People probably understand or are at least vaguely aware of most of the things members of Congress do. They travel back and forth to Washington, take votes, hold fundraisers, attend committee hearings, write legislation, travel abroad on boondoggles — er, CODELs — et cetera.
But then, some aspects of political life are seriously under-appreciated by the public. This includes the mandatory payment of party dues.
Whatever your party, if you are a member of the House, you are expected to raise money and kick a significant amount into the party committees to help members who face tougher elections. This system forces members of Congress in safe seats to help their party comrades who face tough re-elections. This is how majorities are built and maintained. And the members who aspire to chairmanships and party leadership positions are expected to do even more to raise money for their most endangered colleagues and their party’s challengers.
Democrats require their House members to kick $250,000 in dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or “D-trip.” Yet Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is having none of it, both by her own reckoning and to the chagrin of her party colleagues, according to an exclusive report from Fox News’ Marisa Schultz.
“For me personally, I’m not paying D-trip dues,” said Ocasio-Cortez, using slang for the DCCC and citing a “myriad of reasons.”
Some Democrats seem pretty salty about this. But when they refer to her derisively as a “deadbeat,” they’re missing the point. Ocasio-Cortez isn’t just refusing to support her party or be a team player — she is attempting to create a separate team, a power base of her own, from which to undermine her party’s leadership.
Ocasio-Cortez has certainly been a lot more quiet lately than she was last July when she accused Nancy Pelosi — the first female speaker of the House — of being racist and sexist. The young socialist was subsequently forced to back away from those comments, with her tail firmly planted between her legs.
But the leopard hasn’t really changed its spots in the time since. Instead of helping the party with dues, Ocasio-Cortez is raising and contributing even larger amounts — she raised more than $300,000 last year, by Schultz’s reckoning — to elect hand-picked candidates, including primary challengers to her sitting Democratic colleagues. She is supporting left-wing challengers to moderate Reps. Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Henry Cuellar of Texas. She has also transferred money to some specific incumbents in front-line districts, the report notes. She raised more money than any other House Democrat last year, including Pelosi, and she is doing almost all of it effortlessly from the online Left.
Ocasio-Cortez believes in fundamental ideological change. She is leveraging her current partnership with Bernie Sanders to build a parallel party power structure. Even if it isn’t enough to buy her way into the party’s leadership, it will keep her flush with cash and shore up her power to speak and act as she pleases. When it comes to the conventional rules to which members of Congress are expected to adhere, she is working to put herself above the law and beyond Democratic Party leaders’ power to reproach her.
I have no idea whether Pelosi will try to hang on to the speakership after 2020, assuming Democrats retain their majority. But she and other Democrats in the House leadership had best look out. The next time Ocasio-Cortez comes at them, accusing them of racism or whatever, she will be much stronger, more experienced, better-funded, and better prepared to stick to her guns.
