A Warning: The Most Right-Wing Democrat In NYC-- A Trump Supporter, No Less-- May Slip Into Congress

Hasn't the Bronx suffered enough?

If you're new around here, you may have missed our discussions over the years about Rubén Díaz., an ultra-conservative career politician in the South Bronx. As I mentioned last time, the south Bronx congressional district from which Jose Serrano is retiring, doesn't have many white Conservatives. In fact, only 2.5% of the district's population is white. And when Republicans run there, it's just a publicity stunt. NY-15 is the bluest district in America. Obama won it with 95% the first time he ran and with 97% the second time. In 2016, Trump only took 4.9% of the vote, his worst performance anywhere in the country. This cycle, though, conservatives might get lucky. One of their own is running for the open congressional seat... and running as a Democrat. City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr., New York's most right-wing Democrat, has a chance to slip into the seat. Ironically, NY-15 is right next to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district and Díaz enjoys telling everyone he's the opposite of her. He sure is. He's a 76-year-old, cowboy hat-wearing Pentecostal minister known for his constituent services and controversial statements on social issues and makes his path to victory clear-- a split among half a dozen progressive and mainstream candidates could leave the crackpot with a primary win.

Díaz was the only Democrat in the state Senate to vote against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. And he has been sharply criticized in recent months for saying the City Council is "controlled by the homosexual community"; he was subsequently stripped of his chairmanship of the For-Hire Vehicle committee and urged to resign by the City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

There are 15 Democrats competing in the primary-- 11 of whom have raised at least enough money to file an FEC report ($5,000)-- and 7 of the 11 having raised at least 10 times that amount. There are also two full-on progressives in the race-- Tomas Ramos (who has been endorsed by Blue America) and Samelys Lopez.

Yesterday, writing for Newsweek, Adrian Carrasquillo warned that Díaz is poised to win. That's because all the other Democrats are taking a small piece of the non-Díaz vote, leaving Díaz with a good shot to win.

"He would instantly become Donald Trump's favorite New York congressman," strategist Eric Koch of anti-Diaz super PAC Bronx United told Newsweek, adding that Diaz Sr. would be an unreliable Democratic vote in the House caucus.

To complicate matters, he has a son, Ruben Diaz Jr., who is his namesake and a Bronx borough president many call the most popular politician in the borough. Diaz Jr. is regularly asked to comment on his father's actions, as he did disapprovingly when Diaz Sr. invited Senator Ted Cruz to visit the Bronx, but the consensus is that his son is a political plus for the reverend.

..."There's a cruel irony that a Trump Republican could represent the most Democratic district in America," said Ritchie Torres, an opponent who has raised six times more money than Diaz Sr. and has $800,000 more cash on hand, according to the latest public filing.

While outside groups bristle at Diaz Sr.'s place in the modern Democratic Party, they don't get a vote in the community where he has devoted his time and resources for decades.

Diaz Sr., who is Puerto Rican, has a background that still matters in a historically Puerto Rican part of New York, which includes Hispanic evangelicals and seniors who are his base. New York political experts said the pastor, who can be seen wearing a baby blue cowboy hat on the New York City council website, is a master of constituent services.

"He has always had a great constituent service mechanism," said Jennifer Blatus, a political strategist who interned with Diaz Jr. "He's really good at connecting with the community, he knows who his base is, he knows how to reach them, his son is wildly popular, they have the same name and half the people that vote for him might think they're voting for Rubencito."

Diaz, who said he was a victim of anti-black discrimination while in the Army, was addicted to drugs and pleaded guilty to heroin and marijuana possession in 1965 before finding salvation in Jesus Christ, ministering to people who also needed to turn their lives around, and opening senior centers in the Bronx in the 1970s and 1980s.

An analysis of his spending by The City found that Diaz Sr. had spent $31,000 on gifts before the crisis struck New York, including buying Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas toys, and gift cards from iconic New York standby, Western Beef.

"That is what I have always done," Diaz Sr. said when the legality of such gifts was questioned. "Giving back to the people and trying to help the community. This is nothing new to me."

Blatus said Diaz Sr. has a lot of different tactics to help meet the needs of seniors, like having volunteers give older constituents a ride to the voting booth.

"He's fully bilingual, he's from Puerto Rico, he knows what hardship is, he can relate to these people," she said.

"The Diaz name has value not just because his son is the borough president, but because it has been a fixture in that community both politically and spiritually," said Hank Shienkopf, a veteran of New York politics since 1969, who grew up in the district, and helped elect Diaz Jr. as Bronx borough president.

Shienkopf said it's important to understand that local residents don't judge Diaz Sr.'s controversial statements because they feel they are the ones being discriminated against by a system that has never helped the Bronx. "If there is anything that is true about politics in New York City, it's that change is the only constant," he said. "But this is the one place where there hasn't been a change in their economic status."

That's not enough for his opponents, who believe the election falling during a crisis has helped Diaz Sr.

"You have a homophobe, misogynist, who's anti-choice and could win here but it's been hard to get people to focus on this seat," Melissa Mark-Viverito, a former New York City council speaker also running in the 15th district race to replace retiring Representative Jose Serrano told Newsweek.

His opponents are keeping score of his transgressions.

Diaz, who once compared abortion to the Holocaust, drew widespread condemnation in 1994 when the Gay Games were coming to New York City and he wrote in a column that the 20,000 athletes "are likely to be already infected with AIDS or can return home with the virus."

Diaz Sr. also was strongly criticized for saying the city council was "controlled by the homosexual community" last year and for refusing in 2005 to endorse Michael Bloomberg or Democrat Fernando Ferrer in the mayoral race because their support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage meant "they have nothing to offer me according to the Bible."

Neither Diaz responded to Newsweek's request for comment.

Bronx United released a digital ad highlighting his previous comments that if you dare to sympathize with Trump or wear a MAGA hat you are labeled a racist.

A national coalition launched by Victory Fund last week, which backs LGBTQ candidates and supports Torres, included NARAL Pro-Choice America, Latino Victory Fund, Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Human Rights Campaign to raise the alarm that Diaz Sr. wants to represent a district they argue has politically moved away from him.

But outside efforts over the next month may not matter. Experts said campaigning has been fundamentally changed because of the pandemic and there won't be traditional street or park events in the month before the primary. That means Diaz Sr. could be headed to Congress after all.

"The district has been devastated by the virus, but also devastated by poverty for the last 25 years, so the question is where were these people when the Diaz's were here?" Shienkopf said. "Who is standing up to scream about it? Diaz keeps proving he's the one that can yell the loudest, so that gives him some standing."

