Mitch Perry Report for 5.17.16 – Elizabeth Warren for VP momentum grows

MITCH PERRY REPORT FP 5

Democrats in Kentucky and Oregon go to the polls tonight, and all indications are Bernie Sanders will win at least one those two contests. Not that it will make much of a dent in Hillary Clinton‘s delegate lead. The way the party apportions delegates, he’s simply not going to be able to catch up by next month in pledged delegates to overcome her lead.

Tensions continue to grow within the two camps, especially with Sanders supporters after the chaos that ensued in Nevada last weekend.

Since the whole world assumes Clinton will the Democratic nominee, let’s play along for a second and observe the all of a sudden surge in momentum for Clinton to ultimately name Elizabeth Warren to be her running mate.

The idea was first fleshed out in the Boston Globe last month. I initially dismissed the idea, if for no other reason, the fact that Massachusetts has a Republican governor who would replace Warren with a Republican. With the U.S. Senate at stake this November, surely the Dems wouldn’t want to hurt themselves there.

However, as the Globe’s Annie Linskey reports, that would pose only a short-term problem because Massachusetts law stipulates that a special election must be called between 145 and 160 days after a vacancy occurs — so Massachusetts Democrats would have another crack at the seat relatively soon.

Although putting another white woman on the ticket could be considered counterproductive, Slate’s Michelle Goldberg writes that Clinton isn’t going to persuade white men anyway to support her, so she should double down with Warren, who of course, can help her with the Bernie Bros and his intense contingent of supporters who do NOT trust Clinton.

“She will do it by turning out the Obama coalition, probably adding more married white women to it,” Goldberg writes. “Warren can help her do that. She’s shown that she’s eager to, leaping into the Twitter fray against Trump. If a vice presidential candidate’s job is to attack, Warren is ready. Watching her go after the short-fingered orange chauvinist from now until November will be a pleasure.”

Interesting to note, by the way, how the seemingly can’t miss top VP prospect, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, is reportedly going to announce changes to a controversial HUD program to sell bad mortgages on its books. “Castro’s actions could potentially defuse an issue that activists have been using to question his progressive credentials — and he’ll be doing it at the moment the running mate search has begun to get serious at Clinton campaign headquarters,” wrote POLITICO on Monday.

My sleeper pick is actually Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. But enough about that. The time to speculate about a vice-presidential nominee is when Clinton actually has the nomination, which she doesn’t have yet, so why rush the conversation?

In other news …

As we said we would do on Monday, this reporter contacted every Senate candidate who hadn’t weighed in on Carlos Beruff’s remarks last week when he called President Obama “an animal.” All but one responded.

In an interview with WFLA-NewsChannel 8 on Sunday, David Jolly ripped into Beruff’s business background.

Jolly shared the dais with Minnesota Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan to speak about Jolly’s Stop Act at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday.

Tampa attorney Sean Shaw picked up another endorsement in his race to win the House District 61 seat.

 

Mitch Perry

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served five years as political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. Mitch also was assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley and is a San Francisco native who has lived in Tampa since 2000. Mitch can be reached at [email protected].


One comment

  • Kay Haering

    May 17, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    Clinton-Warren Ticket would be Good for this Country! There is another guy- Chuck O’Neal for Senate 11. Great man for our Wilderness- Wildlife and No Fracking

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories