It's always been the case that the vote for fast track would be close, close of course being in the eye of the beholder. But, with a vote possible on Friday, there are A DOZEN DEMOCRATS worth calling today.
I suggest this list of a dozen based on two things: a little bit of intel from those privy to the vote count lists among the good guys AND a little bit of parsing some of the public counts, which are not, in my opinion, entirely accurate at least in terms of the Democrats who are undeclared--The Hill list, for example, today claims 39 Democrats as "undecided" or "undeclared" and I suspect that at least half are, in fact, decided but won't say anything publicly because they probably will vote "yes" and don't want to incur the wrath of labor until the very last minute possible.
In my opinion, if you call, here is the key thing to emphasize, especially to the Members of Congress who say they are "pro-trade" (putting aside for a moment that none of the so-called "free trade" agreements going back to NAFTA are even about "free trade"): fast track is an anomaly. The president does not need "fast track" to pass trade deals. Both Democratic and GOP presidents have struggled to convince Congress to delegate its constitutional trade authority via the Nixon-era Fast Track scheme. Fast Track has been in effect for only five years (2002-2007) of the 21 years since passage of NAFTA and the agreement that created the WTO. Bill Clinton did not have Fast Track for six of his eight years in office, but still implemented more than a hundred trade agreements. It's the responsibility of Congress, as an elected representative, to maintain the power to change bad deals.
Who ya going to call? You can call obviously your Congresscritter but, by all means, if you are not in the district, you can certainly call anyone, identify yourself as a Democrat and underscore that you will be watching the vote and deciding where to direct your financial support and volunteer efforts, either on behalf of a candidate or against a candidate, based on that person's vote on fast track. And, of course, the below list is just as a help to people who have limited time--if you KNOW your representative is undecided, by all means, call that person.
1. Nancy Pelosi (12th--CA): for obvious reasons--and particularly because of #2-#7 below, who will probably be influenced by Pelosi's stand. You could argue that as California Democrats go, so goes this vote, up or down.
Tel: (415) 556-4862
2. Susan Davis (53rd--CA): I hear leaning "yes".
Tel: (619) 280-5353
3. Jim Costa (16th--CA): I hear leaning "yes".
Tel: 559-495-1620
4. Sam Farr (20th--CA)
Tel: (831) 424-2229
5. Maxine Waters (43rd--CA): WTF? Represents one of the poorest districts in the country. These so-called "free trade" agreements screw her constituents.
Tel: (323) 757-8900
6. Karen Bass (37th--CA)
Tel: (323) 965-1422
7. Anna Eshoo (18th--CA): very close to Pelosi. I'm going to gamble that she's a "yes" vote largely because a big part of her district is Silicon Valley and she's probably hearing from the Masters of the Universe who love this corporate shit--even though a ton of her constituents are not wealthy.
Tel: (650) 323-2984 or (408) 245-2339 or (831) 335-2020
8. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (23rd--FL): Ugh. Probably a "yes" vote--and if she does vote "yes", I've argued that she should resign as chair of the DNC; aside from being thoroughly incompetent, a "yes" vote goes against the vast majority of Democrats in the Senate and House and you'd think that, acknowledging that her biggest constituency is probably rich donors, she should be in step with Congressional Democrats.
Tel: 954-437-4776
9. John Carney (Del): allegedly, leaning no but needs a lot of push.
Tel: (302) 691-7333
10. Steney Hoyer (5th--MD): My guess is that Hoyer is dying to vote "yes" and probably will vote "yes" and, as I wrote in the past, behind the scenes, he's encouraging some Democrats to vote "yes." The only thing holding him back, IMHO, is his desire to one day be Speaker/Leader so he'd rather wait until Pelosi declares to show his hand.
Tel: (301) 474-0119
11. Seth Moulton (6th--MA) As The Hill correctly notes, "Every other member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation is against fast-track." So, WTF?
Tel: (978) 531-1669
12. David Price (4th--NC):
Tel: 919-859-5999
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