Mitch Perry
Like Bernie Sanders, Tim Canova has successfully tapped into dissatisfaction with the status quo within the national Democratic Party this year. In his case, it’s been the support he’s received nationally in his congressional campaign against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, which has resulted in over $2 million in campaign contributions. He issued out another request for money Tuesday, tying it to opposition to draft language in the Democratic Party’s platform regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership that will ultimately go before delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia later this month.
“Rather than take a bold stance in opposition to the TPP — which every Democratic presidential candidate eventually opposed — Wasserman Schultz’s handpicked members of the platform drafting committee have refused to add a clear amendment in opposition to this disaster of a trade deal. Instead, they have focused on platitudes in the platform in the hopes it would be enough to placate the progressive grassroots of the party, like you and me,” Canova writes in his fundraising email, which directs supporters to fill out a form on his website that calls on the DNC Platform Committee to include an amendment that makes clear the Democratic Party is opposed to TPP.
The TPP is a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries signed in February after seven years of negotiations. It has not entered into force. Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump all oppose the TPP, but a coalition of Democrats and Republicans in Congress do support the pact.
The latest draft of the platform, published Friday, indicates there is disagreement within the party on the TPP without taking a stand, writing there are a “diversity of views in the party.”
Sanders reacted angrily to the draft, writing on Sunday, “Frankly, I do not understand why the amendment our delegates offered on this issue in St. Louis was defeated with all of Hillary Clinton’s committee members voting against it. I don’t understand that because Clinton, during the campaign, made it very clear that she did not want to see the TPP appear on the floor during the lame-duck session.” He went on to write that, “If both Clinton and I agree that the TPP should not get to the floor of Congress this year, it’s hard to understand why an amendment saying so would not be overwhelmingly passed.”
One solid reason why there’s disagreement with the opposition of progressives like Sanders and Canova is that the TPP is strongly backed by Barack Obama, still the current leader of the Democratic Party.
Nevertheless, Canova can tie the issue to Wasserman Schultz, who he’s trying to knock off in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District this November.
The Platform Committee of the Democratic Party will meet this Friday and Saturday at the Double Tree Hotel in Orlando to finalize the draft of the platform. An activist group called People Demanding Action (PDA) says they intend to be at the meetings, where they not only want the language regarding the TPP to change, but also want it to support a ban on fracking, a tax on carbon emissions and a single-payer health care system.
