Published in The WAVE print and e-editions, June 21, 2019
www.rockawave.com
School Scope: The
Battle of the Political Machines in the Democratic Party
By Norm Scott
Does the Queens District Attorney race
come down to Katz vs. Caban?
The Queens DA race has
national implications as it pits candidates with a range of political and
philosophical positions on the criminal justice system. Seven – count ‘em –
seven – candidates are running, some professional politicians, others new to
the political scene.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)
shocked the world when she beat the Democratic machine and Joe Crowley for
Congress in a Queens/Bronx district in 2018. She was backed by the Democratic
Socialists of America (DSA) which put troops on the ground for AOC, in essence
building its own more fluid machine for races they focus on, which makes them
more nimble (and much younger) than the traditional party machinery. We will
see local and national races pitting the
two forces against each other, a fascinating development.
A similar battle is taking
place in the Queens DA race which has some relevance to the national internal
battle among Democrats between the progressive/reform and the machine wings. Many
progressive District Attorneys have been elected around the nation, promising
major reforms, so DA has become a sort of glamor job for change.
The favorite is
machine-backed Melinda Katz. The Democratic party machine has the ground
troops. I knew that when I saw Lew Simon getting signatures for Katz. She is a
permanent politician with six years in
the Assembly, eight on the City Council and the last six as Queens Borough
President. There’s good, bad and ugly in that, as I generally do not trust the
machine. Katz has a lot of experience as a politician and The WAVE gave her an A
for her policies, along with three others. I wrote last week that experience
does count in every endeavor and
politician is no different. Katz knows how to work the political ropes. What
will be telling is how well, if she wins, she works the line between law and
community, a necessary function of the job of a DA today. Katz has received
over a $1 million in contributions, a quarter of a million from real estate
developers and related interests, a red flag for me.
But not a red flag for my
union, the UFT, which took out a full page ad for her in the WAVE last week. The
UFT, which also endorsed Crowley, mostly takes the center position, when
possible. And in the presidential race it will do what it can to tack away from
the left and into the center. So don’t look for any love for Bernie or Warren.
The UFT will try to sell the idea that the left can’t win, but the fundamentals
are that the UFT, since its founding, has been centrist in the Democratic
Party. (The UFT and its own machine,
Unity Caucus, took over the AFT in 1974 and created a state affiliate, NYSUT in
1975 and all three organizations have played a major part in centrist
Democratic Party politics since then at the city, state and national levels.)
AOC proved that political
newcomers can have a major impact and Katz’ major competitor, Tiffany Caban
(excuse the lack of hyphen over the second a – I can’t figure how to do that), represents the alternative inside the
Democratic Party. The WAVE rated her a C for not focusing enough on law and
order but on reforming the criminal justice system – I think we need to dig
deeper on these issues.
Caban is backed by DSA and
progressive all over Queens and is the only candidate AOC has endorsed. When I
attended the Bernie Sanders rally at Brooklyn College there were loads of
DSAers getting Tiffany’s petitions signed. And as a member of DSA I regularly
get notices about supporting her, not just with money but with active
canvassing. It takes troops to get on the ballot and loads more to run a
serious race. The progressive monthly, The Indypendent, which I have been
dropping off at Rockaway libraries, has devoted a lot of space to Caban with
her story being featured on the front page. Caban has raised a quarter of Katz’
total from at last count 2,545 people with an average of $84 per donation, but
for a newbie, significant.
Caban’s positions have forced
Katz to tack left on certain positions like cash bail and on the opening of
borough jails (which she initially supported). The threat to Katz is if the
other candidates take votes away from her and Caban captures the bulk of
progressives. It probably won’t surprise readers of this column that I’m urging
people to vote for Caban.
Vote for Norm by visiting his
blog ednotesonline.com.
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