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Groen Endorses Perez for DNC Chair

Groen_Marcel_Main-large-headshot-photo-2987At the Pa. Democratic Party’s Winter Meeting, Chairman Marcel Groen announced he will be voting for Tom Perez for Chair of the Democratic National Committee.  

“I will personally be voting for Tom Perez.  If anyone wants to know my reasons for that, I think his record is stellar, I like what he stands for,” Groen said during the meeting.  

Perez, who served as Secretary of Labor under President Obama, has also been endorsed by Governor Tom Wolf.  

The DNC Chairman’s race is seen as a proxy fight between a divided Democratic establishment, and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders who want the party to be more actively progressive.

Sanders has endorsed Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who mingled with state committee members Friday afternoon in Harrisburg.

According to an announcement by party counsel Cliff Levine during the meeting, there is a chance the Pennsylvania delegation will not have a vote in the election.  A group of state party members filed an appeal to the DNC contesting results of Pa.’s DNC member election.  The appeal will be settled by the DNC Credentials Committee at the DNC meeting.  If the Credentials Committee finds against the election, the Pennsylvania delegation will not be allowed to vote for the DNC Chair.  

The DNC will hold the election for its new Chair during a meeting starting on February 23rd.  Other candidates include Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Ellison, former Fox News analyst Jehmu Greene, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jamie Harrison and Perez.

42 Responses

  1. Need to find out when and where I can help to get Groen out of that position. The Democratic party needs Ellison. I Demexited after that tyrannical horror show of a convention. Sound cannons, police (with the names on their badges covered) blocking delegates from entering the convention building, and Neoliberals such as most who have posted to this site doing all they could to block our protests on the floor.. all killed any chance of “unity” with these corporate whores. The nation is crying out in pain and you and yours spit in our faces because you got yours off the back of sweat-shop slaves with your “Free-Trade”. There will be no end to this civil war until you and yours are no longer in command. If Ellison is not selected (nobody in their right mind would call this an “election”), then the Democratic party will die. Considering that the party has virtually no presence in the states.. either we have to build a new party outside of the horrible Democratic brand.. or we have to build a new party inside of it. I.. don’t see the logic of staying, but too many of mine disagree. Ah well, if we join/rejoin I can assure you Mr. Groen, you will not benefit either way.

  2. So, who needed a weekend ride to the polls that cost $3,131.31?

    You say GOTV weekend, but at state committee I was told that these were carried over expenses from the DNC convention.

    Which story is it?

    The Marcel apologists all tried giving him credit for the row office wins, but it appears the staff was working on national campaign (despite the idiotic Vote Local campaign). We won those row races because GOP put up paper candidates. We got killed in legislative, by losing, instead of gaining seats in a presidential year with maximum DEM turnout.

    You can sugarcoat a turd, but you should have to eat it yourself while claiming it’s sweet.

  3. Uber rides to the polls on GOTV weekend. We don’t vote on GOTV weekend. Salaries out of the federal account is a no brainer. Unitemized Uber rides to the polls when there was a pro-Hillary super PAC paying to do the same thing is definitely questionable. And in addition, didn’t prior presidential years expenses run out of separate accounts just for the presidential year, like Obama for Pennsylvania and such?

  4. If you knew how federal finance worked, David, you’d know that all state party salaries must come out of federal campaign accounts. Every year, no matter what. From what I remember, the campaign was offering Uber rides to the polls on gotv weekend, too.

    What’s most frustrating about you is that anytime you see something “irregular” you jump to the most outrageous conclusion. Not everything is as nefarious as you seem to think.

  5. First, it seems he endorsed global-censorship of speech freedom in the classroom, inasmuch as he prompted a district’s school board to repeal its policy prohibiting teachers from mentioning homosexuality in the classroom.”

    Second, his opposition to Voter-ID disregards voter-fraud; this will probably be rectified via a new POTUS-commission.

    Third, he was involved in the dismissal of Philly’s New Black Panther case, sending a strong message early in BHO’s terms that a heinous double-standard would become policy.

    Dems may applaud these behaviors, but not ordinary Americans.