Trump To Campaign For Congressional Republicans? Kara Eastman Says "Bring It On!"

Hole-in-One by Nancy Ohanian

During the 2016 election, a putative Democrat from the South Bronx, Rubén Díaz, Sr., backed Ted Cruz for president and invited him to speak in his district. It didn't do Cruz much good. In the Republican primary, Cruz came in third-- with just 1,022 votes, in New York's bluest county. Trump won the county in the primary with 2,702 votes but in the general election, Hillary eviscerated him 318,403 (88.7%) to 34,424 (9.6%). Today, still running as a Democrat (or some kind of Democrat), Díaz Sr. is trying to sneak into the NY-15 congressional district from which progressive icon Jose Serrano is retiring.

NY-15 doesn't have many white conservatives. In fact, only 2.5% of the district's population is white. And when Republicans run there, it's usually just a vanity run or a publicity stunt. NY-15 is the bluest district in America. Obama won it with 95% the first time he ran and with 97% the second time. In 2016, Trump performance in the district was just 4.9%-- his worst results in the Bronx, in New York City, in New York State and in the U.S.A. This cycle, though, conservatives might get lucky. One of their own, Díaz Sr., is running for the open congressional seat... and running as a Democrat.

A a 77-year-old, cowboy hat-wearing Pentecostal minister known for his constituent services and ugly controversial statements on social issues, Díaz Sr. has a clear path to victory-- a split among a dozen progressive and mainstream candidates that could actually leave the crackpot with a primary win. Díaz was the only Democrat in the state Senate to vote against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. He is vehemently anti-Choice and against stem-cell research. And last year he told New Yorkers that the City Council is "controlled by the homosexual community," which led to him being stripped of his chairmanship of the For-Hire Vehicle committee. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told him to resign.

The best way of beating Díaz is for progressives and normal Democrats to get behind Tomas Ramos... but that isn't going to happen, especially not with political careerists like Ritchie Torres and Michael Blake. But there's another way to beat Díaz, Sr.-- and Ramos told us about it today. An Alayna Treene post at Axios over the weekend pointed out that "In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections-- buoyed by Republican control of both chambers-- President Trump viewed campaigning for the House as a lower-tier priority and instead poured his energy into rallying for the Senate. But after the GOP reckoning in 2018, and experiencing firsthand how damaging a Democratic-led House has been to him, Trump is now personally invested in helping Republicans regain the majority in November. If Trump wins re-election and Republicans are able to hold the Senate and take back the House, Trump will essentially have free rein to do whatever he wants in his second term." Tomas Ramos, like many Democrats running for Congress, hopes Trump will come to his district to campaign.

It isn't likely to happen, but a Trump-Díaz rally would be an immense GOTV moment for real Democrats in the Bronx. "This," Ramos told me, "would give my campaign a huge boost. My district consists of 98% people of color from all over the world. It would expose Rubén Díaz, Sr. for what he really is, a conservative Republican who has been running as a Democrat in the most Democratic congressional district in the country. Remember, this is the same guy who brought Ted Cruz to the Bronx in 2016."

Omaha, Nebraska is very different from the Bronx and the congressional district there, NE-02, is a quintessential swing district. It went for Obama in 2008 and for Romney in 2012. Last cycle, Hillary lost NE-02 by less than 2 points. But Trump is incredibly unpopular there now. In 2018, progressive Kara Eastman won Douglas County (Omaha convincingly). Like Tomas, she would love to see Trump come to Omaha to campaign with his Nebraska-clone, Don Bacon. "If Trump wants to come to my district-- where polls show him under water by 14 points-- to campaign for Bacon," she told me, "I say bring it on!"

Liam O'Mara is less certain what a Trump visit to Riverside County to bolster endangered Republican Ken Calvert would mean. "Trump being here could energize Calvert's base and mine. Trump won the 42nd by 12 points," Liam continued, "But remember, he was running as a populist and talking about the working class. Yes, the district has a conservative history, but many of its independent voters have a populist streak. And Republicans make up only 38% of the electorate, and falling. The answer to a right-populist is a left-populist who knows how to frame the issues well." O'Mara thinks that if Calvert campaigned in the district with Trump, he could win with a campaign stop by Bernie. "Standing with him would do the most good... and his popularity in the district is growing. His appeal crosses party lines and scoops up the independent populists more easily than Trump. It is worth remembering that about 12% of Bernie's 2016 primary voters went for Trump in the general. These are swing voters that we can only win with the right kind of candidate."

Tom Winter is the progressive Democrat likely to take on Matt Rosendale for the open at-large Montana House seat. He reminded me that in 2018 Trump was in Montana four times campaigning for Rosendale when he was running against Democrat Jon Tester. "One of these campaign rallies was in a state legislative district Trump had won by 11 points the previous election and the one I was running in to replace an incumbent Republican that was seated right behind him as he spoke. While that local GOP lawmaker was enjoying his VIP tickets to that rally, I knocked dozens and dozens of doors that day right across the street. I talked with my neighbors about how politics was failing the working families of Montana. I laid out my progressive policy agenda that I felt would make it more affordable for all of us to live in the place we love. With loud cheers in the background as the president complimented our incumbent Congressman, Greg Gianforte, for body slamming a reporter that had asked him a tough question, I spoke with my neighbors about the need to restore civility in our politics. Gianforte, Rosendale, and that local legislator all laughed as the president praised the assault on journalists, 'Any guy who can do a body slam is my kind of guy.' They laughed and Jon Tester and I won. We won because we had not lost faith in Montanans and laid out our cases for how we would fight for them, each in our own way. Our good Senator won that year by his largest margin ever in his three statewide election victories. So, as I run to replace that body slamming Congressman I welcome the president to stop by our great state for as many times as he'd like. He can find me speaking with my future constituents."





Other districts where Trump visits would likely kill GOP chances include seats currently held by John Katko, Peter King, and Lee Zeldin in New York; Fred Upton in Michigan; And Barr in Kentucky; Jaime Herrera Beutler and Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington; Chris Smith in New Jersey; Ann Wagner in Missouri; Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry in Pennsylvania; Denver Riggleman and Rob Wittman in Virginia; Rodney Davis and Mike Bost in Illinois; Bryan Steil in Wisconsin; Pete Stauber and Jim Hagedorn in Minnesota; Devin Nunes and Tom McClintock in California; Mario Diaz-Balart, Ross Spano, Brian Mast and Vern Buchanan in Florida; Dan Crenshaw, Michael McCaul, John Carter, Chip Roy and Roger Williams in Texas; and Steve Chabot, David Joyce and Mike Turner in Ohio.

