Ocasio Cortez Committee Assignments

Other items in today’s column include:
*Gloria, Campbell open segment of West Mission Bay Drive Bridge
*Ocasio-Cortez may challenge Schumer for U.S. Senate in 2022
*Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer Exploring Bid for Governor

[Names in boldface type are those of known members of the Jewish community]

But Ocasio-Cortez, a supporter of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, did receive significant support from the New York congressional delegation in her push for the coveted slot on Energy.

• As a leading member of the committee, Representative Ocasio-Cortez has fought for the needs of the Bronx and Queens - bringing NY-14’s voice to Capitol Hill. As a member on the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and the Subcommittee on Environment, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has advocated for a more transparent, accountable, and fair government for all.
• Ocasio-Cortez's assignment to the committee was first reported by Politico late Tuesday. A senior Democratic congressional aide confirmed the move to CBS News. The move signifies a major victory.

SAN DIEGO — County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, in a demonstration of bipartisanship on Tuesday, Jan. 5, yielded the ceremonial board position of chairman pro tempore to County Supervisor Joel Anderson after she was nominated to the position by Supervisor Nora Vargas, who had also successfully nominated herself for vice chair and County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher as board chair.

Fletcher, Vargas, and Lawson-Remer are Democrats, whereas Anderson and Supervisor Jim Desmond are Republicans. Party affiliations have proven important even though the positions are technically non-partisan. After a unanimous vote, Fletcher took the chair and gave a speech in which he said that previous boards dominated by conservatives had been elected to follow their principles, and now this board, which he characterized as progressive, also was elected by constituents to follow its principles — a mark of changing times and priorities in San Diego County.

Desmond, who like Fletcher is in the middle of his four-year term, complained that in the assignments for board committees and representation on outside agencies, Fletcher seemed to be retaliating against him, rather than working for board unity. Specifically, he complained that he had been stripped of his seats on the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and the Multiple Species Conservation Program for the North County. Anderson agreed to yield to Desmond his places on LAFCO and the Multiple Species Conservation Program for the North County.

During the trading, Desmond also had asked Lawson-Remer if she would yield her spot on the Multiple Species Conservation Program, but she declined, saying such conservation matters were important to members of her largely coastal district.

As ultimately approved by a unanimous vote of the board, Lawson-Remer’s assignments included:
–Multiple Species Conservation Program
–Affordable Housing Solutions Ad Hoc Committee
–San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Fuel Removal
–Summit on Aging
–Mission Trails Regional Task Force
–Alternate to Desmond on the North San Diego County Transit Development Board
–SANDAG Seat 1, including its executive committee; taxpayer oversight committee, and shoreline preservation working group She was also named as an alternate to Anderson on SANDAG’s regional planning committee; and as an alternate to Desmond on SANDAG”s regional transportation committee.
–San Diego County Water Authority, non-voting member.

On the sheet telling what committee assignments had been suggested for each County Supervisor, Lawson-Remer’s name was listed simply as “Remer.” During the organizing meeting, Lawson-Remer told her colleagues that she uses both surnames, not just one.

Ocasio Cortez Committee Assignments

*
Gloria, Campbell open segment of West Mission Bay Drive Bridge

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council President Dr. Jennifer Campbell on Tuesday ceremonially opened a segment of the West Mission Bay Drive Bridge, which will be opened to traffic on Wednesday, Jan.. 6. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2022.

Gloria described himself as “thrilled to open this new bridge that will ease traffic congestion in a heavily traveled part of our city and ultimately provide bicyclists and pedestrians a safe and environmentally friendly way to cross the San Diego River. This new bridge is going to make life easier for residents in our coastal communities, especially during busy summer months.”

Campbell, in whose 2nd Council District the bridge is located, said” “It’s an exciting day in District 2. The opening of the new West Mission Bay Drive Bridge is a big step in reducing traffic, increasing safety and creating better options for the residents in our beach communities to move round.”

*
Ocasio-Cortez may challenge Schumer for U.S. Senate in 2022

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) reportedly has declined to rule out a primary election challenge in 2022 against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York). In an interview with Punchbowl News, Ocasio-Cortez, known popularly as “AOC” said she had not made a decision whether to launch a challenge. “I am not a bullshit kind of person,” she said. “I am not playing coy or anything like that. I’m still very much in a place where I’m trying to decide what is the most effective thing I can do to help our Congress, our political process, and our country actually address the issues of climate change, health care, wage, inequality, etcetera.”

Depending on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Wednesday, Schumer stands a chance to become the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. If Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock are successful respectively in their bids to defeat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the Senate will be split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. That would mean that the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate — the Vice President of the United States, who come Jan. 20 will be Kamala Harris — would be entitled to cast the deciding vote.

