Progressives back Alexandria and Zephyr-- why doesn't EMILY's List?EMILY's List didn't endorse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during her primary against corrupt Democratic hack and Queens machine boss Joe Crowley. Par for the course. EMILY's List rarely backs cutting edge women candidates. They still haven't endorsed Ocasio-Cortez for the general. Jess King is another progressive candidate-- who won her primary-- who EMILY's List won't endorse. Nor will they back Detroit's proven progressive champion Rashida Tlaib. Pro-choice women Democrats, so why the cold shoulder?The ultimate identity politics group, backs progressive women where it makes them look good-- like Elizabeth Warren, Stacey Abrams, Tammy Baldwin or Marie Hirono but what they specialize in is right-of-center corporate Democrats like Blue Dog chief Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Blue Dogs Cheri Bustos (IL), Gretchen Driskell (MI), Gwen Graham (FL), Kathy Manning (NC) and Stephanie Murphy (FL), as well as candidates like NRA poster child Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), Mob-affiliated socialite Susie Lee (NV) and conservatives Like Dianne Feinstein (CA), Gina Raimondo (RI), Jacky Rosen (NV) and Claire McCaskill (MO).Yesterday, Chuck Todd's First Read got the day going with a comparison between how EMILY's List and Bernie are handling the primaries. No love lost between them from the 2016 primary when EMILY's List aggressively backed Clinton against him and then went bonkers when Bernie was invited to speak at a women's conference the following year.Bernie endorses progressives regardless of gender. EMILY's List is furious that in today's Michigan primary he's backing the progressive (make) candidate for governor, Abdul El Sayed, while they're backing a garden variety status quo Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer. Also today, EMILY's list has another uninspiring status quo "moderate" (Sharice Davids), while Bernie is backing Brent Wilder. Coming up this month in Florida's gubernatorial contest, EMILY's List backs Republican-lite Blue Dog Gwen Graham, while Bernie endorsed the progressive in the race, Andrew Gillum. (To call Bernie anti-women in that race would be the same as calling EMILY's List anti-black.)"It’s completely fair to note," noted Todd, "that Sanders has chosen candidates who align with his own policy priorities over more moderate competitors. And he did pick Stacey Abrams in Georgia (who won her primary) and Marie Newman in IL-3 (who lost)-- but so did most national Democratic groups, including EMILY’s List" (although EMILY's List dragged its feet on Newman, jumping in long after Bernie and progressive groups backed her)... "Critics of EMILY’s List have suggested that the well-funded group simply picks primary winners and losers from afar. “We don’t want to be supportive of candidates who simply raise money from the wealthy and then put 30-second ads on TV,” Sanders suggested in a rally for Welder." That's a perfect description of EMILY's List.Today, The Intercept noted that EMILY’s List just suddenly announced it had endorsed Letitia James (the Cuomo Machine candidate) for New York attorney general, "an unusual move for the women’s group that tends to shy away from races with more than one viable woman in the primary. [It] came about without a competitive process or the typical trappings of interviews with candidates or even questionnaires." Clearly, the aggressively progressive and independent-minded Zephyr Teachout was a high profile candidate who the status quo conservatives at EMILY's List just could not bear.Suggestion: if you want to help more fantastic women-- women who will execute their duties the way Pramila Jayapal and Judy Chu do, for example-- get elected to Congress, that 2018 congressional thermometer above, has the cream of the crop, although, from both genders. They wouldn't be on the list if they didn't need some help today.
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