Let me start off by saying that I do not know a whole bunch about Cheri Bustos’ politics, or how she has functioned as a member of Congress, this is just about her remarkably troubled tenure as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
When most of your staff resign en mass, the trouble is at the top:
The top echelon of staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee left their jobs Monday, a shakeup following a pair of POLITICO stories detailing deep unease with the party’s campaign apparatus over a lack of diversity.
On Monday morning, Allison Jaslow, DCCC executive director and a close ally of Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) — chair of the committee — resigned during a tense meeting at the party’s Capitol Hill headquarters. And in the next 10 hours, much of the senior staff was out: Jared Smith, the communications director and another Bustos ally; Melissa Miller, a top DCCC communications aide; Molly Ritner, political director; Nick Pancrazio, deputy executive director; and Van Ornelas, the DCCC’s director of diversity.
Jacqui Newman, the chief operating officer for the campaign arm, will serve as interim executive director and facilitate the search for a permanent replacement, Bustos said in a statement late Monday.
She went public (it’s been kind of an open secret for years) with the blacklist of political consultants supporting primary challengers, she accepted, and then withdrew from an invitation to raise money for Dan Lipinski, and not most of the senior staff have left.
Also, she has kept a homophobe on staff to head up an outreach initiative:
And lawmakers felt misled about Bustos' handling of Tayhlor Coleman, a DCCC employee who came under fire for a series of derogatory tweets she sent nearly a decade ago disparaging the LGBTQ community and Hispanics. Coleman is still employed with the campaign arm.
People who could work with Rahm “Mr. Congeniality” Emanuel cannot work with Cheri Bustos.
Pelosi needs to replace her, or Bustos will place the Democratic majority in the House at further risk.