Jamaal Bowman-- The Bronx Could Wind Up With The Most Great Members Of Congress Anywhere In America

The district just north of AOC's-- NY-16-- is solidly blue with a PVI of D+24. Trump only managed to attract 22.5% of the voters. And yet, the district's Rep. is a long-in-the-tooth fossil who does far more for the Likud Party in Israel than for the people in the Bronx and Westchester. Eliot Engel is a New Dem in a district that is far more progressive than he is. And this cycle he has drawn one of the highest calibre primary opponents anywhere in the country-- Jamaal Bowman, who has just been endorsed by Blue America.

When Jamaal, a middle school principal in the Bronx, declared his candidacy in June, Emily Cochrane reported for the NY Times that "the contest could serve as a key test of whether liberal insurgent groups can convert a surge of energy on the left into successful challenges of members of the Democratic Party establishment." But Jamaal is a real candidate, not someone's idea of a test case. A local education-oriented website, Chalkbeat, wrote that he's "counting, in part, on his 20 years of experience in education to appeal to voters. Long before throwing his hat in the political rink, Bowman started the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, or CASA, a middle school that has produced notable academic results despite serving mostly disadvantaged students. He has been a vocal supporter of the opt-out movement boycotting state testing, especially within the black community. Bowman has also pushed for discipline reform, favoring restorative practices such as mediation in his school, rather than suspensions, which are disproportionately meted out, city data shows, to students of color. He’s also a big believer in the importance high-quality, early childhood care and education. A favorite word of Bowman is ‘holistic’-- an approach he likes to see in schools and one he’d like to see in government.'What I wish Congress would do more of is take a holistic view of policy overall,' he said."

While we were getting to know Jamaal during the Blue America endorsement process, I asked him to introduce himself to DWT readers with more about what he hopes to accomplish in Congress. Please take the time to read it (below) and consider chipping in to his campaign if you think Congress can use a man like this. You can contribute by clicking on the 2020 congressional primary thermometer above. At a time when congressional Republicans are seriously discussing cutting $5 billion out of the health and education budget to fund Trump's preposterous monument to his own racism and xenophobia, the response from Democratic voters in NY-16 should be loud and clear: Jamaal Bowman.

While America Boasts Being The Richest And Most Powerful Country In The World...
by Jamaal Bowman

During the 2017-2018 school year, thirty-four children attending Bronx public schools passed away. Seventeen of the deaths were attributed to suicide. One child, fearing that her mom was going to be deported, committed suicide because she couldn’t bear the burden of losing her mother. At the start of the year, less than a mile away from my school, two children were stabbed to death. One murder occurred inside of a classroom, the most sacred place in a school. The second murder occurred during an outdoor lunch break after a conflict started within the school. A third child after being a victim of a reported sexual assault, rushed home after school, took the elevator to the top floor of her building, and jumped off the roof.

A few of these stories made one or two new cycles. Not one elected official made a public statement about a crisis involving our children. And after a few days, it was business as usual in our public schools. While these tragedies will impact the families forever, the memory of these events are too swiftly removed from the American consciousness.

The horrific incidents described above do not illustrate a problem within our public schools. Rather, they are indicative of a country at war with itself. The most vulnerable among us are being crushed by crippling racism, sexism, and inequality. We cannot have business as usual when our children are killing themselves and each other. This situation is unacceptable and untenable, and an urgent response is needed.

I am running for Congress because while America boasts being the richest and most powerful country in the world, millions of children and families continue to suffer. It is way past time for our representatives in Washington, to put children, families, the elderly, and the poor at the top of the political agenda. For too long we have allowed corporate greed to dictate our federal policy at the expense of the majority of Americans. Policies like Citizens United, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and tax breaks for fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies among others, are literally killing the American people. We are complicit in allowing the financially wealthy to wield incredible power and influence throughout the political arena. This has to stop now!

In order to stop the continued economic and psychological oppression of the masses. We, as Americans, have to reckon with our history and build a new nation that works for all of us.

I have had the privilege of being an educator for the past twenty years. I started my career as an elementary teacher in the south bronx for five years. I went on to become a guidance counselor at high school for three years. After one year of administrative training, I became the founding principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action middle school. We educators experience the injustice that our children have to live with on a daily basis. Our students live in communities that have been starved of resources. There are not enough parks, museums, and libraries for cultural enrichment. Many of our kids live in food deserts, where it is impossible to find organic healthy food options. There’s little wonder why the obesity epidemic disproportionately impacts poor communities of color. Combined with a housing and environmental crisis, and aggressive police tactics, and our children are living with Ongoing Traumatic Stress Disorder (OTSD).

Over the last 30 years my district has been represented by Eliot Engel. Congressman Engel is a corporate democrat who has said that those on the left are “not his cup of tea.” His record proves this point. The majority of his fundraising comes from super PACs representing the real estate, pharmaceutical, and military industries. He supported the war in Iraq, opposed the Iran deal, loosened regulations on Wall Street, and voted for the 1994 crime bill. While Issues of poverty, housing, and addiction continue to cripple his district, congressman Engel supports policies that neglect the majority of his constituents. It should not be a surprise to learn that only 9% of the electorate voted in the 2018 primary, and why the majority of people we speak to in the district  either do not know who congressman Engel is, or do not ever see him.

During my opponent’s tenure, mass incarceration has dramatically increased, public housing has experienced a 30 billion dollar shortfall, teachers unions are under attack, public schools are chronically underfunded, and strategically being replaced by charter schools, and jobs and career development opportunities are scarce. Finally, over the last 30 years real wages have been stagnant, while child care, health care, housing and education costs have skyrocketed.

My opponent’s record directly coincides with these atrocities. He, and many others in Washington, are accountable for these dismal results.

It’s time for new leadership and a new vision for the district. A leader that will fight to build new public housing that is dignified, clean, well maintained and safe. This new public housing will be powered by green technology, have open green spaces for community events and sports, parks to play in and community centers for collective learning, organizing, and development. This new public housing will be forever rent stabilized and will provide community land trusts options that allow for each tenant to own a small stake in the residential and commercial real estate that is part of the land trust. Our new green public housing will be a major component of a Green New Deal.