  6. Those who consider him mainstream – either from the Dem or Indy perspectives – should note excerpts from Wikipedia:

    The Civil Rights Division reached a settlement with the Anoka-Hennepin School District in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, after the districts school board voted to repeal its policy prohibiting teachers from mentioning homosexuality in the classroom.[86] Students who brought the lawsuit accused the district of creating a “hostile, anti-gay environment” and not doing enough to protect LGBT students.[87] Perez praised the school board’s decision, saying that the settlement is a “comprehensive blueprint for sustainable reform that will enhance the district’s policies, training and other efforts to ensure that every student is free from sex-based harassment.”[88]

    Voting rights[edit]
    Voter I.D. laws
    The Obama administration directed Perez and the Civil Rights Division in challenging South Carolina’s 2011 voter ID law, over concerns that the law violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[108] Perez successfully blocked the law from taking effect, after the Justice Department alleged South Carolina of failing to prove that the law wouldn’t have a disproportionate effect on minority voters.[109] In a letter to South Carolina’s Deputy Assistant Attorney General, C. Havird Jones, Jr.,[110] Perez questioned whether 81,000 registered voters, all of whom were minorities who didn’t have government issued or military photo identification, would be able to exercise their right to vote, citing “significant racial disparities in the proposed photo identification requirement.”[110]

    Perez also oversaw the Obama administration’s efforts in challenging a 2011 voter ID law signed by Texas Governor Rick Perry, the second voter ID law consequently found to have violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.[111] Addressing the Supreme Court case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, where the court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana’s photo ID requirement, Perez argued that “[Texas’s] submission did not include evidence of significant in-person voter impersonation not already addressed by the state’s existing laws.”[112] Perez also stressed data from the Texas Department of Public Safety that found that registered Hispanic voters were 46.5% to 120% less likely than non-Hispanic voters to have a government issued driver’s license or state required photo ID.[113][114][115]

    New Black Panther Party case
    On May 14, 2010, Perez testified to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that political leadership was not involved in the decision to dismiss three of the four defendants in the NBPP case. However, on March 12, 2013, the Department of Justice Inspector General released a report stating that Perez’s testimony did not reflect the entire story, as AAG Perelli and DAAG Sam Hirsch were involved in consultations on the case. However, the Inspector General found that Perez did not know about these consultations at the time of his testimony, and therefore he did not intentionally mislead the commission. However, because of his role as a Department witness, the Inspector General believed that Perez should have inquired further on this issue before testifying.[116]

    In the same report, the Inspector General found that the Civil Rights department exhibited a clear priority in enforcing the motor-voter provisions of the NVRA over the list-maintenance provisions. However, the Inspector General did not find sufficient evidence to include that these differences in enforcement were for political reasons.[116] In particular, they found that Perez sent letters about list-maintenance enforcement in December 2010, so as not to be viewed as interfering with the 2010 elections.[116] However, this letter provided no guidance on how states were to enforce list-maintenance procedures, instead leaving it up to the states.[117] Overall, the report stated that: “The conduct that we discovered and document in this report reflects a disappointing lack of professionalism by some Department employees over an extended period of time, during two administrations, and across various facets of the Voting Section’s operations.”[116]

  7. No one on this list understands workers and their economic concerns better than Tom Pérez. He will make an excellent DNC Chairman. Governor Wolf and Marcel Grown are correct in Thur endorsements.

  8. I like South Bend Indiana Mayor Peter Buttigieg. He also wants to change the party, change the strategy and the message. He wants to go into every state and every county. He wants to run the party from the “bottom up not the top down.” I saw him on MSNBC and I liked what he said. I think he would be a better candidate then another corporate Democrat. We don’t need any more “Republican-lite” candidates or “DINO’S” Democrats In Name Only. None of the Cabinet nominees or legislative proposals should get any vote by a Democratic Senator or Congressperson. It is the duty of the opposition to oppose. Democrats need to take a principled stand, stick to it and not be wishy washy about it. The government has to be a “check and balance” on corporations, not a welcome mat and run by them. We need public financing of elections and stop corporate money buying parties and candidates.

  9. Becky-

    I get that. However, it’s STILL the PA Dems State Committee’s Federal PAC and there is money collected from PA congressional candidates for VAN in there, GOTV events, printing GOTV walk lists, office rentals, and expense for the joint campaigns. Sure, there is a lot of food for volunteers, which is legitimate and a lot of people on payroll.

