Mark Pocan Can Show House Democrats The Way Out Of The Darkness Created By The Current Timid, Fractured, Sclerotic Leadership

Wednesday the Congressional Progressive Caucus elected-- mostly reelected-- it's caucus officers. With no opposition, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) were again voted caucus co-chairs and Barbara Lee (D-CA) was reelected whip. Freshman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) was made a vice chair/liaison to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Matt Cartright was also named a vice chair/liaison for new members. But the biggest news was that the CPC amended its rules to create an important new post-- First Vice Chair, the third-ranking position in the Caucus. And they elected Mark Pocan (D-WI).

Mark's a terrific choice-- an organizer, a dynamic, savvy go-getter with a solid vision for Congress and the country... and, the single best voting record in the whole House. According to ProgressivePunch, his lifetime crucial vote score was 98.68. In way of comparison, Grijalva has a 96.43, Ellison a 95.47 and Barbara Lee a 94.86, all impeccable scores. Of the 3 worst Democrats-- Pete Gallego (34.22), John Barrow (35.70) and Kyrsten Sinema (36.36), only Sinema managed to avoid Great Blue Dog Apocalypse II.

Yesterday, one of the important newspapers in Pocan's district, the Cap Times took a careful look into their congressman's first successful term in Washington-- and the huge reelection numbers he got two weeks ago.

During his first two years as the congressman representing southern Wisconsin’s 2nd District, Mark Pocan has served as a bold progressive. And voters seem to like that. On Nov. 4, Pocan swept to re-election with 224,548 votes. Though there is still a bit of counting going on around the country, it appears that Pocan’s vote total will be the highest for any Democratic House candidate in any contested race anywhere in the country.

Pocan won almost 75,000 more votes than House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was re-elected in a progressive San Francisco-based district. He won 85,000 more votes than House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who was running in a very Democratic Maryland district. Pocan also won a lot more votes than top Republicans. The Wisconsin Democrat secured 100,000 more votes than House Speaker John Boehner, who was running in an overwhelmingly Republican district. While he did not quite rival veteran Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner’s total in Wisconsin’s uber-Republican 5th District, Pocan got 42,000 more votes than Republican superstar Paul Ryan.

Why, in a year that saw Democrats struggling just about everywhere, did Mark Pocan run so strongly?

Howie Klein, a national activist who follows congressional races closely, suggested that Pocan’s appeal might have something to do with his unblinking progressivism-- a progressivism that extends beyond lines of partisanship and that contrasts with the drab political “messaging” of most Democrats. We think Klein may be on to something. After all:

• A year ago, Pocan was the only member of the Wisconsin congressional delegation to oppose the bipartisan budget deal, on the grounds that it locked in austerity policies and would “continue to do needless harm to our families, our students and our economy in the coming year and for years to come.”

• Again and again, Pocan has broken not just with Republican hawks but with President Obama to question military interventions that threaten to cost lives and resources-- and that do not hold out the promise of resolutions to long-standing conflicts.

• When workers struck fast-food restaurants in Madison and across the country to demand higher wages, Pocan took their grievances to the floor of the U.S. House, reminding Congress, "The myth of a minimum wage worker is a teenager living with their parents while working part-time after school. In fact, the minimum wage worker is a very real person who has had a stagnant wage while the rest of the economy has prospered."

• When postal workers rallied to keep rural offices and urban sorting centers open, Pocan did not just endorse their efforts. He rallied with them, as he has with activists on behalf of labor rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights and a host of other issues.

• After an activist majority on the U.S. Supreme Court undermined the Voting Rights Act, Pocan and Congressman Keith Ellison mounted the boldest response, proposing a Right to Vote Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to guarantee all Americans an affirmative right to vote and empower Congress to protect that right.

• After the judicial activists on the Supreme Court knocked down barriers to corporate and billionaire dominance of U.S. elections, Pocan worked with grass-roots “Move to Amend” activists and Congressman Rick Nolan, D-Minn., to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring: "Rights recognized under the Constitution belong to human beings only, and not to government-created artificial legal entities such as corporations and limited liability companies; and political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment."

Nothing about Pocan’s first term was cautious. The former Wisconsin state representative did not go to Washington to fit in; he went to be heard. That’s rare for a new representative of a diverse urban and rural district that includes farm country, factory towns and a state capital-- and that in recent decades has sent both a Republican (Scott Klug) and a Democrat (Tammy Baldwin) to Congress. But Pocan is a rare figure in our politics, locally and nationally. Voters recognize this, and they rewarded Pocan for standing strong as a true progressive.

Democrats in Wisconsin and nationally are trying to figure out how to reposition and renew the party after a rough 2014. They would be wise to follow Mark Pocan’s example.

Perhaps Pocan's new gig as the CPC First Vice Chair is going to be about helping his Democratic colleagues in Congress understand that, instead of just taking Blue Dog advice from Nancy Pelosi's new czar of messaging, the abysmally failed, perpetually in denial Steve Israel, who has wrecked the House Democratic Party after his 4 catastrophic years running the DCCC. With his replacement's announcement yesterday that he'll keep excruciatingly ineffective and incompetent DCCC Executive Director Kelly Ward in place, it's clear nothing constructive will change there.