummel the Democratic front-runner, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, sparking his come-from-behind victory. De Blasio then signed an expansive law on the topic soon after becoming mayor. Universal pre-K became de Blasio’s signature accomplishment of his first year in office, even if his mechanism to pay for it—a tax on the city’s upper-income earners—was rejected by Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The contract will also put de Blasio in the center of some of the debates currently roiling Washington. According to a draft of the document circulated this week, de Blasio will call for the passage of comprehensive immigration and for Democrats to “oppose trade deals that hand more power to corporations at the expense of American jobs, workers’ rights, and the environment.”

President Barack Obama has called for a new Pacific trade deal that he says would open up new markets for American goods. He has received little support for that view among Democrats, however, and Hillary Clinton has declined to back the agreement.

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De Blasio is expected to be joined in Washington by a more than 60 members of Congress, progressive activists, and labor leaders, among them Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, Congressmen Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, and the actor Susan Sarandon. Last month de Blasio convened a number of progressive thinkers at Gracie Mansion, including Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel and civil rights activist Van Jones to hash out ideas about how to build a progressive agenda in 2016. De Blasio has pointedly declined to endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, even though he was the campaign manager of her 2000 Senate run in New York and even though both Bill and Hillary Clinton were on stage with de Blasio at his inauguration.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/08/de-blasio-s-national-contract-with-america-strategy-leaks.html

[msongs]

1. letting a criminal gang control the streets is progressive in what way? nt

[hifiguy]

2. I am really starting to like what I see from DeBlasio

and very proud to see MY CONGRESSMAN, Keith Ellison, is right there with him on this.