Ocasio-Cortez is accusing incumbent Joe Crowley of planning a third party campaign against her because his name is going to appear on the ballot for a third party. If they are so sure her politics as a democratic socialist are what the people want why are they so worried about Joe Crowley being on the ticket?Crowley says he is not running but refuses to have his name removed from the ballot. Could Cortez be right? Are Dems staging a secret plot to run a third party campaign against her?Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate)
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The Democratic Party is facing massive drama over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory over Joe Crowley.
What people don't seem to understand is that Cortez hasn't actually won a seat in Congress yet.
She has only defeated Crowley in the primary.
And that means come November, Crowley could still win if people vote for him.
She's accusing him of mounting a third-party campaign, even though he's saying he's not running.
What's interesting is that after Cortez won, we saw a few mainstream Democrats embrace some of her far-left democratic socialist rhetoric, such as abolish immigration and customs enforcement.
But some Democrats are worried that she is too far left, and it was a very small percentage of people who actually voted for her in the first place.
If the Democrats want to win Congress in November, they need to appeal to swing voters and the mainstream.
So, is it possible that Joe Crowley, the incumbent, is actually going to mount a third party campaign?
And just how is Cortez reacting to this?
But before we get started, let me give a quick shoutout to today's sponsor, Newsvoice.
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On July 12th, Cortez tweeted, Rep.
Joe Crowley stated on live TV that he would absolutely support my candidacy.
Instead, he stood me up for all three scheduled concession calls.
Now he's mounting a third-party challenge against me and the Democratic Party and against the will of the New York Working Families Party.
An organization called the Working Families Party endorsed Joe Crowley as their candidate, so his name will appear on the ballot in November, unless Joe takes some very specific actions.
It's actually rather hard to get your name removed from a ballot.
Vox has the story.
The confusing ballot procedure behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Crowley's Twitter beef explained.
Joe Crowley is still on the ballot in New York's 14th congressional district.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants him off.
It starts by talking about some Twitter beef between Cortez and Crowley, and how it's based around the fact that Crowley's name is still going to be on the ballot.
A candidate being the nominee for two different parties is not unusual in New York politics.
But now, Cortez is publicly accusing Crowley of mounting a third-party challenge to her, something he vociferously denies.
Crowley fired back, saying, "'I've made my support for you clear and the fact that I'm not running,' Crowley said.
I'd like to connect, but I'm not willing to air grievances over Twitter.
Crowley won the Working Families Party nomination, despite losing the Democratic one.
After Ocasio-Cortez won, Working Families Party wanted to put her on their ballot line for the November election, and asked him to vacate.
But to remove him as their nominee from the ballot, the Working Families Party would essentially have to nominate Crowley for another position on the ballot, and he'd have to accept. If they nominated for him the
assembly or the state senate or an office like that and he consented to it, he could get off the
ballot, said New York-based election lawyer Jerry Goldfeder in an interview with Vox. As the New York
Times' Lisa W. Federo pointed out, the thinking here would be for the Working Families Party
to nominate Crowley for a seat that he'd have little to no chance of winning, like a
county clerkship in a region of the state dominated by the other party. Some positions don't have
residency requirements, and a lawyer for the Working Families Party says it should be easy for Crowley
to do this. I respect Congressman Crowley's concerns, but there are common, straightforward, and legal
ways to remove candidates from the ballot in cases like this, said WFP counsel Alex Robb in a
statement.
There are offices around the state for which the Congress member could be nominated.
The New York State Court of Appeals has found that it is standard for parties to substitute
candidates after a primary election, and that the practice does not violate the letter or
the spirit of the law.
Sometimes, candidates do vacate the line, Goldfeder said.
And sometimes, like Joe Crowley, they say, that would be a fraud on the voters, and I'm
not going to do that, so relax, the election lawyer added.
Crowley tweeted, Lots of questions about WFP line.
Was honored to have their support.
I'm not running.
For the record, You can only be removed from the ballot if
1. You move out of New York.
Die. Be convicted of a crime.
Accept a nomination for another office in a place I don't live.
He added, I don't plan on moving out of New York.
Have a clean record.
Hope God's will is that I don't die and won't commit what I honestly believe to be election
fraud.
And it's a lot to ask of him.
if he accepts a nomination for a place he doesn't live or for something he has no intention
of actually winning or running as, that would be election fraud.
And that's a lot to ask of him.
So with that being the case, he is going to be on the ballot come November.
It's important, then, that people realize it was a very, very small percentage of voters that got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the primary win in the first place.
And it's expected that nearly ten times as many people will come out in the actual congressional election.
It's very possible Crowley could still win on the Working Families Party ticket.
From a story by Politico, Crowley said there were a number of factors that contributed to his surprise defeat, including an isolated, earlier-than-normal primary date, as well as what he described as the year of the woman.
Another important thing to consider is that Crowley hasn't actually had to win a primary in, I think, around 14 years.
Because he's been uncontested nearly every single time.
And in New York, there's no real competition from any other parties, so it's basically a de facto win for whoever has the Democratic Party nomination.
And because no one competed against him in the primaries, he didn't have to win a primary.
And this was the first in a long time, and Cortez, a Democratic Socialist, won.
Now, this has some mainstream Democrats worried because they view the Democratic Socialists as very extreme.
From Fox News, Lieberman slams Ocasio-Cortez, urges voters to pick Joe Crowley.