Another pillar of this new vision is tripling the federal investment of public education and building and creating new community schools. Our community schools will have healthcare and education working together to provide holistic support to children and families. From pre-natal care through college, medical professionals and educators will work collaboratively  to decrease toxic stress and chronic trauma on families, while building resilient, innovative communities of joy. As we fight for Medicare for All, we will ensure that all Americans, including the most vulnerable, have their healthcare needs taken care of at the point of delivery including care for our elderly, as well as mental health and dental services.

Further, our vision for criminal justice reform includes ensuring that job readiness, career opportunities, and safe places for children to play and learn are a priority in our neighborhoods. Most of the people incarcerated struggled in school, and come from communities with a dearth of resources. We will invest in giving our children and young adults opportunities to thrive. So that the historical neglect of our government does not continue to plague them.

The recruiting and training of cultural responsive peace officers are another component of our criminal justice reform mission. These peace officers will be of and from the community and will specialize in de-escalation, trauma-informed counseling and community policing. They will also be trained in culturally responsive practices that work collaboratively with community residents to dismantle systems of oppression while empowering residents to have the most meaningful voice in community based decisions.

Another key component of our vision for  criminal justice reform involves the legalization of marijuana. We must release and expunge the records of those with marijuana convictions and use the tax revenue generated from marijuana to reinvest in communities that have been most harmed by the so-called war on drugs. Let us rebuild what has been destroyed by marijuana injustice and fight to keep other illegal drugs and guns from entering the community in the first place.

Finally, our criminal justice reform vision includes closing private prisons, ending cash bail, banning the box, ending solitary confinement and dramatically increasing education programs in our jails.

Throughout my career, I have worked with parents and community based organizations to deconstruct education policies and practices rooted in racism and classism. We have organized around the unscientific practices of using corporate standardized tests in the evaluation of teacher effectiveness, and won an important victory of a moratorium on connecting teacher performance to student test scores. We have also fought for increase public education funding that led to record increases in historically neglected communities. We have made great progress related to education funding, but there is a lot more to do. We have also fought to ensure that our schools hire more teachers of color and become more culturally responsive overall, which led to the New York City Department of Education adopting historic culturally responsive measures in our schools. As the congressional representative for New York’s 16th district, I will continue to fight against oppression and discrimination in all its forms, starting with getting big money out of policitics and reinvesting our wealth in the needs of the majority of American people,

It’s time to vote out Democrats who are compromised by corporate greed and special interests and replace them with true democrats who are accountable to the people. We have seen the dangers of this compromise. We now have a  demagogue occupying the White House and a rise in hate across the globe. I do not and will never take a single cent from corporate PACs. If I am fortunate enough to be elected my job will be to work for and with the American people over the needs of the wealthy few. I am excited to be part of the true blue progressive movement that is happening in our country. I look forward to the privilege of continuing to do my part.

Likudnik Eliot Engel Hasn't Been Looking Out For The Folks In The Bronx And Westchester-- And Now He Has A Primary

Late Monday night, Cenk Uygar from Justice Democrats announced that his group would be rockin' the world on Tuesday and warned the Democratic establishment to "brace for impact. Justice is coming..." I knew that meant there was going to be another candidate announcement. When I woke this morning I found out about Jamaal Bowman, a Westchester County (Yonkers) middle school principal and found his TED Talk (above). What a candidate!

He's challenging long-in-the-tooth Democratic stalwart, Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, someone who seems to serve Israel's Likud Party more than the residents of New York's 16th district. The district, which borders on AOC's, is solidly blue-- PVI is D+24 and Hillary beat Trump 75.1% to 22.5%. It includes much of the northern Bronx (Riverdale, Fieldston, Eastchester, Woodlawn) and southern Westchester County (Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, up through Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Rye in the east and Scarsdale and Hastings-on-Hudson in the north.). The ethnic make-up is 38.1% white 30.5% African-American, 24.1% Latino and 4.8% Asian-American.

Emily Cochrane wrote in the NY Times that "the contest could serve as a key test of whether liberal insurgent groups can convert a surge of energy on the left into successful challenges of members of the Democratic Party establishment." Engel is a relatively liberal member of the corrupt, corporately owned-and-operated New Dems. ProgressivePunch rates his crucial vote score a C, although-- sensing a primary was coming, Engel has voted 100% progressive so far this cycle, as progressive as Barbara Lee, Raul Grijalva, Jan Schakowsky, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and... AOC. He's co-sponsoring Pramila Jayapal's Medicare-for-All bill, Bobby Scott's $15 minimum wage bill, John Larson's Social Security 2100 Act and AOC's Green New Deal resolution. The only one of the controversial big progressive bill's he's not co-sponsoring is Lloyd Doggett's prescription drug price reduction bill. His problem though is foreign policy, where his record-- and leadership-- is not considered progressive at all. His racist-tinged disrespect for Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar haven't been forgotten by progressives either.

Mr. Bowman becomes the second liberal challenger to Mr. Engel this year, but the first New York primary candidate to be endorsed by Justice Democrats, the grass-roots group that helped fuel Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning defeat last year of Joseph Crowley of New York, the No. 4 Democrat in the House at the time.

“I’m inspired by all of the new lifestyles injected into Congress and the new ideas,” said Mr. Bowman, who will run against Mr. Engel, a 16-term incumbent who serves New York’s 16th Congressional District, and Andom Ghebreghiorgis, a teacher who, like Mr. Bowman, has vowed to pursue progressive policies, including “Medicare for all,” the Green New Deal and changes to public education.

“I’ve been in education now for 20 years, spending most of my years in the Bronx, working with families who are struggling, are in many different areas from poverty, health care, mental health issues, asthma from pollution and so on,” said Mr. Bowman, who helped found the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in New York. “Many of their struggles come from policy that begins in Washington.”

Mr. Bowman plans to emphasize Mr. Engel’s support for the Iraq war and acceptance of donations from lobbyists and political action committees in making his case that Mr. Engel is too moderate for New York’s diversifying 16th District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County and is overwhelmingly Democratic.

In a statement this year, Mr. Engel had praised the party’s “new energy.” But, he added, “I think we’re doing the people we represent and the country a disservice by focusing on 2020 primaries when we have so much to do right now in Washington.”

Members of Justice Democrats-- who have worked for months to prepare both Mr. Bowman and Jessica Cisneros, who is challenging Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas-- are quick to draw parallels between Mr. Crowley and Mr. Engel.

“As someone who has built a public school from the ground up and served his community and students for many years, we are so honored to endorse Jamaal Bowman for Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, the organization’s executive director. “Our grass-roots movement shocked the country last year with A.O.C.’s upset victory, and we are prepared to do it again in New York’s 16th District.”