    However, I don’t see ANY clothing expenses listed (as you suggested).

    But, the issue is the use of the Committee American Express Card and the “concern” that it was abused due to little oversight, possibly by state committee members. So, all the expenses need to be accounted for, and unusual charges need to be investigated.

    Most of the cab, Uber, toll, gas, bus, etc. expenses are fairly reasonable (though the exact $25 charges do stand out). But, the Uber rides that cost over $100 look excessive and are not easily explained by normal use by the worker-bees.

    Who had access to the credit card? Did every campaign office have access?

    The “payroll” also includes PA Dem state committee staffers. Some of them were working on PA non-Federal races (legislature) in addition to any work they were doing for the federal campaign. Was their salary being paid solely through the federal PAC including their non-federal duties or were they getting additional payroll through the regular non-federal state party account? (I’m actually asking, because I haven’t had the chance to download and look through the PA state reports).

    So, we really don’t know which of these charges were made/authorized by the National Campaign or by the local-yokels (as was the concerned expressed).

    Someone still took a $3,131.21 Uber ride, and no one has offered any explanation for it.

    Snake-
    I have no idea who Seka is, but the site admin can easily confirm we are not one-in-the-same.

    I support plenty of Dems, but lately not that many in the current (failed) leadership, whom I think need to be replaced.

  10. Seka (AKA) Diano The slander Keith Ellison and David Diano.
    Diano and Kelly Ann Conway should be brother and sister. Both have difficulty accepting truth or reality. Both stand and tell you very very big tall tails.
    Diano is delusional. He has attacked every Democrat in Pennsylvania and thinks he has a position within the party. Its sad.
    His life is pretending to be a part of something that isn’t real.

  11. Mr. Diano let me help you understand National campaigns. During Presidential races (every four years) the nominee has what is called a National campaign staff. These staffers move into states and run the campaign under the umbrella of the state parties.
    The state or local parties have little, to no say, over our people or the money they spend. The money doesn’t belong to the states, it belongs to the National campaign.
    When you are reading the reports your misunderstanding, I know it’s very confusing.
    The National Staff has hundreds of paid and unpaid workers. You will often see unusual expenses. Many of these workers live on the road, out of suitcases for months and months. It’s a really really hard job. They often have no place to live and stay with voters in the district they are in. The National Staff pays for their travel and many cases their food and even clothing.
    State Parties don’t run the campaign in their state. When we come in we work with state parties to set up things like Headquarters and staff housing. We invite party officers and higher elected officials to events, but never do they sit in on the preparation of anything, National races are nothing like a local statewide race.
    I hope this assistances you in understanding how things work during these National Races.

  12. Seka-

    The giant $3,131 Uber charge (and other over $600) had pay dates in November, BEFORE PA Society, in the post-general report. When I inquired about this, there were claims/speculation that the charges were delayed/held-over from the July convention.

    While that would be a time period with a lot of Uber rides and some “big fish” in town, I truly do not understand how these bills are delayed over 3 months as American Express charges. I can’t resolve that question without full access to the books, credit-card statements, receipts, and a half-gallon of truth-serum.

    We lost PA by about 45,000 votes. There are various metrics on what it costs to turn out voters $x dollars per voter.

    The inequality that needs to be solved is:

    is 45,000 times $x bigger or smaller than the amount of money wasted?

  13. The slander against Keith Ellison and David Diano is horrible. David, keep up your whistleblowing against the crazy expenses at state committee. Staff going to Penna Society for no reason shouldn’t cost the party coffers. There shouldn’t be this many meals, tolls, car rentals, flights charged. These reports are out of control. People shouldn’t treat these accounts like a slush fund. If thy focused on winning and not using campaign money as a lush slush fund, maybe we would have won Penna.

  14. Jake-

    This seems like a bullsh*t slander against Ellison. A Google search for “ellison schumer” shows a bunch of articles from Fox, National Review and and host of conservative fake news sites promoting calls for Schumer to drop Ellison. Schumer is so pro-Israel that he’s more a member of the Knesset than a member of the Senate.

    This is pure anti-Muslim bigotry against Ellison.

  15. My God, there are actually Democrats that support an anti-Semite like Ellison? It’s an absolute disgrace. Dershowitz said he would tear up his 50 year old Democratic Registration if Ellison is put in as Chair. He will have plenty of company.

