DCCC self-destructing over 'diversity' in mass staff shakeup: 'It's the Monday Night Massacre'

Al Weaver and Julia Manchester
The Hill
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 16:51 UTC

© Associated Press / Susan Walsh

In this Jan. 4, 2019 file photo, Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., walks to a group photo with the women of the 116th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) saw a mass departure of senior staff late Monday amid outcry over the lack of diversity within the committee's top ranks under Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.).

Communications director Jared Smith, political director Molly Ritner, deputy executive director Nick Pancrazio, top communications aide Melissa Miller and the committee's diversity director Van Ornelas all resigned by Monday evening.

The exits come on the heels of the resignation of the committee's executive director, Allison Jaslow, which she announced at an all-staff meeting earlier on Monday.

Jaslow's exit followed complaints about the lack of diversity in the senior management positions from Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Filemon Vela (D-Texas).

Gonzalez and Vela said in a statement Sunday that the committee was in "complete chaos."

Bustos returned to Washington on Monday despite the August recess to deal with the growing outcry from black and Latino lawmakers over diversity.

The episode underscores the level of discontent with Bustos throughout the House Democratic ranks. According to one House Democrat, Bustos made promises to lawmakers of all stripes in her bid to take the reins from Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and those competing pledges are a major reason for the fallout she and the committee are experiencing only seven months after she took over as chair.

"It's the Monday Night Massacre at DCCC," one lawmaker said. "Cheri campaigned as all things to all people, telling Blue Dogs one thing, telling progressives another. So inevitably once in office she would disappoint them."

The committee released a statement late Monday announcing that Jacqueline Newman would take over as executive director on an interim basis and that the committee's executive council will conduct a search for a new permanent executive director. According to one senior aide, Bustos has empowered the senior staffers on the council "to offer recommendations," adding that she "followed their recommendations in this restructure."

Among some, the committee's day of meetings was a source of mockery, especially after a largely drama-free cycle internally under Luján, who ultimately helped win the majority for the party.

"The idea of all DCCC staff sitting around for hours on Friday and again today to talk about this internal shit enrages me," the House Democrat said. "Shut the f--- up about your feelings and just focus on winning."

"You know how NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] spent their day Friday and today? Not sitting around talking about diversity and their feelings," the lawmaker added. More than anything, Democrats believe the party's campaign apparatus needs an infusion of know-how at the highest levels. As one external source put it: "They need some adults in there."

Comment: But it is all about diversity and, and feelz, for the Dems, don't you know?

The Washington Examiner adds:

A mass departure of top aides shook House Democrats' campaign arm Tuesday, an exodus prompted by complaints from Hispanic and black lawmakers that the organization's staff lacked diversity.

The tumult comes in a period when race has become a partisan battlefield, following a series of Twitter attacks by President Donald Trump on House Democrats of color. In his latest blasts, he has disparaged Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and his city of Baltimore, which is majority black.

Some Examiner disingenousness here. Trump did not attack Cummings for his race, but for his dismal performance representing Boston, a black hole (no pun intended) that HUD has sunk millions into with no discerntable results.

The shake-up also occurred as both parties are already fundraising and recruiting candidates for the 2020 elections, in which Democrats will be defending their House majority. The DCCC outspent its counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, in the 2018 elections that saw Democrats regain House control after eight years in the minority.

Lawmakers complaining about the DCCC's staff have included Texas Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez and Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Bustos, 57, became chairwoman of the campaign committee following the 2018 elections, arguing she would be effective because she has represented a swing district that swung to support Trump in 2016.

Hispanic lawmakers became disenchanted after she replaced top staffers, including many minorities, with aides who were largely white, said an aide to Gonzalez who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. New committee leaders often name long-time aides to their staffs.

Maybe those aides were largely competent?

In a statement last weekend, Gonzalez and Vela said the DCCC was "in complete chaos." They said Bustos should appoint a person of color to be executive director "to restore confidence in the organization and to promote diversity."

Fudge also told Politico, which first reported about the DCCC's disarray, about her unhappiness about the committee's lack of diversity.

"It is shocking, and something needs to be done about it," she said.

Gabrielle Brown, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus, said black House lawmakers have been holding meetings with DCCC officials for months at which they expressed similar concerns. None of the lawmakers complained about the DCCC's performance this year in raising money and finding candidates to challenge Republicans, the committee's main job.