Mr. Engel, whose more than 30 years in Congress began after he unseated a popular incumbent, is one of the most powerful incumbents in the Democratic House majority facing a primary election challenger. In 2018, Mr. Engel defeated three of them, with nearly 74 percent of the vote.

The campaign arm for House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has vowed to defend incumbents, brushing off the ire of liberal Democrats as it broke ties with pollsters and political consultants who work for primary challengers.

Bowman: "My opponent has been in office for over 30 years. Over those 30 years, my opponent voted for an unjust war in Iraq, deregulating Wall Street, school privatization, and building more prisons. While the very few at the top continue to build their wealth and power, the majority of us continue to struggle."

Will The Bluest District In America Elect New York's Most Bigoted Democrat?

Tomas Ramos and Ruben Diaz, Sr-- NY-15

In a sermon blog post yesterday, If White Conservatives Loved All People The Way They Do Embryos, Rev. John Pavlovitz noted that, for all the tears and showy garment-rending over women's Choice, the conservatives stop caring about embryos who turn into people: "these supposed life-lovers often don’t treat them like they’re at all human. Nine or thirteen or thirty-two or sixty-five years later when they show up in their communities and in their emergency rooms and along their borders, in need of food or refuge or healthcare or compassion-- they’re no longer something sacred or beautiful. Unless these lives conform to the narrowest and most stringent of criteria (usually being white, Republican), they’re more often treated as threats to be neutralized and adversaries to be destroyed."

Embryos that grow into LGBTQ teenagers aren’t worthy of their protection now. In fact, they receive their contempt, bear the brunt of their jokes, and absorb the full damnation of their brimstone sermons. They can’t get married or use a public bathroom or get benefits for their partners without being assailed at every turn by these “lovers of life.”

Embryos that become terrified migrants fleeing crime and poverty and pressed up against the most urgent desperation, don’t merit the passionate defense once within their borders they might have received while inside the womb. Instead they sustain their scorn and suspicion and every bit of their malicious, wall-building bitterness.

Embryos that become sick middle-aged adults fighting metastasizing tumors, facing astronomical chemotherapy bills, and desiring healthcare that will not drive them to bankruptcy-- don’t elicit a shred of the empathy they’d have garnered when they were still microscopic.

Embryos that one day stand in need of Government assistance to keep the lights on or food on the table for their children because they have endured unthinkable adversity along their journey—will not be met with tearful embraces by these so-called life-lovers. They’re derided as lazy and irresponsible, and told to pull themselves up by their boot straps, while never having the benefit of boots.

Embryos that one day worship in Muslim communities around these white Christians, aren’t afforded any passionate defense and aren’t celebrated with effusive social media soliloquies. They’re branded as terrorist sympathizers, their religious freedoms ignored and their very existence resented with checkout line coldness, airport side-eye stares, and travel ban exclusion.

And perhaps most ironically of all, embryos that grow into women who desire the final say regarding their own bodies-- will find their lives and wills are now of little concern. They will be legislatively subjugated by those who’d have once declared them precious.

...I wish white Christian Conservatives had the same passion for migrant children, school shooting victims, sick toddlers, young black men, Muslim families, LGBTQ teens, the environment, and women’s autonomy over their bodies that they have for embryos.

Then they’d actually be pro-life, and then we’d all be able to go about the work together of caring for humanity wherever there is need to do so.

Yes, white Conservatives love embryos.

Disparate human beings who bear little resemblance to them—not so much.

The South Bronx congressional district from which Jose Serrano is retiring, doesn't have many white Conservatives. In fact, only 2.5% of the district's population is white. And when Republicans run there, it's just a publicity stunt. NY-15 is the bluest district in America. Obama won it with 95% the first time he ran and with 97% the second time. In 2016, Trump only took 4.9% of the vote, his worst performance anywhere in the country. This cycle, though, conservatives might get lucky. One of their own is running for the open congressional seat... and running as a Democrat.

Yesterday, Alex Rogers, warned CNN.com readers that City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr., New York's most right-wing Democrat, has a chance to slip into the seat. Ironically, NY-15 is right next to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district and Díaz enjoys telling everyone he's the opposite of her. He sure is. Rogers calls him "a 76-year-old, cowboy hat-wearing Pentecostal minister known for his constituent services and controversial statements on social issues" and makes his path to victory clear-- a split among half a dozen progressive and mainstream candidates could leave the crackpot with a primary win.

Councilman Ritchie Torres-- the first out gay person to hold elected office in the borough and a likely competitor in the race-- told CNN, "Rubén Díaz Sr. is the most vicious homophobe in New York State politics."

This is anti-Choice maniac Ruben Diaz, Sr campaigning with anti-Choice maniac Ted Cruz

Díaz, a self-proclaimed "conservative Democrat" is out of step with the national party's views on abortion and same-sex marriage. He was the only Democrat in the state Senate to vote against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. And he has been sharply criticized in recent months for saying the City Council is "controlled by the homosexual community"; he was subsequently stripped of his chairmanship of the For-Hire Vehicle committee and urged to resign by the City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

...But Díaz, who previously served in the New York State Senate for 15 years, is viewed as a strong contender in the campaign with a proven base of support, especially among senior citizens, ministers through his New York Hispanic Clergy Organization and taxi cab drivers.

"No one should underestimate Rubén Díaz Sr.," said US Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who has not endorsed anyone in the emerging race. "The voters know him."

Díaz is set to face Torres and Assemblyman Michael Blake, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee who will officially announce his campaign at a rally Sunday, in the primary.

Torres told CNN it is "extremely probable" that he will run for Serrano's seat. He said he would focus on issues like increasing federal investment in public housing, building on his work as the chairman of the relevant committee in the City Council.

In a separate interview, Blake said his record on criminal justice reform issues-- including boosting efforts to raise the age of criminal responsibility, banning commercial bail and helping charitable bail organizations assist poor people-- can't be beat.

Yet, they both turned their sharpest comments for Díaz Sr. In calling out his controversial statements regarding the gay community, Torres said Díaz Sr. should be running in the Republican primary instead. And Blake called Díaz's rhetoric "absolutely unacceptable," "divisive," "hateful" and "not at all becoming of someone that should be running for Congress or quite frankly an elected office."

...Díaz Sr. boasts multiple advantages in a congressional race, from sharing the same name as his son, Rubén Díaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, to having a defined constituency in a multi-candidate race. And more may come besides Torres and Blake: Marlene Cintron, the president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, told CNN she was considering running and will make her decision in June or July.