*
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer Exploring Bid for Governor

San Diego’s former Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer, has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor of California. If he decides to run, it might be for the regularly scheduled election in 2022, or possibly earlier, if canvassers are able to get 1,495,709 valid signatures of California voters to force a recall election against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A story by David Garrick in Tuesday’s San Diego Union-Tribune gave the flavor of what a campaign might be between Faulconer and Newsom. In announcing his committee, Faulconer said: “Between the mismanagement during the key of the pandemic, the toxic business environment, the disappearing jobs, the rolling blackouts, the missing unemployment checks and billions of dollars in fraud, and of course the skyrocketing homelessness, I strongly believe we need new leadership in the governor’s office.”

Newsom’s support committee responded that Faulconer had less than a stellar record as a supporter of President Donald Trump, and as someone who had been unable to solve San Diego’s problem with homelessness..

What Committee Is Aoc On

*
Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com

Last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, champion of the Green New Deal, suffered the humiliation of an overwhelming defeat dealt by her fellow House Democrats for a spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Committees

Also last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders led a successful battle to include direct payments for millions of Americans in the pandemic relief.

One socialist shaped one of the biggest pieces of legislation this year. The other socialist was denied the ability to shape environmental legislation for the next two years. What did one do right, and the other do wrong?

Neither socialist is known for their sociability. Sanders once admitted, “I’m not good at backslapping. I’m not good at pleasantries. If you have your birthday I’m not going to call you up to congratulate you so you’ll love me.” Famously crotchety, Sanders, though, doesn’t go as far as Ocasio-Cortez and encourage primary challenges against incumbent Democrats in his chamber.

Sanders is proving more influential than AOC because he grabbed on to a fresh issue with great political potential, while Ocasio-Cortez has spent the post-election period defending her signature positions even though they proved to be political liabilities.

Shortly after Election Day, Ocasio-Cortez pushed the selective data point that “Every single swing-seat House Democrat who endorsed #MedicareForAll won re-election or is on track to win re-election.” That ignores other facts. All of the challengers who endorsed Medicare for All lost their races. The House Democrats with the five narrowest victories—the ones who get the party up to and over the 218-majority threshold—are not single-payer supporters. Nor are three Democratic challengers who successfully flipped seats. Most strikingly, single-payer supporter Kara Eastman lost the Nebraska 2^nd congressional district contest by 4.6 percentage points, while single-payer opponent Joe Biden won it by 6.5 percentage points and snagged an Electoral College vote.

Ocasio-Cortez sought to affix blame on House moderates for running weak social media campaigns. Those moderates countered that the claim was an inaccurate attempt to deflect from the problems caused by her edgy positions such as “Defund the Police” and “Green New Deal,” the latter being particularly nettlesome for Democrats who lost in fossil fuel friendly areas, such as Texas Senate challenger MJ Hegar and Rep. Kendra Horn from Oklahoma’s 5^th congressional district.

Sanders hasn’t abandoned any of his signature positions, but since the election, he hasn’t dwelled on them either. Instead, he championed direct payments which attracted bipartisan support in the initial round of pandemic relief. Turns out that sending government checks to most Americans is quite popular.

When direct payments were left out of the bipartisan proposal that jumpstarted negotiations this month, Sanders, along with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, pledged to hold up consideration of any relief past Christmas unless the checks were included. Senate leaders recognized the issue was politically potent and didn’t want to be blamed for resisting it. Sanders and Hawley asked for $1200 checks for most individuals, then settled for half that, along with a shorter extension of unemployment assistance, in order to keep the centrists happy with the overall price tag.

So, Sanders wasn’t rigid about the particulars. He identified a popular issue. He leveraged his bully pulpit and power given to individual Senators under the chamber’s rules. He worked with members of the other party who agreed with him and members of both parties who didn’t, to reach a compromise.

After nearly 30 years in Congress, Sanders is well practiced at this sort of legislating. He and his supporters have long bragged about being dubbed the “Amendment King” by Rolling Stone, proof that the socialist was also a pragmatist.

Ocasio-cortez Committee Assignments

Ocasio-Cortez has only two years in Congress but hasn’t yet shown an interest in being the Amendment Queen. Her reaction to the final relief bill, which was part of a heavily loaded omnibus bill, was outrage that such a package was being rushed to vote with only hours to review the details. She voted for it, but not before trashing the process on Twitter: “This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.”

This is the role where Ocasio-Cortez is most comfortable: the outsider who managed to get inside, exposing how awful the system really is. Such a posture is well suited for a movement politician hoping to upend the status quo, possibly by waging an insurgent campaign for president. But it is not the way to win plum committee assignments and shape legislation.

More importantly, progressives need more wins to refurbish their reputation after the mixed results of the 2020 election. Democratic moderates are far more inclined to distance themselves from progressive agitation. That won’t change so long as the progressive wing is defined by tainted slogans. The way to regain influence is with fresh proposals and to nimbly work the system. Sanders did it. AOC can, too.