  16. Suzane-

    There is certainly plenty of blame to go around, especially for the Bernie people. The insane ones kept claiming that there was “no difference” between Trump and Clinton.

    As far as I could tell, since neither candidate wanted to reduce Wall St to rubble that meant “no difference” to these idiot.

    Bernie himself was much of the problem by refusing to rebut claims by his supporters (and campaign) that the primaries were “rigged” and that alternate forms of primary (open, closed, caucus, etc) would have made any difference.

    At state committee, someone was complaining that the Clinton campaign was virtually absent from Scranton area (which in retrospect explains the flip there to Trump). But, this also means that people in state committee knew there was a lack of effort there and weren’t able to shore up resources or convince the campaign to put more in. Where was state committee leadership on informing the Clinton campaign about facts on the ground?

    Unfortunately, a lot of Dems considered PA unassailable after over 20 years being Blue, and there was complacency.

  17. Don’t blame the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for Hillary’s loss – blame Bernie’s people. They broke ranks and voted for Stein or Johnson. Ask Stevie Todd. Shame on you, shame on you! We can thank Bernie Sanders for Trump being our President.

  18. Snake-

    Go to
    docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00167130/1133809/sb/ALL/1

    Look at all the Uber charges. The $3,131.21 is on page 5

    These are records. Duh.

    The public behavior of Groen IS THE PROBLEM. What goes on in private is probably far worse.

    BTW, how do you get 99.9% (999 out of 1000) for an organization with a little over 300 members? If I had the support/confidence of only 1 member, I’d be at 99.7%

    There are a lot of Jim Burn supporters and Marcel detractors in the state committee (more so after losing PA). The fight over the DNC delegation is also proof of opposition to Marcel and how he runs the committee.

  19. Chairman Groen would no more support an anti- Semite DNC chair then an African American would support the KKK for DNC Chair.
    Keith Ellison’s record is his record. If you support him you support his anti- Semite votes and statements.
    End of story

  20. Agree with Barbara Blum. If we Dems can’t or won’t energize our liberal working class base, we won’t win elections. While I definitely know some very active and motivated moderate Dems, if we think they are or will start doing the sucky parts of campaigning, we are nuts. If we think us lefties will keep doing it for GOP-lite we are way more nuts.

    Ellison for DNC Chair

  21. Thank you Chairman Groen for standing up. Tom Perez is who we need as Chairman of the DNC. Keith Ellison will keep the complete Chaos that 2016 left us in. Its a time for leaders not cheerleaders.
    We lost Gore, we lost Kerry, we lost Hillary because of unstable people.

  22. David Diano is a complete narcissus and needs medicated.
    Fact: David Diano is not a member of State Committee.
    Fact: David Diano does not attend any committee meetings that aren’t public
    Fact: David Diano 99.9% of state committee members know David Diano is a snake
    Fact: David Diano has no access to any records
    Fact: David Diano is not a member of any Democrat Committee
    Fact: David Diano needs medicated and kept in his Mommies basement.

  23. The idea that the party would even consider a guy like Ellison is a disgrace. He was a sympathizer of Farrakhan, an known anti- Semite and anti- Israel Congressman who was only one of 8 Congressmen to vote against funding the Iron Dome program which protects Israel against those rockets fired from Gaza. That was in 2014. He had been found unqualified by the Anti-Defamation League. Those of you complains about Trumps pick of Bannon will be at a loss to complain about someone from the Lunatic left fringe if the party. Perez is a good compromise choice. The Republicans will have a field day if Ellison is picked. Some of his quotes are beyond the pale and will cause the Democrats plenty of heartburn if he becomes the face of the party.

  24. Recognizing my innate bias is necessary: for more than a decade, @ the polls [Abington 7-2, semi-annually], I have told Marcel and his wife [Bernice] that they will have Jewish blood on their hands if/when Tehran bombs Tel Aviv.

    The difference between Al Fatah and Hamas is literally cosmetic, to wit, whether a keffiyeh supplants a tie/jacket; similarly, Ellison/Perez have identical politics.

    One would THINK that y’all Dems would have learned something useful from the electoral results…but being blinded by anger is the pathological diagnosis with which the DNC [and the DbM, and the OFA, and Soros-types] must apparently contend.

