Posts by: Marissa Barrow

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski’s retirement announcement has created a new round of turmoil for Maryland Democrats, exposing divisions within their party as it recovers from losing the governor’s mansion to the Republicans last November.

At the same time, the draft Edwards movement was announced by two nationally recognized progressive groups, Democracy for America — founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D) — and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen secured the endorsement of several Montgomery County officials in his campaign for Senate on Monday and dismissed a pair of national liberal groups that are calling for Rep. Donna F. Edwards to enter the race.

The seven-term congressman is a reliable vote for Democrats and is close with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. But groups such as Democracy for America — the organization founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean— have likened Edwards to Sen.Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat many progressives hope will run for president in 2016.

DFA and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have sent emails to members asking them to support Edwards.

Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., will announce a run for Senate Tuesday to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., the Washington Post reported Sunday.

In 2008, Edwards ousted another Democrat, Rep. Albert Wynn, to win her first term with backing from progressive groups. Some of those same groups — Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy For America — have launched petitions to draft Edwards into the Senate race.

But it’s not likely to work — and Maryland could be the next example of the simmering divide between the Democratic establishment and the liberals who would rather see Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the 2016 ticket than Hillary Clinton.

Progressive allies are increasingly convinced that Rep. Donna Edwards is about to enter the contest to succeed Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who announced her retirement last week. Two potential national allies of Edwards told POLITICO Campaign Pro they expect her to announce a Senate bid this week.

Progressive groups — like the Howard Dean-founded Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — have prodded Edwards to run for the seat. Her potential entrance is also a sign that Edwards believes she has a path to the Democratic nomination: She told MSNBC last week she’d run only if she thought she had a chance to win.

Rep. Donna F. Edwards said Friday she will likely make a decision in a matter of days about whether to run for Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski’s seat in 2016.

“I’m really close,” Edwards said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun on Friday. “This is really a critical decision and I just want to make sure that I’m doing it in a thoughtful way — talking to friends and supporters and looking at the numbers.”

Edwards, who defeated 15-year incumbent Al Wynn in the 2008 Democratic primary, would be a potentially powerful candidate. A pair of liberal groups, Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, have already indicated their support for her.

Though Edwards has not raised heaps of campaign money in the past, that could likely be overcome with outside help from a group such as EMILY’s List, which works to elect females to office.

Two progressive groups, Democracy For America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, launched efforts this week to draft Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) to run for the open Senate seat in 2016. Edwards is a rising progressive star who knocked off a long-time Democrat in the primaries in 2008.

In their announcements, both groups took implied swipes at Van Hollen, saying Edwards was the strongest defender of entitlement programs in the wide-open field of potential Maryland Senate candidates.

“It’s unclear if other potential candidates considering a run will take the same strong stand on behalf of working families,” Charles Chamberlain, executive director for DFA said in a statement.

Maryland: Two national progressive groups, Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, say they’re raising money to encourage Rep. Donna Edwards (D) to get into the racefor retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D) seat. Edwards has said she’s considering a run. DFA backed Edwards when she primaried then-Rep. Al Wynn (D), unsuccessfully in 2006 and successfully in 2008. (Washington Post) On the one hand, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) has better fundraising chops than Edwards. On the other, they would split the D.C. ‘burb base, opening a hole for a Baltimore candidate.

As Hillary Clinton continues to come under fire for her use of private emails during her four years as US secretary of state, a groundswell of opinion suggests the Democratic party must stage a competitive search for its 2016 presidential candidate and avoid a Clinton coronation.

Progressives on the left of the party are pushing for greater debate that would clarify where the presidential candidates stand on core issues and potentially nudge them towards a more radical stance. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a grassroots campaign that supports the Massachusetts US senator and liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren, argues that the discussion needs to be stepped up rather than dampened down.

“Hillary Clinton – or any Democratic candidate – will be stronger in the general election if they adopt an Elizabeth Warren-style economic populist agenda. We’re working to incentivize all Democrats who may run for president – including Clinton – to promote expanding Social Security benefits, making college debt-free, and breaking up the Wall Street banks that broke our economy,” said PCCC’s TJ Helmstetter.

A coalition of progressive groups launched a campaign Thursday to encourage Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.) to run in the primary to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) in 2016.

Those hoping Edwards hears their pleas are the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy For America, Blue America and other Maryland-based progressive groups. Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Congress, announced this week that she will retire at the end of her fifth Senate term.