"If it's more than two candidates running in the same race that he's in, I'm afraid that he is going to be the next member of Congress from that district," said Gerson Borrero, a NY1 political commentator, told CNN. "He does have a base, which is a problem with this guy."

...All of these factors are on the minds of some of the Democratic members of Congress from New York. In interviews, they generally praised Torres and Blake-- who worked on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and then in the White House-- while noting others could also join the race. But the conversation turned sour when asked about Díaz Sr.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat said Torres is "one of the good candidates" and Blake is "also a worthy candidate." When asked about Díaz, Espaillat said, "We'll leave that one."

Ocasio-Cortez, who serves the neighboring district, said it was "unfortunate" that Díaz entered the race. "He has a disturbing track record towards the LGBT American community," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. She said she would "absolutely not" support his candidacy. (Díaz has claimed he is the "opposite" of Ocasio-Cortez.)

...To be sure, there will be other issues in the race besides Díaz's candidacy. Torres called for a congressional investigation into Trump administration's "almost willfully starving" of Puerto Rico. And he has straddled ideological lines, supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary, without embracing that candidate's signature issues like single-payer health care or the Green New Deal. Torres calls himself a "pragmatic progressive" that wants to "maximize" renewable energy and supports "at a minimum" providing a public health insurance option. He notes all the hospitals in the area and says he wants to hear from the unions before considering more sweeping overhaul of the health care sector.

CNN went out of its way to ignore the grassroots progressive candidates who aren't part of the establishment-- several running AOC-type campaigns. Remember, this is a district that has had some of the lowest voter turnout for congressional primaries. People there are going to need a progressive candidate that will inspire voters of all ages to go to the polls. So far the one we see most likely to be able to accomplish that is a local activist Tomas Ramos. Take a look at this introductory video:





Yesterday I asked Ramos which issues are going to motivate voters in the district and get them ti turn out for him. He told me that these are the three big ones that he's running on:

The 1994 omnibus crime bill allocated $30 billion worth of funds that in essence decimated communities of color which in effect accelerated mass incarceration. The bulk of the funds were dedicated to punitive measures and not toward rehabilitative or preventative services. In an effort to turn the tide to adopt and implement therapeutic jurisprudence I currently oversee an alternative to incarceration program. It diverts low-level offenders away from the criminal justice system by offering them a space which is focused on illustrating how crimes affect the community as a whole. This is the type of reform which is needed in the justice criminal justice system.

The Gun-Free Schools Act accelerated the school to prison pipeline. The law mandated yearlong suspensions for students that were caught bringing a weapon to school. When states  started interpreting "weapon" very broadly it lead to zero-tolerance policies which increased suspensions and expulsions. These suspensions have affected a disproportionate number of black and Latino students. This type of ‘broken windows’ policies in schools has lead to an increase in out of school suspensions. With the adoption of such policies, resources are catered toward policing students rather than creating alternative educational career pathways such as an investment in vocational trade institutions.

The Reagan era decimated most of the social safety nets which low-income Americans had come to rely on. With this type of disinvestment on the federal level, HUD was reduced to being a reactive entity. Succeeding administrations have failed to ensure that the agency receives adequate funding. NYCHA, which is the country’s largest public housing entity has felt the effects of this disinvestment. It is estimated that NYCHA will need at least $32 billion over the next five years to repair its crumbling infrastructure. With a myriad of needs HUD requires a higher level of funding to ensure that its housing stock and voucher programs remain intact to serve its most disenfranchised Americans.

Is he for Medicare-For-All, the Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, free public colleges, women's Choice, gender equality...? Of course, all of the above. But he knows his district and he is certain the people who live there want to talk about the issues he's emphasizing, even above and beyond the more national issues. If you'd like to contribute to his campaign-- and help stop Rubén Díaz Sr.-- please click on the DWT ActBlue thermometer above.

Can A Right-Wing, Anti-Choice, Homophobic Maniac Get Elected To Congress From The Single Bluest District In The U.S.? Short Answer: Yes

Diaz says he's "the opposite" of AOC-- and he sure is!

There are 435 congressional districts in the country. VA-10 in the DC suburbs is the wealthiest one-- #1 out of 435, with a median income of $114,566. If there's a #1, there'd also got to be a #435, right? There is and it's NY-15 in the South Bronx. The median income there is $25,213. The ethnic make-up of the district is 65.9% Latino (many from Puerto Rico, but also immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Central America), 28.2% Black, 2.5% White and 1.8% Asian. The PVI is D+44. How does that manifest itself? Mitt Romney got 3.0% of the vote in 2012 and 4 years later Trump got 4.9%.

Last year the long-time Democratic incumbent, José Serrano, beat his Republican opponent, Jason Gonzalez 124,469 (96%) to 5,205 (4%). Earlier this year, Serrano, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, announced he would be retiring at the end of this term. He's a special kind of congressman. In 2008, when every single member of Congress from New York City voted to bail out the banksters, Serrano was the one "no" vote. Criticized by his colleagues-- who he embarrassed-- he shot back that he couldn't see showering taxpayer money on the millionaires and billionaires whose greed and avarice caused the financial collapse. The Bronx machine politicians have never been fans and are certainly happy to see him go.

Everyone has expected a tough primary. The first candidate in was 31 year old City Councilman Ritchie Torres, the first openly gay Bronx elected official and a solid progressive. The second one is another city councilman, New York's most viciously homophobic politician, 75 year old right-wing sociopath and anti-Choice fanatic, Rubén Díaz, Sr. In February the City Council took away Díaz's committee chairmanship after he refused to apologize for telling a radio audience that the Council (he later added the state government in Albany as well) is "controlled by the homosexual community." When he declared for the House seat last week, Díaz made sure to announce that he's "not progressive, I’m a conservative Democrat," that conservative Democrats have no voice and that he's "the opposite" of AOC. Díaz is certainly not a Democrat in the way normal people understand what a Democrat is. Aside from his perverse obsession with homosexuality, he campaigned for Ted Cruz in 2016 and later said he likes Trump too.

Others considering a run for a rare open congressional seat are state Senator Gustavo Rivera, Assemblyman Michael Blake, Tomas Ramos, Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, Jonathan Ortiz and Ocasio-Cortez ally Samelys Lopez, a community activist. A close friend in the Bronx told me today that "If the primary is crowded with progressives, Díaz will absolutely win the Democratic nomination. You don't need a majority-- just the most votes. Let's hope that if that does happen, the Working Families Party will have a good, strong progressive on the general election ballot.