Lieberman, the former Democratic Senator, appealed to voters in New York's 14th Congressional District on Tuesday to vote in November for Joe Crowley and not Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And that's true!
article for the Wall Street Journal Lieberman, who is now an independent,
criticized Cortez's agenda as more socialist than democratic and said her
presence in Congress will make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start
fixing problems. Thanks to a small percentage of primary votes, all of the
people of New York's 14th District stand to lose a very effective representative
in Washington, he wrote. And that's true. Crowley has a lot of experience. He's
been in Congress for a very long time and he's one of the highest-ranking
Democrats. New York's 14th District losing him would cost them a lot of
power and experience and Cortez has never held office before so they'd
effectively be replacing someone with lots of connections and experience with
a rookie.
Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes you do need change, and we do need younger voices, but it is fair to say that they're going to be losing out on a lot of assets by replacing Lieberman wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hurts the party, Congress, and even America.
Lieberman wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
Vote Joe Crowley for working families.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hurts the party, Congress, and even America.
Lieberman writes, Cortez is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of
America, whose platform, like hers, is more socialist than
democratic.
Her dreams of new federal spending would bankrupt the country
or require very large tax increases, including on the working class.
Her approach foresees government ownership of many private companies, which would decimate the economy and put millions out of work.
Cortez didn't speak much about foreign policy during the primary, but when she did, it was from the DSA policy book, meaning support for socialist governments, even if they are dictatorial and corrupt, Venezuela, opposition to American leadership in the world, even to alleviate humanitarian disasters, Syria, and reflexive criticism of one of America's great democratic allies, Israel.
At the end of the article, he says, There comes a time when incumbents need to be removed.
I hope Joe Crowley will give all the voters of his district the opportunity to re-elect him in November,
and I hope they find his name on their ballots.
There comes a time when incumbents need to be removed.
It's just that way, because times change, and sometimes you need new, fresh voices and ideas to come
in and make changes.
But Ocasio-Cortez has been criticized pretty heavily over the past few days
for some gaffes on Israel-Palestine, as well as on the economy.
In this story from Reason, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs, which is not how unemployment rates work.
She also added that she thinks unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, A lot of people seem to think there is a big difference between socialists and democratic socialists.
And that's kind of true, but not really.
on the unemployment rate.
Cortez also added, capitalism has not always existed in the world, and it will not always
exist in the world.
A lot of people seem to think there is a big difference between socialists and democratic
socialists.
And that's kind of true, but not really.
The ultimate goal of democratic socialists is to enact a socialist system.
They are socialists.
Democratic just describes them.
That means they believe in people having the right to democratically vote as to how the socialism functions, as opposed to single-party rule or authoritarianism.
From Wikipedia.
The DSA regards the end of capitalism and the realization of socialism as a gradual long-term goal.
Therefore, the organization focuses its immediate political energies on reforms within capitalism that empower working people while decreasing the power of corporations.
As we are unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow, DSA fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people.
The DSA wants full-on socialism, but they don't think we're just going to flick a switch and make it happen.
It has to be a gradual change.
A vote for someone who is a democratic socialist is a vote in the direction of socialism.
And a lot of mainstream politicians are worried that far-left rhetoric is going to scare moderates away and push them towards the Republican Party.
And we are seeing something to that effect happening, with millennials moving towards the Republican Party in some instances.
It would seem the Working Families Party regrets their decision to nominate Joe Crowley as they tweeted this.
There are many ways for Joe Crowley NY to remove himself from the November ballot.
It's outrageous that he refuses to show Ocasio-2018 the basic respect of doing so.
Either way, we know who we are supporting, and we know who the next member of Congress from NY14 will be.
And just a few hours before making this video, Crowley tweeted, In response to this tweet and other statements, a lot of people are saying that Crowley, who has a residence in Virginia, should just change his address to Virginia, thus his name would be removed from the ballot.
But others point out the only reason he has an address in Virginia and his family is there is because he's been working in DC as a congressman representing New York for a couple decades now.
So it would be a bit disingenuous for him to change his address to what is considered his secondary address for work if he's not planning on working there in the future.
Not only that, if he changed his address and then a few months later decided to move his family back from Virginia to New York, he'd have to change his address back again.
It is entirely unreasonable, and the conundrum is actually rather interesting.
It's possible that Crowley really is preparing a third-party challenge against Cortez.
And with Cortez only winning the primary by a tiny fraction of votes, it's also possible that Crowley could win on the working family's ticket.
But I think we might see one of two possibilities.
I think Joe Crowley is telling the truth.
He's not running, he has no intention of running, and he's already endorsed Ocasio-Cortez and will continue to do so.
He just doesn't want to commit what he thinks is election fraud or cheat voters in any way by playing some political game.
I also think it's possible that in a couple months, he's going to announce that due to an outpouring of requests from his constituents, he has decided to stay in the race and fight for those he has made a promise to.
I would be really surprised if someone who is this high up in the Democratic Party would just give up their seat because they lost a primary by only a few thousand votes in a district of several hundred thousand people.
But needless to say, we have no idea what's going to happen.
And I have to wonder, was this the plan B the whole time?
I don't want to get too conspiratorial, but it sure is convenient that the Working Families Party endorses the mainstream Democrat, typically, In elections like this, giving them the opportunity to maintain their position.
Now, some activists are saying, don't be surprised when the Working Families Party sees a strange influx of resources from mysterious locations.
But that would imply that politics is rather dirty.
But let's see what happens.
We'll see what happens in the next few months.
We'll see what happens in November.
Keep in mind, Cortez has not won yet.
And she still might not win.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Do you think Crowley was planning this the whole time?
Do you think he's going to run?
Or do you think he's serious?
That he really is supporting Ocasio-Cortez and this was all just a big mix-up?
