It Won't Be Rahm
A few weeks ago we rang the alarm: Rahm Emanuel wasn’t in Tokyo but back in Chicago plotting a takeover of the Democratic Party. He had assembled a team of allies and advisors to help round up the votes he’d need to become chair of the DNC. The goal was to elect a corporate/Wall Street-friendly president in 2028 who would take him back into the White House. Luckily, he soon discovered that the votes aren’t there for him… and he’s back to gaming out how he can win a Senate seat when Durbin retires in 2026.
Last night, the NY Times ran a post by Simon Levien on Democratic Party leadership, Who Might Be the Next Chair of the Democratic Party? without even a mention of “Rahm Emanuel.” Fantastic… although there was plenty of exactly what the Democratic Party doesn’t need to lift it out of this post-defeat morass. The Emanuel camp is quietly backing Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, enough of a reason to look askance at his candidacy, one of two to have already declared.
The other candidate, a DNC vice chair, is Ken Martin, the head of Minnesota’s Democratic Party. He appears to want to bring back Howard Dean’s old idea—killed by Obamanation— for Democrats to contest every race.
Levien then listed half a dozen who are being buzzed about but haven’t thrown their hats in the ring yet. Progressives are hoping Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler runs. He not only helped Biden win in 2020 and Tony Evers win reelection in 2022, he helped Democrats put together a strategy for winning seats in the legislature that netted them 10 seats in the Assembly (from 35 to 45) and 4 seats in the state Senate (from 11 to 15).
Chuck Rocha isn’t so much being buzzed about as he is buzzing about himself, teasing a run on Twitter as a “common man” without a college degree and saying he wants to make the Democratic Party fun again.
Michael Blake, a former New York State Assemblyman who keeps losing elections announced this week that he’s running for mayor of New York and chair of the DNC and would like to serve in both capacities. The likelihood of him serving in either is nil.
There’s one woman in the race, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who made a viral speech once about Republicans mistreating the LGBTQ community. She seems lively.
Runner up for worst is former Staten Island congressman, Blue Dog Max Rose. He’s way too conservative and way too corporate-aligned to lead the Democratic Party.
The other in the “worst” category is former McKinsey consultant Pete— Mayo Pete— Buttigieg, beloved of the billionaire class that just lost the race for Kamala. Or maybe he’s not actually going to run (again) but instead just inspire another come-from-out-of-nowhere candidate. “Additional candidates,” wrote Levien, “might enter the race less with an expectation of winning it than with hopes of gaining a national profile. Eight years ago, a small-town mayor from South Bend, Ind., jumped into the race for chairman of the Democratic National Committee with little but a strong public relations campaign. That mayor— Pete Buttigieg— earned just three votes before delivering a stirring concession speech to party delegates in Atlanta. Not long after, Buttigieg began a presidential campaign that largely repeated the themes from his campaign for party chair, and he transformed himself into a national figure now seen as among Democrats’ best communicators in the second Trump era.” Is what the Democratic Party needs a slick McKinsey wordsmith? I don’t think so.