Why Is Joe Crowley Dissing The Bronx Part Of His Own District Again?

The editorial board of the NY Times slapped down Joe Crowley this week: If You Want to Be Speaker, Mr. Crowley, Don’t Take Voters for Granted. The editorial is especially poignant since Crowley hired a lobbyist to remove the Bronx part of his district removed from NY-14. Crowley is the machine boss of Queens and he doesn't like dealing with the residents of Throggs Neck, City Island, Eastchester Bay, Silver Beach, Locust Point, Schuylerville, Middletown, Pelham, Parkchester, Morris Park and Baychester. So he ignores them-- and hopes they don't vote. (In the 2014 midterm 79,790 of NY-14 voters came from Queens and just 48,580 came from the Bronx.

The Times' editors beef with Crowley was that, though he went to the Queens debate last week-- a debate he was not prepared for and clearly lost to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-- he skipped the Bronx debate entirely.

When asking New Yorkers for their vote, most candidates would begin by showing up.

Not Representative Joseph Crowley. No, Mr. Crowley, a 10-term Democratic congressman who reportedly has ambitions of serving as House speaker, chose to skip a debate Monday night with his primary challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He sent a surrogate instead, former City Councilwoman Annabel Palma.

This is the second primary debate in which Mr. Crowley was a no-show. A spokeswoman for Mr. Crowley said he had scheduling conflicts that wouldn’t allow him to attend the two debates, inevitably leaving voters to wonder-- what are we, chopped liver?

Indeed, the snubs should be galling not only to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Crowley’s constituents in New York’s 14th Congressional District, in Queens and the Bronx, but also to anyone who cares about the democratic process.

Mr. Crowley, 56, is a powerful congressman who leads the Queens County Democratic Party. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, has presented him his first major primary challenge in years. Despite long odds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer, has garnered significant support, waging a high-energy campaign and positioning herself as a grass-roots alternative to Mr. Crowley.

The candidates have met once, in a Spectrum News NY1 debate last week at which both candidates held their own.

Instead of attending Monday evening’s debate, which was hosted by the Parkchester Times, Mr. Crowley visited a civic association meeting in Queens. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was left to debate Mr. Crowley’s chosen surrogate, Ms. Palma. Ms. Palma once represented the Bronx on the City Council and now serves in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration as a deputy commissioner at the Department of Social Services.

Mr. Crowley’s constituents might well now wonder whether he intends, if re-elected, to have Ms. Palma make his floor speeches and cast his votes as well.

Crowley aides said they had told the newspaper weeks ago that there was a scheduling conflict and had asked to change the event. The publisher of the Parkchester Times said he had no idea that Mr. Crowley wouldn’t attend.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter after the debate that in sending Ms. Palma, Mr. Crowley chose “a woman with slight resemblance to me” as his surrogate. Both Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ms. Palma are Latina. Crowley aides dispute that Mr. Crowley chose Ms. Palma because of her ethnicity. A campaign spokesman, Vijay Chaudhuri, said Ms. Palma was chosen because she is a “phenomenal local leader.”

Mr. Crowley is far from the first candidate to decline to debate a challenger he is heavily favored to beat. But as a longtime incumbent with a powerful role as a party leader, he should relish, not shirk, a chance to make his case to voters. Mr. Crowley has decades of experience that can serve his constituents well in Congress. But his seat is not his entitlement. He’d better hope that voters don’t react to his snubs by sending someone else to do the job.

Blue America has been working with a very grassroots group in NY-14, Queens Against Crowley, to run a Facebook ad campaign and do robocalls to public housing residents in Queens and the Bronx that we hope will help people understand the difference between Crowley and Alexandria Ocasio. Below are a couple of the ads that have already gone out... if you'd like to listen. And if you want to chip in for more calls and ads, you can do that by tapping here and contributing to the Blue America Independent Expenditure Committee.

Desperate, Joe Crowley Tries Making His Failing Campaign About Race And Ethnicity

Alexandria Ocasio's race to replace Joe Crowley in her Queens/Bronx district-- Crowley and his family live in Virginia-- could turn out to be the most important primary of 2018. I hope you're following it at Queens Against Crowley. Yesterday they focused on a Ryan Grim report at The Intercept, "Crowley confuses ethnicity and race with power and privilege." Crowley, they pointed out "complained at a recent political event that his Democratic Party primary challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was focusing her campaign too much on issues of ethnicity or race, remarking, according to the report, that these types of issues were 'unnecessarily divisive.' At many of Crowley’s political events, he loves to brag about his Irish background. Yet, he feels it is fair to deny Ocasio-Cortez any opportunity to speak about her heritage and background, seemingly solely because she is Hispanic."

Having all the power of being the Queens party boss is not enough for Crowley. He wants to use the privilege he has as a White male in power to snuff out his opponent by stoking fears about ethnicity or race to his largely White audiences, as his recent political event was described.



Long before Ocasio-Cortez ever decided to challenge Crowley in a Congressional primary this year, though, Crowley made issues of race central to how Queens was going to be governed. One need not look too far to see how Crowley has used race and White privilege in Queens to further his own ideas about what is fair about who holds elected office.

Before Crowley inherited his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Richard Brown (Establishment-NY) was first appointed and then reëlected, uninterruptedly, as the District Attorney for Queens County. Now an octogenarian, Brown has said he has no plans for retiring. Though he holds elected office, Brown acts as if being the District Attorney is a job he gets to decide how long he keeps. Like Crowley, Brown acts as if he is entitled to his elected post. The major problem caused to Queens County voters is that Brown is resisting criminal justice reform, as called for by Ocasio-Cortez. Brown wants to keep arresting his way through the opioid crisis, even though Whites are shown to mainly be turning to dangerous synthetic painkillers as lifestyle drugs. Because Brown also resists speedy calls for legalizing marijuana or decriminalizing other crimes that disproportionately affect minority communities, criminal justice in Queens is prosecuted with race-based overtones, notably Broken Windows policing.

Since Brown runs for elected office with the explicit consent of the Queens machine, which is headed by Crowley, Crowley is responsible for how one’s race or ethnicity determines one’s experience when it comes to our justice system. Not only that, but the culture of unaccountability that runs through Queens County politics, which makes Brown believe that his elected office is his until he no longer wants it, is the making of the boss of the Queens machine : Crowley, himself.