“Donna was the first member of Congress to introduce a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United,” Carrie Biggs-Adams, a member of the PCCC, wrote in an email to her group’s members. “She led the National Network to End Domestic Violence. And Donna agrees with Elizabeth Warren that we should expand Social Security benefits — never cut them.”

Two progressive groups formally launched an effort on Thursday to draft Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) to run for the open Senate seat in Maryland in 2016.

Democracy For America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee surveyed their members this week and said the overwhelming response in favor of Edwards has led them to recruit her for the race.

DFA and PCCC each have more than 1 million members nationwide and a combined 35,000 in Maryland alone.

Two national progressive groups will begin raising money and launch an effort to draft U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards to join the 2016 Senate race to succeed outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski .

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced their decision in an email to members Thursday, lauding Maryland’s first black congresswoman as a consistent progressive voice and “perfect fit” to replace Mikulski.

Edwards, 56, has not declared her candidacy publicly but has said that she is considering a run in what is expected to a be a crowded Democratic primary field. Her colleague, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Marriott executive Kathleen Matthews, made their bids public days after Mikulski announced her retirement.

A pair of national liberal groups launched a draft campaign Thursday to encourage Rep. Donna Edwards to enter the race to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who is retiring next year.

Democracy for America, the group founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have sent emails to members asking them to support the five-term congresswoman from Prince George’s County.

Two liberal outside groups, Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are rolling out an effort to get Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) to run for outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) Senate seat.

The two groups announced Thursday they are launching a Draft Edwards effort to get the Maryland congresswoman to run for Senate. (Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has already announced that he’s running for Senate and has a war chest of over $1.6 million —sizable for this early in the race.)

For instance, the PCCC email announcing the Draft Edwards effort notes that “Donna agrees with Elizabeth Warren that we should expand Social Security benefits —never cut them.”

Nearly every Democratic member of the Maryland House delegation is strongly considering a run for retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-Md.) seat, they told The Hill on Wednesday.

Rep. Donna Edwards is getting pushed by progressive groups to get into the race. Democracy for America (DFA) and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) petitioned followers on Tuesday to support Edwards in the wide-open field of potential Democratic contenders.

“I’ve made it very clear that I’m interested in running,” Edwards said. “I see a pathway to succeeding Barbara Mikulski and I’m taking my own counsel and I’ll make a decision shortly.”

SHOT, via ADAM GREEN, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee: “New Democrats are Wall Street Democrats. They are the Bad News Bears of American politics — peddling a losing agenda of less funding for middle-class priorities and more tax cuts for big corporations at a moment when Americans are sick of a system rigged for the big guy against the little guy.”

At a press conference, a group of centrist lawmakers went off-script to criticize the party’s 2014 strategy—and also pushed back on the message of income inequality and economic fairness championed by liberal hero Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Meanwhile, outside the room, staffers from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee handed out pamphlets criticizing the activities inside.

Outside the event, staffers from the PCCC—an outside group that endorsed 11 current House Democrats during the 2014 cycle—handed out fliers bashing the New Democratic Coalition as “Wall Street Democrats” and blaming their unwillingness to back progressive reforms as the cause of 2014’s losses. The pamphlet also questioned the involvement of centrist think tank Third Way in crafting their agenda, while name-checking several of Warren’s policy positions.

A runoff that was expected to be a slam dunk for Rahm Emanuel is turning out to be uncomfortably — even dangerously — close, leading the Chicago mayor to ready a scorched-earth offensive to save his job.

Recent polling shows the race between Emanuel and his unknown and underfunded rival, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, has closed to within single digits. With local and national progressive groups lining up behind Garcia and promising to pour cash into the effort to deny Emanuel a second term, the mayor is suddenly scratching and clawing for his political existence.

Emanuel’s progressive foes, sensing an opportunity, are rushing into the contest. A pair of liberal groups, Democracy for America and MoveOn.org, are partnering on field efforts, and a third, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is raising money for the cash-starved Garcia. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has repeatedly clashed with Emanuel, said her group would also help out the challenger.

The newly open Senate race in Maryland is giving these same progressives a new, less quixotic cause: Getting Representative Donna Edwards to run for Senate. MoveOn and DFA have both dipped into the Free State with emails to supporters who could be activated for a bid. In a message to its Maryland members, MoveOn insisted that “for a progressive to win, they’ll need to start gathering support and putting together their campaign right away.” That preceded a list of 14 Democrats, from the likely (Representative Chris Van Hollen, who is actively looking at the race), to the unlikely (defeated gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown) to Donna Edwards.

