The Drastic Measures D.C. Is Taking to Clean Up the New York Democratic Party's Mess
Since its calamitous performance in November’s midterms, the New York Democratic Party has been part laughingstock, part pariah. The party somehow ceded four House of Representatives seats to Republicans, accounting for nearly the entirety of the Republican majority in the chamber. They lost a race to George Santos. In the aftermath, 1,000 state Democrats signed a letter calling on New York Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs to resign. He has refused.
Jacobs has defiantly maintained that his state operation is highly functional, that the criticism toward him is unfair and misinformed, and that he did nothing wrong despite the results. That insistence has done little to help his reputation, close to home or farther away.
Nor has it convinced key national Democratic groups, who are now going to exceptional lengths to work around the state party’s inadequacies. Already, House Majority PAC, the most important super PAC associated with House Democrats, has committed $45 million just to races in New York state for the 2024 cycle.
Now, the D.C.-based PAC has announced that it’s establishing and funding its own “war room” just for the state of New York. The national group will erect an entire electoral operation, hiring its own staffers, stationed in the Empire State to handle opposition research, rapid response, messaging, and more.
All of those are things that, in every other blue state, would be entrusted to the state parties and their respective House campaigns. But after the New York Dems’ 2022 breakdown, and their subsequent refusal to submit to any leadership or structural changes, the PAC does not have to gamble the fate of the 2024 House majority on some newfound competence. To national Democratic groups, having their own in-state shadow operations is a better bet.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/new-york-democrats-2024-house-majority-pac-war-room.html
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