June was ‘Bustos’ out all over

Bill Knight column for 6-27, 28 or 29, 2019

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos is no Mitch McConnell.

However, the four-term East Moline Democrat’s stubborn stance protecting incumbents at the expense of constituents is uncomfortably comparable to the Senate Majority Leader’s party-over-patriotism attitude, a cynical refusal to permit votes on many issues, from Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to a bill protecting elections from interference. And Bustos may be threatening Democrats’ future as well as democracy itself.

This month, as Democrats’ presidential contenders debate in Miami, another debate is whether to protect the status quo or let voters choose voices they prefer, and that argument is heating up.

The new chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Bustos in March announced that any vendors seeking work with Democratic candidates must agree not to work for primary challengers to incumbents. Indeed, when Bustos named seven DCCC leaders in January, there wasn’t even the pretense of its representing Democrats, much less the country. None came from the Progressive Caucus (with 95 members, Democrats’ largest bloc); all of them were New Democrat Coalition “centrists,” who seem to see grassroots support of Medicare for All, free college, paid family leave, etc. as jeopardizing their true constituents: corporate interests.

Explaining that Donald Trump won in her 17^th District and 12 others with Democratic representation, Bustos implies Democrats should worry, and her priority is to retain Democrats’ House majority. However, Trump’s scant 0.7-percent margin of victory in the 17th may have been due to turnout or arguably less about an attraction to Trump than a rejection of Clinton’s message. After all, the 17^th for years was represented by progressives – the great Lane Evans, then his colleague Phil Hare – and Obama won there in 2008 by 14 percent and 17 percent in 2012. Further, those worrisome 13 districts are out of 235 represented by Democrats and out of 435 total – 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively.  

Still, as Bustos told Politico, her DCCC will spend “every cent we can to hang on to our majority and not work against ourselves,” although that sounds exactly like what primaries should do.

Concerned that DCCC’s policy could hurt the party, a dozen Illinois Democratic officials, including Hare, and other progressives have objected to the blacklisting threat, but Bustos has refused to compromise.

“This goes against the very nature of our democracy,” complained Jim Zogby from the Bernie Sanders-aligned Our Revolution group. “Incumbents are being protected, even when their policies are out of step with their constituents. The Democratic Party is hurting itself [and] millions of Americans.”

Meanwhile, dozens of College Democrat chapters from Illinois to both coasts are urging people to not contribute to the DCCC because it discourages candidates and their supporters from seeking office.

“We have younger and progressive Democrats who want the party to be taken in that direction only to see the leadership and the establishment not be responsive,” University of Southern California College Democrats president Ben Pearce told The Atlantic. “I don’t think it does the party any favors to protect incumbents who might not be as responsive to new voices.”

Young activists are vitally important, from organizing for candidates to Get-Out-the-Vote efforts. In fact, last year, more young, female and urban voters cast ballots, and youth increased turnout from 19.9 percent in 2014 to 35.6 percent in 2018, the biggest improvement of any age group.

But like McConnell, Bustos’ enthusiasm for power and the money that funds it can obscure common sense.

A former corporate officer for an Iowa hospital system, Bustos has raised $13 million since her first campaign in 2011, and in 2017-18 about 11 percent of her $4 million in campaign contributions were from Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“None of the big five, for-profit insurers [Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group] that wrote big checks to her campaign are based in Illinois,” commented Wendell Potter, a former health-insurance executive who advocates for Medicare for All. “Those PACs’ favorite Democrat in Congress [is] Bustos.”

As Independence Day approaches, it may be good for Americans – including Bustos and McConnell – to reflect on a 2004 comment by the Rev. William Sloane Coffin of New York’s Riverside Church: “There are three kinds of patriots: two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with all the world.”