Maloney drops out of Democratic campaign committee race
Source: The Hill
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D) has dropped his bid to become the next chairman of the Democratic Party's congressional campaign arm, according to a letter sent to House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
In the letter obtained by CBS News, Maloney thanked Pelosi for her consideration of his candidacy and pointed to his recent hospitalization over a bacterial infection as the reason behind ending his campaign.
"Congratulations on your resounding win in today's caucus elections and thank you for speaking with me regarding a possible delay in the scheduled vote for Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)," Maloney wrote.
"While I appreciate your consideration given my temporary hospitalization, I have decided that at this time it would be best for me to pursue other ways to contribute in the 116th Congress," he added. "I believe it is in the greater interest of our caucus to decide the remaining leadership positions without undue delay, so we can be at full strength for the battles to come."
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/418828-maloney-drops-out-of-democratic-campaign-committee-race
Remaining candidates are:
Suzan DelBene (Wash.)
Cheri Bustos (Ill.)
Denny Heck (Wash.)
Eric J in MN
(35,619 posts)NT
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I know how to do well in really, really tough districts, she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview while campaigning in southern Illinois last month. Were going to have more than 30 Democrats in the House coming from Trump districts, so we just have to figure out how to button these up and hang on to them and grow our margin in 2020.
Holding on to our gains, plus adding to them, is going to be very problematic. We won many seats by very narrow margins, which is to say Republicans also lost them by very narrow margins. Analysts say this dysfunctionally unstable electoral pattern is likely to continue for some years.
brooklynite
(93,842 posts)Eric J in MN
(35,619 posts)NT
brooklynite
(93,842 posts)THE BIG IDEA: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wading into primaries in swing districts caused months of angry grumbling from the left, including a public rebuke from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and an onslaught of negative coverage from left-leaning outlets like The Intercept. But the leaders of the party committee cared more about winning the House majority than ruffling feathers, and its becoming clearer as the dust settles that their strategy succeeded.
Two contests in California illustrate how the approach paid dividends. Earlier this year, several Democrats were fighting to take on Rep. Jeff Denham (R) in a Sacramento-area district. But there was no credible challenger against Rep. David Valadao (R) in a Central Valley district farther to the south. Hillary Clinton had carried both places in 2016 but, because Valadao had still prevailed by double digits, serious candidates with the ability to raise big money werent stepping up.
The DCCC convinced one of the Democrats running against Denham, T.J. Cox, to run against Valadao instead, promising national party support if he did, and prodded Emilio Huerta, the Democrat who was running and had lost badly last time, to drop out. The states jungle primary system also means that the top two finishers in June, regardless of party, face off in November. Private polling showed Democrats there was a real chance that theyd be frozen out against Denham if Cox stayed in because a second GOP candidate was pulling in the double digits. Democratic venture capitalist Josh Harder wound up winning the second slot and defeated Denham earlier this month.
Cox, an engineer who founded a nut-processing company and is now president of a community investment fund, trailed Valadao by over 4,000 votes on election night, but with the latest batch of mail-in ballots counted, hes now ahead by 436 votes. A Fresno Bee analysis of the thousands of ballots that are still outstanding suggests Cox will likely prevail, though the race has not been called. Fresno County is expected to announce fresh numbers later today that could prove decisive.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/11/28/daily-202-late-gains-in-california-vindicate-dccc-s-intervention-in-house-primaries/5bfe0ce61b326b60d128006d/
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)in American history. Since the last caucus chair was elected anyway. But turns out among his immediate workload was deciding on Maloney's request, which is denied, thus the withdrawal. I'd read a couple of days ago, before Jeffries, that doing that would be problematic but didn't read on to find out why.