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vice president
Progressives and Working-Class Advocates Push Tim Walz for VP
"I want somebody who's really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class votes," Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in supporting Walz.
Aug 02, 2024
A number of progressives and left-leaning political figures this week suggested that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris should choose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Walz was the subject of a flurry of media attention over the last week, including glowing coverage in The Washington Post and The New York Times on Friday, as the Democrats ran an accelerated search for their vice presidential candidate.
While there hasn't been an organized progressive effort to push for Walz, he's regarded as the most friendly to left and working-class causes of the politicians known to be in the running, all of whom are white men. Progressives have expressed concerns over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who's seen by many as the most likely choice.
"I want somebody who's really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class votes," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in explaining why she favored Walz, The Hill reported Friday.
Take it from me: These guys don’t know anything about family values.
Family values means protecting IVF, feeding children, and expanding the Child Tax Credit to give families a fair shot. It means helping your neighbors and investing in kids.pic.twitter.com/QrXHxLuJVh
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 2, 2024
Walz's appeal, buoyed by the sense that he's a straight-talking everyman, goes well beyond progressive circles. Born and raised in Nebraska, he served in the National Guard and worked as a high school teacher and coach. He served six terms as a Democrat in U.S. Congress, representing a rural area of Minnesota that borders Iowa. In 2016, he won reelection in a district that 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump won handily.
In 2018, Walz successfully ran for governor, and was reelected in 2022—this time with Democrats in the majority in both houses of the state Legislature. (The state party is called the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.) They quickly turned the state into what NBC Newscalled "a laboratory in pushing progressive policy."
Under Walz's leadership, Minnesota became the fourth state in the country to provide free school lunches for all students. The state also set up a paid family and medical leave program and a tax credit for low-income Minnesotans. Walz also signed into law the strictest rules in the country on "forever chemicals" that endanger public health.
Walz and his Democratic allies banned spending on state and municipal elections by firms that were 5% or more foreign-owned—nearly every S&P 500 firm—and thereby reduced the pernicious effects of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling on the state's elections. They also established trans rights, secured fundamental abortion rights, and made it possible for undocumented people to get driver's licenses.
David M. Perry, a Minnesota-based journalist and historian, said in an MSNBCopinion piece this week that he was initially skeptical of Walz, figuring him to be a conservative Democrat who wouldn't push an ambitious agenda, but had changed his mind—"entirely Walz-pilled," as he put it. He applauded Walz for the many state-level legislative accomplishments, and cited only "questionable decisions" during the 2020 George Floyd uprisings in the governor's negative column.
Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers union, on Thursday toldThe Detroit News that he supported either Walz or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee, citing their strong pro-labor records. Some groups have called for Fain himself to be the vice presidential nominee.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a progressive member of "the Squad," also voiced for support for Walz and Beshear in a social media post on Friday. Gun rights activist David Hogg has likewise been promoting Walz on social media.
The Wall Street Journal wrote about Walz's "folksy demeanor" on Thursday, while the Post on Friday asked, in a highly complimentary profile, if the Minnesota governor could go "from teaching history to being part of it."
Ezra Klein, a left-leaning podcast host at the Times, released a full-length interview with Walz on Friday titled "Is Tim Walz the Midwestern dad Democrats need?"
Klein's first question focused on a word Walz had used that helped catapult him to relative fame in the last week: "weird," which the governor had used to describe Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).
The "weird" criticism of the Republican leaders went viral and was quickly picked up by Harris herself. Whether she will pick up the inventor of the attack onto her ticket remains to be seen. She secured the necessary votes to become the nominee on Friday and she's expected to announce her choice of running mate as early as Saturday.
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Progressives Speaking Out Loud and Clear Against Josh Shapiro as VP
It’s no wonder that progressives seem to be lining up in the VP contest behind Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who like Shapiro has some policy wins on cherished liberal issues like expanding free school lunches but isn’t lugging around political baggage like the Pennsylvania governor.
Aug 01, 2024
When it comes to politics, they are some of the loudest voices in Pennsylvania: left-leaning activist types who protest the fracking industry, rally for more public school funding, or join anti-war marches. When the Democrats put forward a 2022 gubernatorial candidate in then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro from the party’s center flank — with iconoclastic views on some issues important to progressives, like school vouchers — the noise coming from his left flank was truly remarkable.
Utter silence.
That’s because Shapiro, unchallenged in the 2022 primary, faced a GOP fall opponent in Doug Mastriano — a Christian nationalist state senator with ties on the extreme right, a record of 2020 election denial, and a fondness for the Confederacy — who was seen by many voters as a threat to democracy. Disagreements over issues like the future of fracking didn’t seem important compared to fears of what a Mastriano administration might do.
