Anti-LGBT Rep. Marcia Fudge May Challenge Pelosi for Speakership

Fudge is seemingly part of  the "civil-rights-for-me-but-not-for-thee crowd"
and has voted against protecting LGBT Americans. 

Surveys have shown that 82% of LGBT voters supported Democrats at the polls in the 2018 midterm elections and many gave generously to Democrat candidate campaigns.  Indeed, in some very close Democrat victories, the LGBT vote may have won the day for Democrats (the LGBT community, including the husband and I, worked very hard for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's winning campaign).  Enter Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge who has opposed the so-called Equality Act that would expand non-discrimination protections for LGBT individuals and women and by adding those categories to the Civil Rights Act.  Fudge now wants to challenge Nancy Pelosi - a long time LGBT ally - for Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Unlike Fudge, Nancy Pelosi wants to make passage of the Equality Act a Democrat Party priority.  I can think of few ways to more thoroughly insult and alienate the LGBT community than to put someone like Fudge in as Speaker of the House.  Some in the LGBT community have described Fudge as part of the "civil-rights-for-me-but-not-for-thee crowd."  Others have noted that the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus supported the Amendment to the Civil Rights Act, so Fudge is an out of the mainstream outlier.  A piece in Roll Call looks at a meeting meeting between Pelosi and Fudge.  Here are excerpts:

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi met with her potential competition for the speaker’s gavel on Friday, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, who left the meeting still contemplating a bid.

“No,” Fudge told reporters when asked if Pelosi asked her not to run. “What she asked me was basically how we could get to a point where I could be supportive.”

Asked if such a point exists, even if she opts not to run against Pelosi, Fudge said, “There is a point, yes, but it’s going to take some.”

Fudge said she used the meeting to tell Pelosi about some of her concerns, adding that she needs more time to talk to people and think about whether she will run against her. The Ohio Democrat is headed home for Thanksgiving and plans to announce a decision shortly after the holiday.

She also told Pelosi she would speak with her again after Thanksgiving, presumably before any public announcement.

Asked if the meeting encouraged her toward running, Fudge said, “No, but it didn’t discourage me either.”

If she does run, Fudge said she hasn’t decided yet whether she’d seek the caucus nomination on Nov. 28, in which only a simple majority vote is needed to be selected the caucus’s choice for speaker, or challenge Pelosi during the floor vote Jan. 3. 

Pelosi clearly is trying to avoid a floor fight.

“I think her goal is to try to quickly as possible unify the caucus, and I understand that,” Fudge said. “And that is why I thought it was important that when she asked me to come and see her that I did so.”

The conversation with Fudge was “candid and respectful,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Among the issues discussed, according to Fudge, were succession planning and “the feeling in the caucus of people who are feeling out and left behind.”

Politico reports that the Pelosi-Fudge meeting was at the behest of incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).  Here are highlights:

Nancy Pelosi sat face to face with her potential challenger, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, on Friday as the California Democrat continued her fight to reclaim the speaker’s gavel.

The two women huddled at the behest of incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), a key Pelosi ally and senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus who is also close with Fudge, the CBC’s former chairwoman.

Pelosi also spent Friday afternoon meeting with incoming Democratic lawmakers who during their campaigns vowed to oppose her as speaker, including Reps.-elect Max Rose (N.Y.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), Mikie Sherrill (N.J.) and Haley Stevens (Mich.).

After Pelosi met with the incoming freshmen who had called for new leadership during their campaigns, some skeptics left the room expressing an openness to supporting her.

With her opponents continuing to work against Pelosi, the California Democrat's allies are hitting back in her defense.

Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky blasted Pelosi’s critics for defying “the majority voice of the caucus.” She suggested they are worse than the House Freedom Caucus, the group of conservative rabble-rousers who banded together to defy GOP leadership for years.

“The majority rules!” Schakowsky said, aghast. “The very idea of organizing without even an opponent. … They do not have a candidate.”

