So much for a potential breakthrough to end a building fight between House Democrats’ official campaign committee and a number of members furious over their attempts to freeze out strategists who back primary candidates against incumbents.
A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman poured cold water on a possible compromise that Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) floated earlier on Monday that the campaign committee could limit its new rule blackballing vendors who work for primary opponents of their members to only swing districts as a possible compromise.
“We’re not going to put in place a policy that treats some members of our caucus differently than other members of our caucus,” the DCCC spokesman told TPM.
That staffer argued it would unfairly treat different incumbents differently, and claimed the new rule would do as much to help someone facing a challenge from the right as from the left.
“There’s not an ideological test of where we’re standing,” the staffer said. “We are implementing this, and there’s no plan to change. This would benefit someone like Omar, Tlaib or Ocasio Cortez as much as anyone else inside the caucus.”
Those members fiercely disagree — and Ocasio Cortez called on donors to stop giving to the DCCC. The ongoing fight risks hurting Democrats’ fundraising and deepening schisms within the caucus as members look to hold onto the House.
