Pictured are Cleveland police fatal shooting victims Malisa Williams and Timothy Russell, and Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, all three of whom are or were Black, and former U.S. labor secretary and prior U.S. attorney general Thomas Lopez, who, on Saturday, Feb, 25, won the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman-ship over Ellison in a close election. Lopez is the first Latino-American to hold the powerful DNC post and Ellison, who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007, is the first Muslim elected to congress
By Kathy Wray Coleman , Editor of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog,.Com(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 3.6 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and a 25-year journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-ATLANTA, Georgia-Former U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, who served under former president Barack Obama, is the new national chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) following a divisive campaign that pit Perez, the first Latino-American to hold the post, against the old guard and their candidate, U.S. Rep Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is Black and the first Muslim to win a seat in congress.
Held Saturday, Feb 25 in Atlanta, Georgia, it was the first contested DNC election for national leader of the Democratic Party since 1985.
Perez won the DNC chairman-ship by 35 votes in the second round, defeating Ellison, 235-200 out of 435 caucus votes cast to replace U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman- Schulz, who resigned in July 2016 at the height of the Democratic primary presidential campaign following controversy over Democratic emails relative to unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential candidate U.S Sen. Bernie Sander of Vermont.
Interim DNC chair Donna Brazil, who is Black and ran vice president's unsuccessful campaign for president in 2000, stepped in for Wasserman-Schultz, and was the acting DNC chair.
In the first round of Saturday's voting process Perez got 213.5 votes but needed 214.36 votes to win and preclude a second round of votes.
A Bernie Sanders supporter, the liberal-leaning Ellison received 200 votes in the first round of voting, and was supported by Sanders, whom he backed for president in 2016 in the Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton, though Clinton- backer, former president Barack Obama, via campaigning from his former chief adviser Valerie Jarrett, backed Lopez.CLICK HERE TO READ THE CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM ARTICLE ON EDITOR KATHY WRAY COLEMAN'S FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW WITH FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER VALERIE JARRETT IN CLEVELAND, OHIO WHEN OBAMA WAS CAMPAIGNING FOR REELECTION IN 2012
The other five candidates, who got only few a votes and dropped out after round one, were FOX 8 news analyst and television commentator Jehmu Greene, South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, air force veteran Sam Rolen, Wisconsin lawyer Peter Peckarsky, and Sally Boynton Brown, executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party.
A Civil Rights lawyer and former assistant attorney general who became labor secretary under Obama in July 2013, Perez visited Cleveland in March 2013 as the then assistant attorney general under former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, and relative to a U.S. Justice investigation of the largely White Cleveland Police Department, which was precipitated relative to the 137 shots Cleveland police killings of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012. CLICK HERE TO READ THE CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM ARTICLE ON THE FEDS AND THEN ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL THOMAS PEREZ' VISIT TO CLEVELAND TO INVESTIGATE CLEVELAND POLICE KILLINGS AND THAT RESULTED IN A CONSENT DECREE FOR POLICE REFORMS
That visit resulted in a still pending court-monitored consent decree for police reforms between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Cleveland.
Perez sought to mend fences after his win on the weekend over Ellison, quickly appointing Ellison as the deputy chair of the DNC.
Data have not been widely publicized on whom the members of the Ohio Democratic congressional delegation supported between Perez and Ellison, if at all. They include U.S. Reps. Marcia Fudge and Marcy Kaptur, whose congressional districts include parts of the city of Cleveland, U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, U.S. Rep Tim Ryan, possible 2018 gubernatorial candidate who unsuccessfully sought to unseat House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi with Fudge"s support, and U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty of Columbus, one of two Blacks in congress along with Fudge. (Editor's note: Congresswoman Fudge's campaign spokesperson told Cleveland Urban News.Com on Monday that Fudge did not take a position on either Perez or Ellison because she is not an executive committee member and could not vote).
And the divisive DNC campaign unfolded after President Donald Trump, who defeated Clinton in the November general election, issued an executive order as to his on-old temporary Muslin ban that targets seven Muslim countries to preclude travel to and from the United States.
Perez said after his DNC win that Trump is a major priority and that Democrats will do everything possible to see that the country's new executive leader is a "one-term president."
Elected to Congress in 2007 and one of two Muslims in congress along with Rep André Carson of Indiana, Ellison is a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a chief deputy Whip.
He also serves on the House Committee on Financial Services.
His loss to Perez caps weeks of Democratic wrangling, undercurrent highlighted with racial undertones and threats by both sides to vacate the bewildered Democratic Party, a party struggling to regroup following Trump's presidential victory last year and a host of loses of state legislative and congressional seats and governors in recent years.
Republicans control both congressional chambers and now the White House too
No doubt, the Dems have nowhere to go but up.
They lost control the U.S House of Representatives in 2010, the same year they ceded governor-ships, and in 2014 Republicans ripped control of the U.S. Senate from the Democrats, last year's sweep of the White House giving them unprecedented political power over all three venues for the first time since 1928.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 3.6 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and a 25-year journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.