An email from DFA was less subtle: It announced that the organization was “teaming up with MoveOn and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee,” and that it was asking if people were Ready for Donna.

The record of progressives pushing preferred candidates into federal races is mixed. In 2011, while Senate Democrats were trying to get Warren into Massachusetts’s race, the PCCC waged a draft campaign and collected donation pledges—$700,000 worth of them. MoveOn did the same. A copycat 2013 campaign to draft former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer into his state’s open Senate race failed only when Schweitzer bailed, focusing instead on a possible presidential bid, which has gone exactly nowhere.

Progressive groups are teaming up to rally supporters to back Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) in a potential run for Senate in 2016 to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

Democracy for America (DFA) and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) petitioned followers on Tuesday to support Edwards in the wide-open field of potential Democratic contenders that could be considering a run for Senate.

Edwards is a fresh face for the party who became a favorite among progressives after she knocked off a longtime Democrat in 2008. The PCCC email highlighted Edwards’ victory over “a Wall Street Democrat.”

But that closeness to Wall Street has many progressives eying her warily, and the connection to banks facing investigations or fines could add fuel to that fire. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said it increases pressure on Clinton to deliver with her deeds as much as her words.

“It’s fair for voters to be skeptical of Hillary Clinton’s speeches about holding Wall Street accountable when Wall Street institutions fund her foundation at the same time she gives those speeches,” he said.

“That’s a burden that Clinton will have to address by backing up her words with bold action — like appointing an economic team not beholden to Wall Street and showing a willingness to break up too-big-to-fail banks and jail bankers who broke the law.”

If nothing else, it underscores the challenge she’ll face during a presidential campaign in making a populist economic pitch to average voters and framing herself as a reformer while at the center of a tangled web of ties to troubled banks.

Moderates are raising concerns about Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and her supporters’ rhetoric against big business and Wall Street. Progressives are concerned the party will move too close to business.

Adam Green, who co-founded the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), told The Hill the party should follow the Warren wing.

“There is a rising economic populist tide in America — and the path to success in 2016 for Democrats is to campaign on a popular Elizabeth Warren-style agenda,” Green said.

Green said that “those who refuse to name villains are usually being paid by those villains, and voters can sense it.”

“The public wants leaders with the courage to stand up for the little guy while calling out bad actors — like the Wall Street bankers who broke the law, wrecked our economy, and hurt millions of people’s lives,” Green said.

Rather than the relatively regulation-free marketplace that’s made up the Internet Service Provider network to this point, the online world will now be treated like the rest of the heavily regulated telecommunications world, which has a number of restrictions aimed at protecting consumers and preventing corporations from unfair pricing.

“Today’s vote is the fruition of a decade-long fight by those of us who believe in preserving the Internet as a level playing field,” Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder, said in a statement sent to Mic. “Protecting Net Neutrality through reclassification is the kind of big, bold idea that is hugely popular with Americans of all political stripes.”

In the lead-up to the vote, public sentiment was generally in favor of free and open Internet. A recent national poll of 1,500 likely 2016 voters conducted by the Progressive Change Institute and GBA Strategies found that 61% of all voters supported net neutrality, with only 26% opposing.

Another progressive campaign group is looking to defeat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) as he heads for a runoff.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee sent out an email to its supporters Wednesday asking them to donate to the former White House chief of staff’s opponent, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

“Garcia has the momentum — let’s show him some love,” the email said. “Chip in $6 to help him defeat one of the worst corporate Democrats in America.”

The president was a huge feature of the mayor’s campaign — not just with his picture and quotes all over Emanuel’s campaign material, but with a radio ad, closing television commercial, and set of appearances in Chicago last Thursday.

Obama’s known for his loyalty to his allies and continues to have an active interest in hometown politics. So of course he’d back Emanuel, progressives say, but he can’t claim to be doing so out of principle.

The Working Families Party cheered García’s victory as Chicago “showing signs of the progressive wave that has washed over cities across America.” The Progressive Change Campaign Committee sent out its own celebratory email to members.

Asked Wednesday whether the president believes Emanuel’s a true progressive, White House spokesman Eric Schultz ducked the question. “The president is supportive and will do what we can to help,” was all he would say.