Posted on 07/11/2002 2:30:31 PM PDT by Jean S
Rep. John Conyers (D) is asking fellow Michigan Rep. John Dingell (D) to consider dropping his bid for a 24th term in the interests of avoiding a "divisive" primary with Rep. Lynn Rivers (D), suggesting grateful Democrats might later reward Dingell's sacrifice by making him the first non-Member to be elected Speaker of the House.
Conyers made the proposal in a letter distributed to House Democrats just before the July 4 recess. In an interview on Tuesday, Conyers said he was trying to ensure that Rivers, who is backed in the primary contest by several powerful liberal constituencies, can return to Congress next year.
"This is my vision of how we keep Lynn Rivers and promote John Dingell and support [Minority Leader] Dick Gephardt [D-Mo.]," Conyers said. "It's a win-win-win situation for all my friends."
In the letter, Conyers stressed that he supports Gephardt for Speaker if Democrats win the House this November, but noted that Gephardt may vacate the post to concentrate on a presidential bid.
The letter included a memo from the Congressional Research Service that pointed out that the Speaker does not need to be chosen from elected Members of Congress.
Dingell, predictably, dismissed the proposal out of hand. "I'm flattered," the lawmaker said through a campaign spokeswoman. "But I'm running for the job I want."
Democratic Caucus insiders were somewhat less charitable toward the proposal, suggesting that it seemed patently naive - charitably speaking.
If dubious from the outset, the Conyers proposal nonetheless reflects mounting anxiety among the clutch of progressive interest groups that have either aligned themselves with Rivers or against Dingell, whose positions on gun rights and environmental policy have often run counter to liberal orthodoxy.
The last public poll in the contest, taken in late June, showed Dingell holding steady with a 10-point advantage going into the Aug. 6 primary. The spread was identical to that found in a similar survey that was completed three weeks earlier.
Conyers acknowledged that there has been a good deal of "panic" about the prospect of losing either Dingell or Rivers, but he insisted no one in particular had put him up to making the proposal.
"What I'm going for is not to allay fears or panic, but to help all my friends succeed," Conyers said.
Conyers said he ran his ideas past both Dingell and Gephardt - but not Rivers - before sending it. He acknowledged that Dingell had rejected the idea when it was proposed, and it was not clear why Conyers circulated the letter anyhow.
Gephardt spokesman Erik Smith said Conyers did indeed bring the matter to the leader's attention, and that Gephardt "discouraged" Conyers from pressing forward - evidently to no avail.
Dingell campaign spokeswoman Laura Sheehan said Conyers phoned Dingell Wednesday to say that he "in no way" wants the lawmaker to step aside. (Conyers appeared to backpedal Wednesday afternoon. In a statement faxed to Roll Call, Conyers said he does not want Dingell to withdraw from the primary contest.)
In the letter, Conyers suggested that Dingell and Rivers - neither of whom is mentioned by name - do "everything in their power" to avoid "divisive primaries" and "preserve their resources" in order to help the party succeed in the November elections.
"I would also observe that any candidate who withdraws from the primary would be free to use their unused resources to help his or her fellow Democrats in the Fall," Conyers wrote. "Then, after Dick Gephardt becomes Speaker, if he elects to run for President, any candidate who had withdrawn for the good of our party would be eligible to be elected Speaker."
A Rivers campaign spokesman, Matt Burgess, declined to comment on the Conyers letter.
Burgess also did not dispute the findings in the latest public polls, but noted that the surveys were conducted before the Rivers campaign launched its first round of television spots. A private poll released by the Rivers campaign in May showed a narrower split between the candidates.
The ideological stakes are high in the Dingell-Rivers contest.
Dingell, the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, has long been a key player at the intersection of organized labor and environmental interests in Congress, and has strong backing from industrial unions in the primary.
Dingell's departure would not only remove an obstacle to the environmental groups, it would also elevate Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a close ally of the gun-control movement and the environmentalists, to be ranking member on Energy and Commerce.
That specter has galvanized business interests in Washington to provide strong backing for Dingell, who is not necessarily regarded as a good friend of business, but is considered a better one than Waxman.
In fact, one party strategist noted, to the extent the Dingell-Rivers contest is siphoning off resources the Democrats could use down the road, there are expenditures being made on behalf of Rivers from groups such as the Sierra Club, EMILY's List and Gun Safety Inc.
"The liberal group money - the Sierra Clubs and such - that's the money that's being diverted from other races," the strategist said.
While interest groups battle it out, the contest is stirring intense passions on the ground as well.
Police in Ypsilanti, Mich., are reportedly investigating allegations that a Rivers campaign volunteer shoved a prominent Dingell supporter before the town's Fourth of July parade.
William Simpson, a self-described "former significant other" of Rivers, is alleged to have pushed Township Clerk Brenda Stumbo "several times" in an altercation that was witnessed by Dingell's wife, Debbie.
The shoving supposedly took place shortly after Simpson approached Debbie Dingell and said, according to Stumbo, "Welcome to Ypsilanti. You're history."
Rivers subsequently phoned Stumbo to apologize; the Rivers campaign said Simpson was no longer working on the re-election effort, according to the Ann Arbor News, which reported the story.
The candidates themselves have lately been competing over which of them has the most perspective on living with hardship and adversity - a burst of one-upmanship that appeared to be set off by the latest round of Rivers ads, which featured her account of having to trade in soda bottles for milk.
Dingell lashed out at Rivers for the implied contrast - Dingell is himself the son of a Congressman - in an interview with The New York Times, saying, "I haven't got the arrogance or the gall to run whining to people and say, 'I was a teenage mother and therefore I ought to get elected to Congress.' "
Well, I hope Dingell wins- the lesser of two evils. Conyers and Waxman are both members of the Progressive Caucus- bona fide socialists. I would reckon Rivers must be fairly progressive/socialist as well if Conyers wants her to get elected this badly.
Wow! Yep, definitely hope that Dingell gets in. A lot of the battles this November aren't about the GOP picking up seats but just getting the socialists out. Earl Hilliard is gone but will be replaced by a dem- but that's fair enough he was a Progressive Caucus member as well. We need to get Cynthia McKinney out too. We might not pick up that many seats in the House but at least having a saner bunch of democrats would be a help and a good thing for the country.
I also live in that stripe of downriver (Detroit) cities that now gets Conyers. It'll be interesting to see how popular Conyers will be in these cities. I wonder if he'll do anything to "reach out" to these areas.
You'll be dead and buried before he will reach out to his newest area
You're probably right, but call it a wild hunch on my part:
Conyers knows he has his Detroit voters locked up. He (and his handlers) also know it's a different story in the suburbs. Maybe he'll figure (probably correctly) that the area will continue to vote Democratic and therefore, why bother with it?
But it just seems to me that it's the nature of politicians to try to please their voters (especially those you can't automatically count on). Conyers would have nothing to lose by showing up here and listening to his new constituents. He's got seniority in congress and we could get some of that pork spending (or whatever) here if he'd try.
Yeah, I doubt it'll happen, too.
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