'Not Surprising' But 'So Shameful': Ousted by Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Crowley Heads to K Street Lobbying
After losing a primary race against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in what's been called last year's biggest political upset, former Congressman Joe Crowley is headed to one of K Street's largest law and lobbying firms—surprising no one, but garnering a fresh wave of criticism nonetheless.
When Ocasio-Cortez, then a 28-year-old organizer, toppled the 10-term incumbent last year, she had said in her victory speech, "The message that we sent the world tonight is that it is not okay to put donors before your community." Crowley's move to K Street revived critiques of his priorities that tanked his bid to hold on to his U.S. House seat. As one New Yorker put it, "There is a reason that @AOC won my district."
Following months of speculation and reporting that he was being courted by various lobbying groups, news broke Tuesday that Crowley—alongside former Republican Congressman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania—was hired by Squire Patton Boggs. Squire Patton Boggs counts among its clients several major corporations and governments across the globe. As Politico noted, "The firm's dozens of lobbying clients include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and UnitedHealth, according to disclosure filings, as well as the governments of Cameroon, China, Croatia, Qatar, and South Korea, and the Palestinian Authority." The Washington Post's Jeff Stein, citing the Center for Responsive Politics, added Amazon, Samsung, and Royal Dutch Shell to that list.
Avi Asher-Schapiro of the Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted the firm's work for Saud al-Qahtani, an aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman—the man who is widely believed to have ordered the assassination of Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/19/not-surprising-so-shameful-ousted-ocasio-cortez-joe-crowley-heads-k-street-lobbying
= new reply since forum marked as read
Fortunately, Bernie and Elizabeth, both now candidates for the 2020 nomination, are leading the charge on this.
Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
big Movement from one person’s election, as if being successful in targeting one incumbent Democrat is what you have to cling to. Joe Crowley himself was never the issue, 
Katie Hill in Orange County beat an incumbent Republican. Ousting Republicans is much more “great”.
in something else than beating Republicans. It’s pretty obvious where you are coming from.
with typical anti-Democrat brainwashing spin when I can listen to the actual transcript of what Crowley himself said. 
You can tell his observation about her gaining traction because she beat him is exactly on point -- look at the continued gloating over it, months later, this thread is just another gloat.
Crowley quote: "I wish her well and I want her to do well on behalf of my constituents and for the country as well"
the RT types make a name for themselves with their feigned pseudo/intellectual “critiques” of Democrats. I never said he was with RT, but I know the type,
They were Crowley’s constituents and he said he wished everyone well. WTF is wrong with that?? It’s fake news to try and mock and demonize him. The real interview is what he said, not biased distilled fake news.
manipulate people with biased screeds from RT types is what is petty. I don’t need Joe’s words filtered by anti-Democrats trying to make a name for themselves by exaggeration and phoniness. 
Cutting edge journalism and insightful commentary at its best!
Given this news, I would imagine that Crowley has no plans to run again for his old seat. It will be interesting to see if someone else from the Queens organization will be running in 2020.
This is disgusting. And, no, we should not be discounting it because "private citizen now." This is a real example of the pattern of corruption in our system. You are right, Crowley is only one guy and the rot is widespread. We need to fix it, or live with the results. Oh, wait...we've been doing that already. Is it working for us?
Starting somewhere is required, is it not?
in order to make anyone thinking of launching a challenge "pay" for that transgression.
So the answer to your question is "every single other politician and or candidate who has ever contacted me via email".
Lobbying is fine. In fact, it's a good thing. Lobbying can be anywhere from emailing Congressperson, to signing a petition, to participating in a letter-writing campaign, to visiting their offices or attending a town hall. That's all part of democracy.
It's when people use the campaign finance system to buy greater access and influence that it becomes a problem. Take the big money out of campaign finance and its contamination of lobbying will go down significantly.
I'm glad you used your powers for good. 
Welcome to DU!