Ocasio-Cortez is not making this political primary about ethnicity or race; it is Crowley, who is making it about the privilege and culture of unchallenged power, which he’s gotten so used to. By now, Crowley has been in Congress for 20 years, and he’s been the Queens party boss for 12 years. Crowley’s complaints about divisiveness should rightly fall on deaf ears, because Ocasio-Cortez has been espousing a political campaign that aims to unite New Yorkers on issues that affect everybody, regardless of ethnicity or race, such as the unaffordability crisis in rents and the need to reform our criminal justice system. The only person who is confusing race or ethnicity with power and privilege is Crowley.

Grim reminded his readers that "Crowley is routinely floated as next in line to be the leader of the House Democrats if Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California steps aside or is ousted... To meet with that destiny, however, he has an obstacle to overcome: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-- a Bronx-born millennial whose scrappy challenge from the left has generated excitement nationally and around the district, which encompasses parts of Queens and the Bronx.

If Crowley positions himself as a photo negative of the president, Ocasio-Cortez is a different medium altogether. A 28-year-old woman and daughter to a Puerto Rican mother and Bronx father, Ocasio-Cortez’s most notable novelty is arguably not her demographic profile, but her policy profile. She calls for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Medicare for All, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, and criminal justice reform “now.” “It doesn’t take 100 years to do this,” she intones in a viral campaign video [above]. “It takes political courage.”

Crowley, though, when he talked about the campaign, shared his frustration over what he perceives to be an inordinate focus on ethnicity.

His opponent, he said, was trying to make the campaign “about race”-- a strategy he called “unnecessarily divisive” at a time when the party needed to be “fighting Republicans, not other Democrats,” according to two people at the gathering.

“I can’t help that I was born white,” Crowley said. One of those who heard Crowley’s speech, Nick Haby, a Democratic activist who attended the meet-and-greet, agreed to speak on the record, while the second asked for anonymity given Crowley’s power in the Queens political machine.

...Haby said he came to the event with an open mind about Crowley, but he left leaning against him, even though he aligns with the Hillary Clinton wing of the party, whose agenda is most closely mirrored by Crowley’s. (Ocasio-Cortez is a former organizer for Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign and has been endorsed by Sanders-affiliated groups Our Revolution and People for Bernie Sanders, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America.)

Most of those at the event were white or white-presenting, Haby said, and he found Crowley’s defense that he couldn’t “help” being born white, coupled with his claims of being “destined” for leadership, odd and off-putting.

The source who originally tipped The Intercept off to Crowley’s alleged remarks in the days following the event was similarly troubled by Crowley’s comments on race. “It just felt really weird and not appropriate,” he explained.

If Crowley’s comments seem odd, it may be because Crowley is relatively inexperienced at campaigning.

Crowley graduated from Queens College in 1985 while his uncle, Walter Crowley, was serving as a city councilor-- a seat he had inherited from then-Queens party boss Tom Manton. Walter Crowley died in 1985, and according to subsequent New York Times reporting, Joe Crowley “set his eyes” on the seat, but was thwarted. “[W]hen Assemblyman Ralph Goldstein died in 1986, Mr. Crowley decided to run in the Democratic primary to succeed him. It was a crowded race with seven candidates. Mr. Crowley, then 24, won that race decisively,” the Times reported.

Crowley fended off a primary challenger in 1988, winning comfortably.

In 1999, when Manton, by then a member of Congress, retired, Crowley got a phone call from him. “On the last legal day to find a replacement, Mr. Manton convened a small meeting and telephoned Joseph Crowley, then an Assemblyman, to tell him he would be on the ballot in November [2000] as a congressional candidate,” the New York Sun reported.

He was effectively appointed to Congress by the party boss. Crowley also inherited Manton’s role as the new “king of Queens,” and has run the district machine since then. He had to defend his seat against primary challengers in 2002 and 2004 and each time won comfortably.

Despite having been in elected office for more than 30 years, Crowley has faced just four primary contests, and won them all comfortably. He has not faced a challenger since 2004.

His seat is now being challenged by Ocasio-Cortez, who’s running with a grassroots army, national attention, and a popular campaign ad that celebrates her independence from the Queens machine-- her freedom to mount a direct challenge to the throne.

The irony that Crowley laments how he “can’t help” being white, while ignoring the political advantages he inherited, is not lost on Ocasio-Cortez. “The congressman could have helped that he accepted inheritance of his seat from a multigenerational political dynasty without a true primary-- a process by which people of color are historically locked out of representation. The congressman could help that he voted to establish ICE. The congressman can help the fact that he accepts money from developers that are displacing our communities and the folks criminalizing our backyards,” she told The Intercept.

“Additionally, why is it that the congressman can proudly discuss his Irish heritage on the campaign trail, but I am somehow barred from mentioning my Puerto Rican family?”

...Haby said that while he left the event disinclined to vote for Crowley, the next day’s news solidified his decision: Crowley endorsed New York state Sen. Jose Peralta for another term. Peralta had been a member of the Independent Democratic Conference — a group of Democrats who caucused with Republicans to deny Democrats a majority in the chamber. Peralta later rejoined the caucus, and Crowley has said he endorsed Peralta in response to his change of heart.

Haby is a board member of the Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens and a member of Stonewall Democrats. He’s also the chair of the marketing and social media committee for the Powhatan and Pocahontas Regular Democratic Club.

The LGDCQ later endorsed Crowley, though Ocasio-Cortez did not compete for their backing. She assumed that, as part of the Queens political establishment, the club would never endorse anyone but Crowley, and her campaign decided to invest its limited resources into competing for votes it felt were more winnable. She says that decision was made early on. “At my first attempt to meet a local Dem club, they heard I was coming and rushed to endorse Crowley before I arrived. It’s never been our strategy to court a system led by Crowley,” she said.

Haby said he was disappointed by her decision not to reach out to his club, but accurately guessed at her rationale.

Ocasio-Cortez now says she has rethought that approach after realizing that Crowley’s support was softer than it initially appeared. The LGDCQ’s endorsement is a case in point. “I do think I perhaps overstated how strong this machine was in its loyalty to Crowley,” she said. “When I started, everyone told me it was a done deal. As I’ve gone further, I’ve seen that his support isn’t as strong as people say it is.”

Please consider helping Alexandria replace Crowley, a notoriously corrupt Democrat beholden to Wall Street, by clicking on the thermometer above. It's important. You shouldn't want to see this creep become Speaker; he's far worse than Pelosi or even Hoyer. And folks in Queens and The Bronx deserve better.