A Few Parting Words For Levi Tillemann

9 thoughts on “A Few Parting Words For Levi Tillemann”

1. Why go with your few parting words… 

   The guy lost but still got nearly one of three primary voters. Do Crowe and his supporters need to rub Levi's face in it? Do they have the luxury of passing off any Dem voter?

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   1. I won't be rubbing Tillemann's face in anything. His face has been through enough for one year.

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      1. So true. And self inflicted.

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2. The left really should focus only on candidates whose viability can be determined prior to the race being run.  They have to be able to out-raise their primary opponents, they can't put a focus on intraparty discontent, and there's no winning a tough race without the party brass on your side.

   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wins as a Democratic Socialist With a 21st-Century Vision

   The headlines are right. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old grassroots activist, just pulled off the biggest upset so far in the 2018 election cycle. Her Democratic primary win Tuesday in a race with Congressman Joe Crowley, a veteran party operative and 10-term incumbent who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, may well be the most remarkable New York City congressional election result since 31-year-old Elizabeth Holtzman beat House Judiciary Committee chairman Emanuel Celler in a 1972 primary.

   The defeat of Crowley, who was widely seen as a potential successor to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, was described by a stunned New York Times as “the most significant loss for a Democratic incumbent in years and one that will reverberate across the party and the country.” Ocasio-Cortez won 57.5 to 42.5, despite the fact that Crowley overwhelmingly outspent her and enjoyed support from the same top-ranking Democrats who are lining up to back New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in his September Democratic primary contest with Cynthia Nixon.

   We're fine, on the left, with winning some and losing some.  We know backing candidates in tough races, and who may not win, isn't going to give us the kind of record in elections that the Democratic Party has enjoyed generally over the last decade.  We'll have to live with that.

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   1. It appears that Ocasio-Cortez was both a compelling candidate, and who more closely represented her future constituency.  Sounds like Crowley had lost touch with his constituency as he reached for the brass ring in Congress.  Good lesson for any candidate or incumbent to learn.

      Ocasio-Cortez was warm and open as a candidate—she showed up for the debates that Crowley skipped in the Bronx and Queens neighborhoods that make up New York’s 14th district—yet she pulled no punches when it came to issues. A Bronx native who celebrated her own Puerto Rican heritage, Ocasio-Cortez promised to “fight for sweeping change in the way that the United States relates to Puerto Rico” on a host of economic and enfranchisement issues. In a multiracial, multiethnic district with a large immigrant population, she made the fight against Trump-administration policies central to her campaigning, which highlighted a call for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Ocasio-Cortez championed a single-payer, Medicare-for-All health-care system, declared that housing is a right, and called for sweeping criminal-justice reform. And she identified as a proud member of Democratic Socialists of America.

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      1. She’s also fighting against the party itself.

         A Primary Against the Machine: A Bronx Activist Looks to Dethrone Joseph Crowley, the King of Queens

         From Ocasio-Cortez’s perspective, the race is not about electing “just any old Democrat.” Democrats beholden to corporate interests are not representing their constituents and, oftentimes, “take the very same money as Republicans,” she said. Indeed, Crowley’s second biggest donor, the Blackstone Group, is a close ally of President Donald Trump.

         “This is actually about electing Democrats whose financial interests are aligned with their communities’ interests,” Ocasio-Cortez said. And Crowley’s financial interests, she maintained, “are at odds with everything that this community needs,” so you can’t really trust his recent policy shifts “to be anything deeper than face value, anything deeper than a re-election bid.”

         Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Why She Wants to Abolish ICE and Upend the Democratic Party

         In an interview, the left primary challenger discusses everything from how Democrats have failed to protect working class interests to the need for a Marshall plan for Puerto Rico and why her democratic socialist message is catching on.

         Talking With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Woman Challenging One of New York's Political Kingmakers

         When you look at what we’ve got in the Democratic Party, the people who have these safe seats are centrist, corporatist Democrats. If we have to have centrist Democrats in the party, let those Democrats come from swing districts. But in districts that are very highly Democratic, we should be advancing the national conversation on prison abolition, on student debt cancelation, on Puerto Rico, on a Marshall Plan, on 100% renewable energy in ten years. But no one is advancing that guard in this country because some of our most progressive districts are held by some of the most Wall Street-friendly candidates. It’s a massively wasted opportunity that is slowing progress in America.

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         1. Given the extreme rightward shift in politics, combined with the cost of continuous campaigning, especially in the House, driving up the demands for fundraising, it is no wonder even Democrats are beholden to wealthy corporate donors.

            I just hope she can be effective in her office and not just a lightweight gadfly backbencher.  I sincerely hope she starts a wave back to the historical center as a heavy counterweight pulling Congress, not just the party, back from the right.

            But unfortunately, with today's news of yet another SCOTUS seat being reserved for a Trumpist, we're looking at decades of decay in our institutions and quality of life.

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         2. Reading more about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez tells me she *really* connected with her constituents:

            Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t just a force to be reckoned with because she took on a 10-term congressman from New York’s 14th Congressional District and won. She’s also a powerhouse because she went from being a bartender to potentially being a member of Congress in a matter of months.

            Less than a year ago, Ocasio-Cortez worked at Flats Fix, a Mexican restaurant and bar in New York City’s Union Square. She is still featured in the main image on the site’s website

            “The funny thing about beginnings is that you rarely know you’re in them. My beginning felt like a dead end. My beginning was losing a parent to cancer, working a hard job in the wake of that loss, and complete uncertainty about the future of my family,” she wrote. “This whole campaign started because the Bronx and Queens deserves leadership that is accountable to people over profits, and dares to pursue the most ambitious plan possible for our children’s future.”

            That's what a truly representative democracy should look like.

            Crowley was one of the last Political Machine Ward Bosses.

            Crowley and Brady — proudly shanty (not lace-curtain) Irish pols representing majority-minority communities — are throwbacks to Richard Daley in Chicago and Carmine DeSapio in Manhattan. But Crowley’s defeat goes beyond just the diminished role of the ward bosses: It also signals upheaval for the old guard in diverse Democratic-dominated cities.

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3. Levi also bad mouthed Jason Crow at every opportunity, including during two phone conversations with me.  That, and other antics attacking Crow supporters, did not go over well here in CD6.

   Levi was not a good fit for this district.  He should offer a strong endorsement of Jason Crow and help us get rid of Coffman, once and for all.

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