Two years later, Shapiro is considered one of the nation’s most popular governors — with an approval rating that’s gone as high as 61%. And with the surprise elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democrat ticket and the party scrambling to make up lost ground in Pennsylvania, the largest swing state, Shapiro is one of the top contenders to become Harris’ running mate.
But that means the 51-year-old Shapiro’s rivals for the job aren’t right-wing Republicans like Mastriano but other Democrats like popular Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, the former astronaut married to anti-gun activist Gabby Giffords. Pennsylvania’s progressives, who bit their tongues in 2022 and have seen their grievances largely ignored in Harrisburg, are reverting to form. Many are speaking out against their home-state governor as a Democratic veep — raising questions among the party’s base that could derail his bid.
Upper Darby’s Colleen Kennedy, who represents Delaware County on the Democratic state committee, echoed other critics in saying that they’ll work hard for Harris no matter whom is picked. However, they contend, while Shapiro has some strong achievements that are comparable to his VP rivals, parts of his record make him a weaker choice for the Democrats.
“Shapiro has repeatedly pursued education policies that would permit discrimination against queer and trans students, disabled students, working class students, and immigrant students,” said Kennedy, in a criticism of his support for a school voucher plan. “We must continue to attract the political support of young people, who want to see accountability of rogue police departments, not student arrests” such as the raid on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania urged by the governor.
Karen Feridun, a leader of the anti-fracking Better Path Coalition, told me that for vice president the Democrats “need all hands on deck dealing with the climate crisis, not guys like Shapiro who openly support continued fossil fuel production.” She added that “I think he will drive away the youth vote she needs between his terrible positions on both Gaza (including his intolerance of dissent) and climate.”
The basic conundrum for Harris and national Democrats is this. Would her drive for 270-plus electoral votes against Donald Trump be best-served by a center-left Democrat with crossover appeal to independents and moderate Republicans, especially in a critical swing state? Or would a candidate who alienates the left depress some of the young-voter enthusiasm that’s been evident since Harris emerged as President Joe Biden’s replacement?
The progressive case against Shapiro falls largely in four areas:
— School choice. More than two dozen public-education advocacy groups signed a letter urging Harris to not pick Shapiro as vice president, citing his statements of support both as a 2022 candidate and as governor for school vouchers that would funnel taxpayer dollars to help families send their kids to private schools. Ironically, those proposals backed by state Republicans and megadonor Jeff Yass haven’t become a reality under Shapiro, and in 2023 he vetoed an $100 million voucher-style program after initially saying he’d sign it. And Shapiro advocates note the 2024 budget he did sign boosted funding for public schools by $1.1 billion. But the Pennsylvanian’s willingness to even entertain vouchers puts him at odds with other Democrats vying to be veep.
— Fracking and the environment. While environmentalists hoped Shapiro, who tangled with the oil and gas industry as AG, would crack down on fracking as governor, many leading groups say they’re deeply disappointed in his record. Physicians for Social Responsibility in Pennsylvania charged that Shapiro has “radically changed his environmental policy priorities and began to court fossil fuel companies.” Critics have blasted his support for projects like hydrogen hubs that use fracked gas and for the return of fracking to Dimock, the rural town whose pollution was featured in the documentary Gasland. The Shapiro administration insists it is aggressively going after polluters.
— Student protests and Gaza. No issue has divided the Democratic coalition like the war in the Middle East. Shapiro’s strong support for Israel is arguably in line with other top Dems, but critics cite his reluctance to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and in particular his strong stance against pro-Palestinian student demonstrators, using his platform to urge Penn to shut down its protest encampment and even seeming to compare pro-Palestinian activists to “white supremacists” in interviews. But Shapiro has also spoken out against Palestinian civilian casualties, and his supporters say activists’ focus on the one VP finalist who is Jewish smacks of antisemitism.
— Handling of sexual harassment. The Shapiro administration last year agreed to pay $295,000 to a former female aide who accused a long-time political associate of the governor — Mike Vereb, his legislative secretary, a cabinet post — of making unwanted sexual advances and frequent lewd talk. Female lawmakers in both parties have criticized the administration — which cites a non-disclosure agreement for not talking about the case — for an alleged lack of transparency. The Democratic candidate for state treasurer — political outsider Erin McClelland — sent shock waves through the veepstakes when she tweeted that she wanted a VP “who doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.”
That is exactly the kind of allegation that can prove toxic in an intra-party squabble among Democrats. The Shapiro situation is vexing because — even as critics like Kennedy point out — his overall record of liberal gains in a politically divided state is pretty good. The governor is also a master at performative but effective politics, which looks brilliant when he pushes to get a collapsed bridge on I-95 reopened in days instead of months.
