What we usually refer to as the New Dems, the New Democrat Coalition, is, even more than the Blue Dogs, the Republican Wing of the Democratic Party. They're getting ready to elect their next leader and the mailer below is from a slick 3-pager sent to newly-elected New Dems members from Jared Polis-- except he accidentally sent it to a Berniecrat who immediately forwarded it to me, along with Jared's message. Bear in mind when you read it that my friend who it was sent to would sooner decimate the New Democratic Coalition that join it:
I hope you are having a nice weekend after what has been a difficult week. Congrats on you victory, a small ray of sunlight on a cloudy day. We are so thrilled to have you join our NewDem Coalition!I am now announcing my intent to run for Chair of the New Democrat Coalition. Please take a moment to look at the attached prospectus outlining my qualifications and my vision for the future of the Coalition.Thank you for your consideration. Please do not hesitate to follow up with any questions or thoughts. I hope that I can count on your support.
Oh, and by the way, Jared is the second richest Democrat in the House-- after fellow New Dem John Delaney. Last year his net worth was $92.6 million, up smartly from $88.6 from the year before. He's considered a dot.com wunderkind on Capitol Hill, having sold his online greeting card (BlueMountain.com) and floral delivery (ProFlowers.com) businesses. He's a big Uber investor.A member of Congress warned me today that Democrats will vote on leadership races Thursday "so that no one has any time to put together any challenges based on the election failure." He was't happy that the sleaze-bag former head of the New Dems, Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley-- a Wall Street plant inside the caucus-- is running for the caucus chairman's job. "He expects to be the Leader after Pelosi and Hoyer are gone. The only alternative seems to be Wasserman Schultz. What would your activist friends that about that choice?"Yesterday the Wall Street Journal emphasized the Democratic Party identity crisis as exemplified by the explosive battle over the chair of the DNC. So far Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison, pharmaceutical lobbyist Howard Dean, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman and DNC vice chair Raymond Buckley, lobbyist and South Carolina Chairman Jaime Harrison and centrist former Governor Martin O'Malley are running. There are even rumors that the much-reviled and serially failed Steve Israel is campaigning for the job. Ellison seems like the perfect candidate except for one glaring blemish-- support from the worst Democrat of all: Chuck Schumer-- and the fact that many people are saying there is a need for a full-time chairman, not something I recall anyone saying when Wasserman Schultz was given the job.I gather the House leadership wants to get the votes out of the way quicker than usual-- before the members, just back in DC-- can start grumbling among themselves and plotting to change the spectacularly failed leadership itself. So Nancy, Hoyer, Clyburn stay and they move Crowley up to Caucus head and then let Barbara Lee and Linda Sanchez fight it out for Caucus vice chair.
