Scott Reed, the longtime top political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday that he left the organization after a political shift at the business lobbying powerhouse.
The move comes amid mounting fears among Republicans — including many within the organization — that the traditionally conservative Chamber is moving to the left after endorsing roughly two dozen freshman House Democrats for reelection this year.
[...] However, the Chamber of Commerce offered a different version of events, saying it had fired Reed "for cause."
"An internal review has revealed that Reed repeatedly breached confidentiality, distorted facts for his own benefit, withheld information from Chamber leadership and leaked internal information to the press," a Chamber spokesperson said in a statement. "We have the documentation of his actions and it is irrefutable. Our decision is not based on a disagreement over political strategy but rather it is the result of Reed's actions."
The House Democratic endorsements touched off a wave of recriminations inside the Chamber this summer, with donors and local business leaders pushing back [...]
Reed’s resignation was first reported by the New York Times.
Reed has deep ties within the GOP; he worked his way up the party ranks and ran Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996. He has been with the Chamber of Commerce since 2012, as the organization ramped up its political spending on behalf of Republican members of Congress during the Obama administration. Reed orchestrated the Chamber’s multimillion-dollar campaign to flip the Senate to Republican control in 2014.
[...] In a staff meeting last week, Jack Howard, one of the organization’s senior vice presidents and top lobbyists, outlined plans to reach out to Senate Democrats and “normalize our relationships” with the party.
Meanwhile, Republican criticism of the organization has increased. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview [...] "Honestly at this point, I think they're so confused about what they're about that they probably don't make much difference," McConnell said.
The bottom line is the Dem inner party, Joe and DNC's Perez, Schumer, Pelosi, are all and each traditional Rockefeller Republicans in sheep's clothing.
Best put in titling of an item in the Intercept, "With Chamber of Commerce Defections, a GOP Mainstay Finds Allies Among Democrats -- First came the Never Trumpers, and I did not speak out, because they stood against Donald Trump. Then came the Lincoln Project, and I did not speak out, because their videos went viral. Then came the Chamber of Commerce, and by then it was too late." - by:Ryan Grim - September 24 2020, 4:54 p.m.
The slow migration of the elite wing of the Republican Party into the Democratic fold saw its most pronounced movement earlier this month when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long an appendage of the GOP, overcame internal dissension to endorse 23 vulnerable House Democrats for reelection, along with a slate of 30 Democratic congressional candidates total.
The move comes as Democrats have been performing increasingly well among white, suburban voters and the elderly, particularly women, a shift in voting patterns that handed control of the House of Representatives to the party in the 2018 midterms and has made cul-de-sac right states like Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina increasingly competitive. A new survey from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution found President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden locked in a 47-47 tie in Georgia, while other polls have found Biden within striking distance in Texas.
The tectonic plates are not shifting smoothly, and the move by the Chamber, which is, broadly speaking, a lobbying and political operation funded by large businesses, has sparked an intra-business fight, drawing protestations from the fossil fuel industry, whose loyalty to the GOP has not waned. Allen Wright, a top executive at Devon Energy Corp., quit the U.S. Chamber’s board in protest of the endorsements. Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, lashed out at the national Chamber for endorsing freshman Democrat Rep. Kendra Horn, who he said was hostile to the industry in Oklahoma.
On Friday, lit up by an article on the drama in Breitbart, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both demanded a phone call with Chamber head Tom Donohue. The article, in Breitbart’s unsubtle style, was headlined, “The Great Betrayal: How Republican Wunderkind Became Democrat Darling at the Chamber of Commerce,” and focused on the role of one-time conservative movement figure Neil Bradley in the Chamber’s shift.
Pence tried to be conciliatory, acknowledging that every cycle the Chamber has endorsed a Democrat or two, such as New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer or Texan Henry Cuellar. Still, he noted, never has the operation put its clout behind the full project of making sure that Democrats retain the majority in the House.[...]
Disliking the term, "elite wing of the Republican Party," call the bastards, "the Rockefeller Republlicans." That way you really know who they are.
The Intercept item ends:
While the Chamber support can be helpful for swing-district Democrats in their reelection bids, doing too much of the Chamber’s bidding could end up hurting them back home in a primary from the left. One of the Chamber endorsements, for instance, went to freshman Rep. Sharice Davids, who won a narrow and bitterly fought primary in a wealthy suburban Kansas district in 2018. She carried the suburbs, but lost the Black working-class sections of her district to Brent Welder, who had the backing of Justice Democrats, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Davids and her supporters assured voters that she was equally as progressive as her rival, aided by her pledge not to take corporate PAC money, and, with the backing of an EMILY’s List Super PAC, won the primary by just over 2,000 votes. That her claim to the progressive mantle was less than solid became clear when, after being sworn in, she joined the New Democrat Coalition, becoming one of a handful of freshmen to join both the pro-business caucus and the Progressive Caucus simultaneously. From there, her voting record has been enough to satisfy the Chamber that she deserves reelection.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the brazen push by Republicans to fill her seat ahead of the election is having a radicalizing effect on Democratic voters, who poured more than $100 million into the election last weekend, shattering records. Those voters are going to want something in return for their investment: a Democratic Party that fights back. But the Chamber’s going to have a few things it wants first. And for that, it’ll be leaning on swing-district Democrats.
We need a third party, a progressive contestant to take on the two owned bunches of "Bastards such as Bustos," in order to bring a brighter day to America.
Let the two existing parties fold together behind Pelosi and Clyburn. What's the measure of difference actually between Schumer and McConnell except wanting spoils for a separate cabal? Beyond that, brothers in arms.