I'm not necessarily a Pelosi fan, but I surely do not want an anti-LGBT individual like Fudge in the position of Speaker of the House.  Similarly, I do not want an inexperienced novice in the position given that the next 2 years will require a Speaker who can play hard ball and hold Trump and other GOP misogynists to account.

Why Steve Heretick and Medicaid Expansion Make Sense for Virginia

Vote for Steve Heretick

On June 9th there will be a primary that will decide who will be the nominee for the 79th House District.  The incumbent, Johnny Joannou is a Democrat in name only and is virulently anti-gay, opposes Medicaid expansion and has sided with the failed policies of the extremists in the Virginia GOP.  It is important that Steve Heretick replaces Joannou as the Democrat candidate in November.  Besides Joannou's anti-gay voting record, his refusal to support Medicaid expansion are the most troubling, especially since many of his own constituents would benefit.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at how Medicaid expansion would benefit Virginia.  Joannou's opposition is particularly disturbing given that many of Virginia's rural hospitals are struggling financially. Here are article highlights:

The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report saying that states that have expanded Medicaid are better off and if Virginia were to do so, an additional 179,000 residents would have health insurance coverage and 16,000 fewer would experience symptoms of depression.

The report also said Virginia will miss out on $1.24 billion in federal funding in 2016 by not expanding Medicaid. The report’s figures were provided by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit public policy group in Washington.

“By expanding their Medicaid programs, states can improve access to essential medical care, reduce financial hardship, improve their citizens’ physical and mental health, and claim billions of dollars in federal funding that could raise their citizens’ standards of living and make their economies more resilient in the future,” the report said.

Matthew Moran, a spokesman for GOP House Speaker William J. Howell said Republicans remain steadfastly opposed to expansion . . 

The governor’s spokesman, Brian Coy, said McAuliffe is still committed to Medicaid expansion.  “Every day that Republicans in the General Assembly wait to work with the governor to get the best expansion deal for Virginia is another day that thousands of people go without lifesaving care and taxpayers send their hard-earned money to Washington while getting nothing in return,” Coy said.

The irony to me is that the GOP claims to be the party of Christian values and "pro-life" yet once children are born, the GOP kicks them to the gutter along with the poor and less fortunate.  Not exactly what the Gospel message calls one to do.  

Dwight Jones Must Take a Stand on Same-Sex Marriage

Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones (pictured at left) personifies the problem of politicians who cannot separate their personal religious views from their roles as politicians in a secular government realm.  Currently a escalating civil war is sweeping the Democratic Party of Virginia thanks to Jones' desire to cling to personal religious beliefs - and not rankle bigots within his church congregation - and flush civil constitutional rights for LGBT Virginians down the toilet.  That Jones is black makes his position all the more ridiculous given that "religious belief" was used for decades if not centuries to justify slavery and then segregation.  Has the man learned nothing?  Jones needs to either support civil law equality or not and stop his disingenuous double speak.  And if he cannot support equality, then he needs to withdraw from consideration as DPVA chair.  It is that simple.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch makes a similar argument.  Here are excerpts:

The selection of Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, a Baptist minister, as chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia would not be a match made in heaven.

Jones, according to sources, has agreed to accept the unpaid post at the request of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, with an announcement expected this week.

If true, the governor and the mayor may want to rethink this and listen to supporters of marriage equality who feel heartburn at Jones’ waffly posture on same-sex marriage.

Virginia has been riding a progressive wave on the issue of marriage equality since McAuliffe’s Democratic ticket mate, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, announced soon after taking office in January that he would not defend Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage.

In February, a federal judge in Norfolk ruled that the ban is unconstitutional. It appears that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say.

Seventeen states now allow legal same-sex unions. Public opinion has shifted dramatically since 2006, when Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and forbids recognition of such unions performed elsewhere. Polls suggest the ban would be repealed today.

But Jones, mindful of the possible reaction of his flock at First Baptist Church of South Richmond, remains unmoved. He has resisted any bold declarations in support of same-sex marriage.