  25. Can’t Talk to Women-

    I was at state committee last weekend and did bring up “Ubergate” to committee members, including those on the executive committee. An internal investigation is underway, and I hope that there will be a full report by the next meeting. (BTW, some other poster here coined the term, Ubergate.)

    Since you claim to know so much, can YOU explain a $3,131.21 Uber ride?

    Go look at the campaign finance reports and credit card charges.

    Jay-
    Exactly.

  26. Perez is the right and easy choice for PA. I don’t know why anyone would think there is something evil at hand here.

  27. For what it’s worth….SC is run like the Trump White House. No one has any idea what’s going on and everyone can’t stand the people driving the clown bus.

    Someone figure out the damn uber spending- sick of hearing about it. Also- From a quick read the finance report is pretty embarrassing.

    Let’s win some elections ladies and germs.

  28. Yells at poster (who uses his real name) for hiding behind a computer- poster uses fake name. That’s rich.

  29. “Also, there is still the pending questions/investigation into “Ubergate” and what Marcel knew and when he knew it (and what he authorized and who he authorized).”

    You literally made up ‘Ubergate’. If you knew A N Y T H I N G about how national campaigns worked, you’d know that what you’re saying is dumb. Were you at the State Committee meeting? Did you bring up this ‘Ubergate’? If you want people to take you seriously, stop hiding behind a computer screen trolling every PoliticsPA article with your entitled, arrogant opinions, and start actually speaking up in real life.

  30. Look what middle of the road and leaning ever right did for us. We lost the Presidency, and the Senate right here in Pennsylvania. Yes, many parts of the state are center or right, but Democratic activists, and party workers are much more blue than red. The leadership should recognise that and stoop making power grabs. Yes, Perez is a decent guy, but part of the Washington power structure that lost the election. We need a true progressive like Ellison, who will move the part forward.

  31. Marcel likes to put his finger on the scale before any vote. Can’t just be neutral and conduct a meeting/vote. Wolf already endorsed Perez, and Marcel was appointed chair to be Wolf’s lapdog. So, it’s not a shocking endorsement, nor the attempt to bias the voting.

    The problem with the DNC Credentialing is completely on Marcel. At the June meeting, he tried ramming a brokered/behind-closed-doors slate of candidates without proper debate on the candidates (but plenty of time the night before to distribute pre-print stickers for the slate). The Bernie representatives got some say, so they went along with it, despite protests by rank-and-file Bernie supporters.

    There was a motion to kill the slate and vote on individuals. Marcel mishandled the vote. There was a head-count that went Marcel’s way that he “gavel-ed in” despite the total being about 70 more than the number of credentialed members present. He refused calls for a roll-call vote and the parliamentarian just rubber-stamped his decision.

    There could have been a simple vote in June with the top eight candidates getting the slots, but Marcel hates taking votes.

    If the PA delegation doesn’t get to vote for DNC Chair, there is no one to blame but Marcel. Just one more reason for him to resign (as if losing PA from blue to red after over 20 years wasn’t reason enough). Also, there is still the pending questions/investigation into “Ubergate” and what Marcel knew and when he knew it (and what he authorized and who he authorized).

    Observer-

    The Montco Dem voter registration lead is only 46,000 now and around 40,000 for the 2015 sweep of row offices by around 10,000 vote margins.

  32. Lolol… Look at the Groen-paid posters’ comments – they read like Tea Party morons! Right down to the bad spelling and grammar. Dem Party is not progressive?? Lolol… The Corporate Dems are peeing in their shoes! It’s all slipping away! Lolol…

  33. Good choice Marcel Groen and I think for he will win this thing in 2017 as the next US Democratic Chairman.

  34. Totally support Chairman Groen. Perez can and will lead the National Democrat Party to victory. Wake up people Democrats are not progressive. We are Middle of the road.

  35. One corporate douchebag endorses another. Remember, Groen’s Montco mess never won a county-wide office until AFTER the Dem registration lead exceeded 200,000 voters. Never won a close election at any time. Perfect guy to elevate, Dems – it’s the Peter Principle personified! If national Dems have any sense at all, they will do the OPPOSITE of what Marcella says.

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