“We learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.”
Gabe Tobias, a former campaign aide to both Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman, is now working on an effort to educate voters about how the city’s new ranked-choice-voting system will work and telling them to leave moderate candidates like Yang and Adams off of their ballots. But even those moderates, he notes, talk about left-wing ideas like reforming the NYPD and meaningfully addressing poverty in the city. And had someone like Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
“The candidate is the problem to solve,” he said. “Not the ideology.”... Dianne Morales and the Implosion of the Left in NYC’s Mayoral Race
June 2, 2021
Why? The simple answer is Morales' lack of history on the left created suspicion she was a faux leftist using a left lane in an opportunistic way.
Parts 1 and 2 of the series on the Dianne Morales mayoral campaign situation:
- The Dianne Morales Mayoral Dramedy - an Ed Notes n...Part 1
- Dianne Morales, Part 2: Hits from the left - Ross...
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Follow the bouncing ball in the graphic above. Today we get into the nitty gritty of who did what to whom. DSA provided a lot of staffers for Morales and, in particular the Queens branch. Did sentiment inside DSA toward Morales shift away from her? Realizing her activism was short-lived but as long as she was not attracting attention, they could live with her. But as she began to make headway, what was viewed as a faux leftist became a possible threat to the DSA long-term project which is to infiltrate the Dem party with socialist ideals and candidates. They have strength in certain areas of the city to be able to elect state senators, assembly, congress and this year focused on city council. They were clear they would stay out of the mayoral race due to lack of resources but even if they did get involved on a citywide basis, it is not clear they hierarchy would have backed Morales since her career was so far from socialist ideals.
It is interesting to see what has come out of MORE Caucus which seemed to be backing Morales. She gave them an hour interview and they castigated the UFT leadership for not including her in their final four. At the May DA a reso from a MORE ally called for Stringer to be dropped from UFT endorsement and I did read some MORE comment calling for Morales to be reconsidered. (I can't verify where I read that.) The key thing is that MORE is loaded with DSA people and they run MORE. Forming unions is of the highest priority and the DSA labor group is loaded with MOREs. So how to square the revolt by people calling for a union with support for Morales? If MORE is silent on Morales now after pushing her, there is a signal of DSA abandonment.
Before we go into more detail I'd like you to check out the new version of Rising in its first edition since Krystal and Sagaar did their final show on Friday. I was pleased to see Ryan Grim repping the left and I like Emily Jashinsky for the right.
Ryan delved into the Morales campaign mess and castigated the activists. In this must see video Ryan breaks news with a story of a similar revolt in Bernie's Iowa campaign where Bernie said - don't hire so-called activists who often put themselves and their interests ahead of the campaign -- the ME generation, I guess. Since so many were from DSA, these socialists weren't acting very social. I mean, you join a campaign a month ago and with a month left you want a union?
[UPDATE - In today's Rising Ryan goes deep into the charges against Stringer and the connections to is accusers lawyer to billionare anti-Stringer Steve Ross who formed an anti-Stringer PAC https://youtu.be/bjbY8iWjoPY].
On the other side, Morales brought into the campaign her personal assistant, Amanda van Kessel, who felt she had special rights and most likely came into conflict with campaign manager Witney Hu. Both are from Queens branch of DSA so that makes it interesting.
“We learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.” The collapse of the Morales campaign signals a low moment for a resurgent left that not long ago looked set to dominate the race for mayor this year. Back in 2020, New York’s financial and real-estate elites were so concerned that this year’s mayoral election would herald a sharp leftward turn in city politics that some of them started meeting together in secret, trying to figure out how many millions of dollars to deploy to fend off the rising tide.... With the mayoral election less than four weeks away, the furrowed brows of Wall Street can unclench. The spectacle of the Morales campaign staff blowing up their own candidate seems to mark the end of any dream of a leftist victory in the June 26 Democratic primary, and many of the progressive organizers and activists who worked years for this moment are left to look only with despair at the waning days of this race......For most of the past year, progressive hope was centered on Scott Stringer, who, as a 60-year-old straight white male city comptroller with a long career in government and a comptroller’s flair for spectacle, didn’t exactly fit the young, diverse, and hype-house mood of the moment. Stringer was surging when his campaign was derailed by an accusation that he sexually harassed a volunteer on a 2001 campaign for public advocate. The left-wing lawmakers whom he helped put into office in 2018 and 2020 by backing them early and campaigning vigorously on their behalf quickly abandoned him (even as some have since expressed regrets for acting hastily.)
Morales seemed like a better fit. An Afro-Latina, she, like Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez, came from outside politics. Unlike Stringer, she had never taken money from real-estate interests (Stringer swore off the donations once the campaign got under way), argued that the police “don’t keep us safe,” and pledged to defund $3 billion from their annual budget while creating “a care economy.”... had someone like Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
“The candidate is the problem to solve,” he said. “Not the ideology.”.... NY Mag
The hot mess in the Dianne Morales mayoral campaign: I began writing this article a month ago. "A month ago", you ask? All the current drama over her campaign came out in the past week. Well, there was other stuff way before. And throughout, when you'd expect attacks on the most progressive candidate to come from the right and center, I was seeing the critiques coming from the left. And they rang true, while the current revelelations from her former staff, many of whom are connected to DSA Queens branch, need further examination, especially given some of the tactics - like demonstrating outside Morales headquarters and demands for severance pay for people who quit, demands for a union, and more.
Earlier in her career, our "most progressive" primary candidate worked at New Visions for Public Education, the privatizing non-profit that profited handsomely during those dark years of school closings.As a general rule, it's wise to be skeptical of, if not allergic to, non-profit/NGO leftists...
https://www.theuprising.info/
MORE Caucus called on UFT to cancel Stringer and replace him with Morales
Dianne Morales and the Implosion of the Left in NYC’s Mayoral Race