As for Jones' double speak, the column notes:

The mayor “opposes any kind of discrimination,” said spokeswoman Tammy D. Hawley. “As you may know, he issued the city’s first executive order barring discrimination in city government. He has also honored Richmond’s Transgender Day of Remembrance with a proclamation speaking out against violence and promoting tolerance, understanding, compassion and acceptance of the diversity of any individual or group of individuals.

“The mayor has always made it clear that he will stand up for all laws that protect constitutional rights and that he does not believe that our laws should be discriminatory,” Hawley said. “What he believes in is equal protection under the law for all persons.”

Well, yes, that sounds good. But same-sex couples in Virginia have no rights under our state constitution. They are victims of discrimination who receive unequal protection under the law.  The mayor is equivocating.

He is ensnared in the inherent conflict that faces a faith leader when he moonlights in the secular world of politics.

Jones, meanwhile, appears content to sit out the civil rights movement of the 21st century.  Politics isn’t about single issues, but marriage equality is one of the most important questions facing the nation today. And the platform of the Democratic Party of Virginia could not be clearer:

If his conscience or his congregation won’t allow him to support marriage equality without equivocation, Jones and Virginia Democrats have an irreconcilable difference.

Jones claims that he is against any form of discrimination, but given the 1000 state and federal rights that hindge on "marriage," by opposing same sex marriage, Jones is actively supporting discrimination.  Either the man is a cretin or he thinks the rest of us are.  He needs to stand for full equality or get out of the running for DPVA chair. Again, the issue is that simple.

LGBT Democrats Call on Central Committee to Oppose Dwight Jones for DPVA Chair

With LGBT Virginians frequently providing the margin of victory in races ranging from the 2012 presidential race to city council elections, one has to wonder WTF those who nominated Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones for Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia.  With everything that's happening on the same sex marriage front and in light of three statewide election winners in November 2013 who campaigned in support marriage equality why would a man who opposes marriage equality even be nominated?  Here are highlights from a message from LGBT Democrats of Virginia to the "powers that be" via Blue Virginia:

You are receiving this as a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

Maggie Sacra, Chair of the LGBT Democrats of Virginia, today spoke about the submission of Dwight Jones, Richmond City Mayor, to be Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, saying, “In response to the many phone calls and emails members of our board have received regarding Mayor Jones’ opposition to marriage equality, and frankly, in response to our own concerns and alarm, the LGBT Democrats of Virginia held an emergency meeting today of our board. After a unanimous vote, we are releasing the statement below to our State Central Committee, our statewide elected officials, and our legislators.”

The statement reads: “Given repeated opportunities over the past few years, Mayor Dwight Jones has consistently refused to endorse marriage equality. LGBT Democrats of Virginia is extremely disappointed with the consideration of Mayor Jones for Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia. We oppose his nomination and call on Virginia Democrats to seek pro-equality nominees at all levels of the Party and public office."

“This is a historic time for marriage equality in Virginia. All three Democratic nominees for state office won election in 2013 unequivocally supporting marriage equality. Attorney General Mark Herring bravely refused to defend Virginia’s discriminatory Marshall-Newman Amendment and anti-equality statutes, and Judge Wright ruled on the side of equality, writing in her ruling that, 'Tradition is revered in the Commonwealth, and often rightly so. However, tradition alone cannot justify denying same-sex couples the right to marry any more than it could justify Virginia's ban on interracial marriage', referring to Loving v. Virginia."

“We have a President, a Vice President, and a U.S. Attorney General who now stand on the right side of history, on the side of equality. The Democratic Party of Virginia must not consider retreating on this issue. Instead, the Party should heed the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who declared, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. These are beliefs the Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia must embody."

“Unless Mayor Jones makes a strong public statement in support of legal marriage equality, we cannot consider supporting him. We call on all State Central Committee members to join with us in opposing Mayor Jones in this election for Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, and in finding a candidate for Party chair who supports equality and justice for all Virginians.”

 Again, WTF were the people who put Jones' nomination forward think?  Do they really want LGBT Virginians to turn off the LGBT ATM?