{"id":15442,"date":"2020-07-30T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T18:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=15442"},"modified":"2020-07-30T11:02:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T18:02:40","slug":"the-democratic-partys-most-confounding-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/07\/30\/the-democratic-partys-most-confounding-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY\u2019S MOST CONFOUNDING PRIMARY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a>DONATE<\/strong><\/a>22<\/a>Rep. Joe Kennedy elbow bumps Sen. Edward Markey after their debate at the Western Mass News station on June 1, 2020, Springfield, Mass. Photo: Matthew J. Lee\/The Boston Globe via Getty Image<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

$20 million has been poured into a race for a solidly blue seat between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts. Are they really that different?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Rachel M. Cohen<\/a>, Akela Lacy<\/a>
July 28 2020, 4:00 a.m. (theintercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHEN NEWS BROKE late last summer that Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy was considering a primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey, many political operatives reasonably asked \u2026 why?<\/a> Elected to the House of Representatives in 2012, the most high-profile aspect of Kennedy\u2019s political career had been giving the Democratic response to the State of the Union in 2018 \u2014 and, of course, being a Kennedy. Markey, meanwhile, wasn\u2019t shrouded in any scandal and had recently introduced the Green New Deal resolution with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an instant hallmark of progressive politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling voters, though, the answer is a little more evident. Last July, before Kennedy jumped in the race, a Boston Globe\/Suffolk University poll<\/a> showed that 45 percent of likely voters in the state were undecided about supporting Markey for reelection and 14 percent said they had never heard of him. By September, Boston Globe\/Suffolk University released another poll<\/a> finding Kennedy leading Markey by 14 points in a potential Senate head-to-head, and more Massachusetts voters viewed Kennedy as the more liberal candidate and a better fighter for Democratic priorities than Markey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after Kennedy announced his candidacy in September, progressive groups were quick to jump behind Markey. Markey has earned endorsements from a host of progressive organizations, ranging from national groups like Indivisible, the Sunrise Movement, and Planned Parenthood to teachers unions, peace groups, and environmental activists on the state level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the September 1 primary nears, progressives, many of whom are still mourning the losses of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic presidential primary, have turned their sights to saving Markey\u2019s seat in the Senate \u2014 grateful for his early backing of the Green New Deal, which was unpopular among Democratic leadership in Washington when it was introduced. It doesn\u2019t matter to them that Kennedy also supports the Green New Deal, and some view his recent announcement<\/a> that his family trusts have divested from oil and gas stocks as too little too late. (In December, Markey\u2019s campaign returned<\/a> more than $46,000 from donors who didn\u2019t meet requirements of the fossil fuel pledge, which both candidates signed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many also suspect that Kennedy has decided to run for Senate because he\u2019s calculated that it might be easier to unseat a 74-year-old incumbent now than it would be to beat Rep. Ayanna Pressley or Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in an open primary six years down the road. Indeed, Kennedy\u2019s stated rationale for entering the primary is a little fuzzy. Both candidates admit that when it comes down to brass tacks, they are in line on major issues. Kennedy\u2019s case boils down to the idea that he thinks he could \u201cleverage\u201d the Massachusetts Senate seat better than Markey has. Senators have immense power beyond just voting on bills, Kennedy\u2019s argument goes, and Markey hasn\u2019t used his position effectively enough to serve the Democratic Party and the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a Senate primary race that can best be described as pretty weird. On the one hand, there\u2019s an incumbent who has served more than 40 years in Congress running as some kind of grassroots underdog. On the other hand, a literal Kennedy is claiming to be bullied by the political establishment and invoking language<\/a> used by progressive insurgents who\u2019ve sought new leadership to shake up the status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There hasn\u2019t been polling in the race since early May, when a UMass-Lowell poll<\/a> showed the race had significantly tightened with Kennedy up by just 2 points. That, Markey\u2019s campaign manager John Walsh argued, is because the progressive base has consolidated behind the senator. But another poll, conducted around the same time by Emerson College\/7News<\/a>, showed Markey trailing Kennedy by 16 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROGRESSIVE ENTHUSIASM FOR Markey from both the activist community and left-wing media has at times led the left to go fairly easy on the senator for votes they\u2019ve criticized other Democrats for. Over the years, like Joe Biden, Markey voted for the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, and the 1994 crime bill, and he opposed busing for desegregation in the 1970s.Over the years, like Joe Biden, Markey voted for the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, and the 1994 crime bill, and he opposed busing for desegregation in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if he has any comments about these past votes, Markey told The Intercept that Black and brown men in the United States were \u201cowe[d] a national apology\u201d for the over-incarceration wrought by the 1994 crime bill, and said that\u2019s why he\u2019s co-sponsoring Sen. Cory Booker\u2019s Next Step Act<\/a> to overhaul the criminal justice system. Markey offered similar remarks when he announced his 2018 co-sponsorship of the First Step Act, a precursor to Booker\u2019s bill: \u201cThe First Step Act is just the beginning of the national apology we owe to the generation of African-American men and women who lost their lives and futures in prison due to a few dollars of crack cocaine and an unjust War on Drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Iraq, Markey says he \u201cdeeply regret[s] that vote\u201d and blamed President George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people about nuclear weapons in the country. \u201cI\u2019ve worked every day to ensure we don\u2019t have another needless war in the Middle East,\u201d he said, though he voted \u201cpresent\u201d<\/a> in 2013 on military intervention in Syria, saying at the time that he needed to study the issue further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSenator Markey has been on the cutting edge of progressivism in the Democratic Party for his entire career,\u201d Evan Weber, political director of the Sunrise Movement, said in a statement to The Intercept, citing the senator\u2019s early support for net neutrality and opposition to nuclear weapons. \u201cHas every vote he\u2019s ever taken over his long political career been perfect? No. But he\u2019s often the person in his party forcing others to take hard or uncomfortable votes before positions become politically popular, creating the space and momentum for change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n