But other bipartisan gambits — especially his repeated endorsements of school voucher programs — look like a massive unforced error for a man with higher ambitions in the Democratic Party. I find his continued support for fracking after a state-backed report found an increased risk for some types of childhood cancer for kids growing up near active wells to be morally unconscionable.
It’s no wonder that progressives seem to be lining up in the VP contest behind Minnesota’s Walz, who like Shapiro has some policy wins on cherished liberal issues like expanding free school lunches but isn’t lugging around political baggage like the Pennsylvania governor. Whether Harris, said to have close ties to Shapiro, sees it the same way will tell us a lot about her White House bid.
But for local progressives, the emergence of Shapiro as top-tier veep contender is a double-edged sword. Feridun told me she would work like crazy to get a Harris-Shapiro ticket elected — “not just because of Trump” but also with the goal of “getting him (Shapiro) the hell out of the governor’s office.”
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A Dangerous Pipeline and Why Pete Buttigieg Would Be a Bad Choice for VP
Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems: our climate crisis and the dominance of the fossil fuel industry in our politics and policies.
Jul 29, 2024
President Joe Biden lost a lot of support, especially among young voters and climate voters, when he approved the foolish Willow Project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was equally unpopular with those groups but they rightfully placed most of the blame for that project on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V).
What a lot of people, including reporters, don’t realize is that Pete Buttigieg, as Secretary of Transportation, had (and still has) the power to stop MVP. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reports to Buttigieg and PHMSA, as its name implies, has the authority and responsibility to ensure the pipelines are built and operated safely. But the MVP was not built—nor is it operating—safely. That is not an opinion pulled out of thin air by a climate activist. Rather it is the conclusion of a study done by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), the company that wanted to build the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL). That study was the subject of an article (pg 16) in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Corrosion Management, a journal of the Institute of Corrosion.
This topic has been written about extensively for over a year. If reporters and other readers want to understand the particulars they can find them here. The long and short of it is that the TC Energy/KXL study proved that MVP’s corrosion-proof coating is “no longer fit for purpose.” That’s a pretty damning indictment, especially given the enormous diameter (42 inches) of MVP and the extremely high pressure it will be operating under. It’s particularly scary for all those who live within MVP’s blast zone.
MVP is made of thick steel. It isn’t going to corrode extensively tomorrow or anytime right away. But pipelines like MVP are built with the intention that they will operate for many, many decades, which is why legally they MUST have an adequate corrosion-proof coating. Otherwise they will corrode prematurely which could lead to a massive explosion. Delaney Tercero was 3 when a 10 inch gas pipeline exploded near her home because defective coating allowed the pipe to corrode. She died 2 days later in a hospital burn unit. Again, MVP is 42 inches.
The National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators (NAPCA) recommends that the pipe coating that was applied to MVP pipe should not be exposed to the harmful rays of the sun for more than 6 months. MVP pipe sat out in the sun for 6-7 years. A KXL pipeline manager, speaking at an oil and gas forum in Canada, said that, when the coating has deteriorated to such a degree, the pipe either needs to be replaced or sent back to the factory for stripping, cleaning, and recoating. He said this is a problem that can’t be remedied in the field. MVP pipe was neither replaced nor properly recoated. It was just quickly buried and covered up, as if that would make the problem go away.
Pete Buttigieg is obviously a very smart guy. He’s articulate, does his homework and has a knack for making members of Congress look ridiculous when they try to question him. If anyone can explain why the KXL coating study doesn’t apply to MVP, it would be Secretary Buttigieg. But neither he nor PHMSA nor MVP nor anyone else has ever offered that explanation. Buttigieg seems to pop up everywhere these days but he hasn’t met with the people who live next to MVP and been willing to address their fears about the defective pipe coating. And the reason he hasn’t is because he can’t explain away the KXL study’s obvious relevance to MVP which leaves him unable to defend PHMSA’s decision to allow MVP to operate.
And this problem isn’t limited to MVP. Pipeline giant, Williams, has just built pipelines in Louisiana and Pennsylvania using old pipe intended for the now-dead Constitution Pipeline in NY. That pipe has been sitting out in the sun for over a decade. Williams has now buried it right next to houses, schools, playgrounds, ball parks, through golf courses and under interstate highways.
Essentially, despite all their posturing, Pete Buttigieg and PHMSA are just part of the Good Ol’ Boy network that oversees much of our country’s energy regulatory system which remains heavily controlled by the fossil fuel industry. Up and down the chain of command people go along to get along, as pointed out in this article that Bill McKibben called landmark by Mike Soraghan of Politico’s E&E News. That system has resulted in America being the largest oil and gas producer ever, which is deplorable given the scientific consensus regarding climate change. It is why we are so far behind in achieving our climate goals.
Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems. She needs to separate herself from the Good Ol’ Boy network. She should start by picking someone other than Pete Buttigieg to be her VP.
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