A retiring House Democrat has spoken out to blast her party’s “really baffling” policies on her way out the door.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) has decided to settle some scores with Democratic leadership before she leaves Congress.
Murphy, currently the head of the party’s “Blue Dog” caucus, is spilling the beans on what is going on behind the scenes.
She says Democrat leadership is catering to the far-left of the party at the expense of the more moderate members.
She’s warning that it is spelling doom for that are sticking around for the 2022 midterms.
“My first term there was a lot more tolerance for, do what you need to do to hold your seat, and come back because we’re trying to build towards a majority,” Murphy said.
“With us being in the majority, that tolerance eroded a bit. It’s unfortunate because I think in order for us as Democrats to hold the majority, you have to be able to win in seats like mine and in redder seats.
“That means you have to cut your members a little bit of leeway to vote their district.
“This march towards party unity is going to be detrimental to our ability to lead.
“I believe in immigration and comprehensive immigration reform and the ability for people to immigrate to the United States in a legal way.
“But I also believe in law and order, and ensuring that we hold people who commit crimes accountable.
“I can’t tell you the number of times I said, ‘You can’t keep promising rainbows and unicorns when your political reality is such narrow margins in the House and a dead-even Senate.’
“They took the difference between rainbows and unicorns and political reality — which is anger and disappointment — and turned that anger and disappointment against their own members.
“A lot of these outside groups that purport to represent a specific interest are just an extension of leadership.
“Instead of purely focusing on their issue area, they bleed into just advocating for whatever Democratic leadership wants.
“I told those groups, for every dollar that you spend against me, it’s going to take 10 to repair that.
“Why, as Democrats, we would take money that we need to reserve for the on-year to help win and grow the majority — why we would spend that money against our own members is really baffling.
“I am surprised at how short the memory is.
“It’s as short as being celebrated for having flipped a seat and then excoriated for taking votes that help you keep that seat.
“I’m not talking about myself.
“I think about people like Abby Spanberger, like some of these other members where in ’18, they were celebrities for helping us win the majority.
“And as soon as they went about taking the votes that would help them keep and represent the seat that they had won, they drew the ire of the Democrats.
“Some of these members who would come to me would say, ‘I can’t afford to tick off the DCCC and have them put my money at risk,’ or, ‘I can’t afford to have my base attacking me.’
“I can’t afford to have the millions of dollars of ads that I’m watching run in your district run against me.
“It’s unfortunate that that’s where we have gotten.
“I don’t believe that the person who runs the DCCC should be a member who’s elected, because inevitably that member has further aspirations in the Democratic leadership.
“And in order to ascend in Democratic leadership, you have to secure the progressive vote.
“And securing the progressive vote makes it difficult for you to also then protect moderates and create space for them to do what they need to do to win and hold seats.
“I think that’s just a structure that is misaligned to what should be the sole purpose of the DCCC, incumbent retention and expanding the majority,” she said.
