Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Accuses Defeated Dem Joe Crowley of Plotting a Third Party Challenge

[Trumpocalypse]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist who defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley in a stunning upset, is now taking aim at her former opponent.

Crowley’s shocking defeat to the young political wunderkind looked at first to be amicable: the New York Democrat honored Ocasio-Cortez with a rendition of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born to Run” the night she won the primary.

But the New York Times reported this week an odd quirk in the upcoming general election for the district’s House seat: Crowley will remain on the ballot in November, as he secured a third party nomination, for the Working Families Party.

Crowley declined to “vacate the line,” despite the party’s request, so he will be on the ballot in November, despite his campaign issuing assurances to the Times:

https://www.mediaite.com/online/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-accuses-defeated-dem-joe-crowley-of-plotting-a-third-party-challenge/

Crowley should get out. This will only benefit the GOP.

[comradebillyboy]

1. He is out. Ocasio-Cortez is dead wrong on this and seems to

be going out of her way to attack Democrats.

[Trumpocalypse]

3. Then why doesn't he vacate the Working Families line?

[radius777]

14. Because he doesn't believe in election fraud,

as the only way to vacate the line is the 'fake run' for another office, ie by moving to another district and running for an office he's likely to lose.

NYS law is the issue, not Crowley, who isn't doing anything wrong.

Ocasio-Cortez is a democratic socialist Berniecrat and a newcomer, yet she wants to try to push around a loyal long time Democrat who suffered a humiliating defeat and graciously deal with it.

And it's a strong blue district, so I don't know what she's going on about.

I find it ironic that a Berniecrat is complaining about 'third party' challenges lol. "We must open up the Democratic party for all voices to have a say!" lol.

[Trumpocalypse]

15. That's an excuse

It’s not election fraud. It is perfectly legal. Ocasio-Cortez is the Democratic Party nominee as selected by the Democratic voters in that district. Every loyal democrat should be working to ensure that she wins in November, including Crowley. He should take his name off the ballot and not risk splitting the vote.

[Mc Mike]

18. If he doesn't run, and tells people to back her, we'll be o.k.

Even if he's on that line.

[Trumpocalypse]

19. I'd rather see him get off the ballot.

He is the Democratic county leader and controls all the local apparatus and resources.

[Mc Mike]

20. But if he starts mouthing off, and running, that's when we'd really have a problem.

I never knew him, high up though he is. The primary is won, by your candidate. She looks good.

But being on that line, and not running around mouthing off about voting for him over her, should be a very small easily surpassed challenge for Ms. O-C. She's looking pretty dynamic.

[Trumpocalypse]

21. He doesn't have to do anything.

He’s the Queens county party chairman. He controls all the party’s resources and apparatus. Most of the local party officials are loyal to him. So even if he does nothing, enough votes could be siphoned off to put the seat in play.

[Mc Mike]

22. The first sign will be him making appearances and verbally asking for votes.

If and when he does that, it will be a problem. No way he'll get Speaker by subverting the Dem primary process. He'd be weak, he'd be a dead duck. Or if he ran actively and split the vote so a repug got in, he gets nothing but infamy.

There's an issue here, it's not a problem yet. It's a potential problem. Doesn't have to be a schism. We'll know it's a schism if he campaigns. The Times is excellent at targeting Dem pols in NY, NJ, CT, and causing problems for them.

[Trumpocalypse]

23. Again he doesn't have to do anything

He is the Queens Party chairman. He can pull the strings behind the scenes.

[mcar]

2. He has endorsed her and is supporting her

This is divisive nonsense. AOC should be fighting Republicans, not Democrats.

[Cha]

4. Joe Crowley's tweet on this..

Link to tweet

He's not going to campaign

[OnDoutside]

5. God, that's embarrassing.

[Cha]

6. There's more!

By law, the only way a candidate can get off a line is to move out of New York, die, be convicted of a crime or accept a nomination for another office.

“I don’t plan on moving out of New York, have a clean record, hope God’s will is that I don’t die, and won’t commit what I honestly believe to be election fraud” by accepting a nomination for another office in a place he doesn’t live, Crowley tweeted.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-ocasio-cortez-crowley-working-families-party-20180712-story.html%3foutputType=amp

RSF https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10859314

[OnDoutside]

10. She must be morto !

[Blue_Tires]

7. Ocasio needs to fucking fire whichever staffer/strategist told her to make hay over this

[Cha]

11. What if it was just

her own reaction?

[gratuitous]

8. Someone's certainly trying to stir the pot

Ocasio-Cortez is in great shape to win in November, yet for some reason there's a lot of pot-stirring trying to gin up a controversy between her and Crowley. I wonder who would be working so hard to blunt the campaign of an excellent candidate, and try to limit her effectiveness?

It's someone or a group of someones who is counting on voters' ignorance of the quirks of New York's state elections, as well as the multiplicity of parties entitled to a line on the general election ballot. This someone or group of someones seems eager to paint Ocasio-Cortez as a sore winner, and to a lesser extent to paint Crowley as a sore loser. Inflammatory language designed to create conflict ("taking aim," "Crowley declined" "despite the party's request," "despite his campaign . . . assurances" ) where none really exists.

All very curiousky.

[disillusioned73]

9. This is definetely a curious situation..

there has to be more to this... she must have heard something through the grapevine, nefarious or other..

[Mc Mike]

12. Already debunked. Spam.

[Trumpocalypse]

13. Hasn't been debunked

but nice try.

[Mc Mike]

16. You're right, this one isn't spam. My mistake, T.

You were involved in this thread, T:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210858969
Where O-C states, per the NYT article, that he's mounting a 3rd party challenge against her.

If he starts running against her, I'm on Ocasio-Cortez's side and yours, against Crowley, 100%. But all we have is 'he's gonna run, we think.'

Then there's this one:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142107655
Ocasio-Cortez Confronts Crowley Over His 'Third-Party Challenge'

So there's 3 op s covering the same flap, now, from the same NYT article and tweet. Talc's was the spam, not yours. I admit you had the right to re-frame the first one.


I'm not a Crowley stalwart, and like Ocasio-Cortez. I'm in PA, so not involved in the DSA vs machine Dem issue in NY. I back Pelosi for Speaker, Crowley looked to challenge her.

I watched Innamorato upset Costa around here on the state level. I liked how she targeted her ad spending to viewers of Sam Seder's Majority Report, thought it was smart.

[NCTraveler]

17. Fuck Trump.

This has become transparent.