Notes:BC1.EF.WSJ.Elizabeth Warren Populism
2014/11/15 User:Jeff
This article appeared in WSJ on 11/14/2014
Elizabeth Warren’s Populist Message Stirs Tensions Among Democrats
Not All Believe Turn to the Left Is What the Party Needs
By Peter Nicholas and Janet Hook
Nov. 14, 2014 6:52 p.m. ET
Not many Democrats emerged from the midterm election rubble unscathed. One exception may be Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is becoming a new center of gravity in a demoralized party.
In a nod to her growing influence, Senate Democrats rewarded the populist firebrand with a spot in the party’s leadership this week. A group called “Ready for Warren” said it would step up its efforts to draft her for a presidential bid and plans to hire staff in states with early nomination contests.
The number of small donors to the group rose eightfold compared with the week before the election, said Erica Sagrans, Ready for Warren campaign manager and a former Obama campaign aide.
But not all Democrats are sold on the idea that a turn to the left is the change the party needs, setting up a potentially tumultuous debate between the party’s liberal wing and its grandees.
“It’s clear that if we even have a shot at the White House we can’t get there if we have someone more left-leaning than Hillary Clinton , ” said Vince Insalaco, chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party.
Ms. Warren has long been a darling of the left. Her rise in the party hierarchy, by contrast, comes from Democrats concluding that their election message on the economy was too tepid—and should have looked more like hers. Ms. Warren, who will be adviser to Senate Democrats’ policy and communications arm, is best known for railing against big banks and corporations, and talks about the anxieties of the middle class in a turbulent job market.
“She has a platform, she has a following in the country, and she speaks with clarity on issues to progressives and to consumers,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa).
In her latest anti-Wall Street foray, Ms. Warren plans to oppose a White House nominee for the Treasury Department, senior Lazard Ltd. investment banker Antonio Weiss, her staff said.
She has repeatedly said she won’t jump into the presidential campaign. In an interview with People Magazine last month, however, she appeared to soften her stance. Asked if she would run, she said, “I don’t think so,” adding that she has learned in her short political career not to be “so sure about what lies ahead.” Her Senate office declined to make her available for an interview.
The emerging consensus among Democratic campaign officials is that its candidates offered a crimped economic message in midterm races that failed to galvanize voters.
Ms. Warren, who campaigned in 16 states on behalf of Democratic candidates, wove a broader narrative with heroes and villains: Average families on “Main Street” as opposed to “Big Oil” and the “guys who are raking in millions on Wall Street,” as she described in a speech in New Hampshire last month.
“Democrats made a big mistake by not running very strongly on the issue of the viability of the middle class and economic mobility,” said David Axelrod, a strategist for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, in an interview. “We ran a timid election campaign and we paid a price for it. One thing about Elizabeth Warren, she’s not timid.”
There are signs that Mrs. Clinton recognizes the appeal of the Warren message and is folding parts of it into her speeches. Should she run for the presidency, Mrs. Clinton would be a strong front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and she would like to deter a challenge from the left if possible.
Campaigning in Philadelphia last month with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf, Mrs. Clinton hit a signature Warren note when she said corporations “seem to have all of the rights but none of the responsibilities of people.”
Evan Bayh, former Democratic senator from Indiana, warned against choosing a candidate who is comparatively unknown, however charismatic that person might be. More important is to find a candidate skilled at making government work properly, he said. “We don’t have the luxury of falling in love with inspiration for its own sake,” he said.
Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said increased interest in Ms. Warren showed that Democrats are “desperate to find an alternative to Hillary after her failed and expensive campaigning for vulnerable Democrats this year. I think they are “ready for...anybody else.”
Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Janet Hook at janet.hook@wsj.com
