WASHINGTON — Eric Holder wants fairer rules for criminal sentencing. Muriel Bowser wants statehood for Washington, D.C. Raul Grijalva wants due process for undocumented immigrants. Dalia Mogahed wants an end to Islamaphobia. Christopher Kang wants safeguards against racial profiling, and SIster Simone Campbell wants a broad vision for a country with no room for racism or white privilege.
The former U.S. attorney general, D.C. mayor, Arizona congressman, social policy scholar, director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, Catholic social justice lobbyist and others offering testimony Wednesday have a tall order for the Democratic National Convention Platform Drafting Committee — and that’s just for starters.
The committee will hear three more days of testimony over the next week and a half as it prepares policy positions that will guide the party for the next four years.
“Everything is on the table and nothing is off limits,” DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Wednesday as the drafting committee convened for the first time. “This is a complex task with no perfect answers.”
The result of the panel’s work, though, may be of little consequence. Neither the president nor legislative caucuses are bound by the agreed upon platform. Several committee members and testifiers called out Donald Trump and the Republican Party for supporting or condoning racism, xenophobia and religious intolerance.
“With the threat of Donald Trump … we must go to higher ground, and we will go to higher ground,” said U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, chairman of the drafting committee.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz made similar comments about the presumptive Republican nominee, but urged the committee to develop a pro-Democrat platform rather than an anti-Trump one.
“It’s not enough to just give voters a reason to vote against Trump. It’s time to gear up for the general election and give the American people a clear vision of who they’ll be voting for when they cast their ballot for a Democrat,” she told committee members. “That’s the vital task you undertake today.”
The hearing, which continues today at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, is the first of two public forums ahead of a drafting meeting in St. Louis and the full committee’s adoption of platform planks in Orlando, Fla., just ahead of the July 25-28 nominating convention in Philadelphia. The second public forum is planned for next week in Phoenix.
The Orlando session will be the first meeting of the full 187-member committee whose members are selected by state parties from among convention delegates, and full committee meetings can sometimes be contentious.
This time, debate could be especially intense because of stark differences in positions of presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and her top challenger, Bernie Sanders, whose supporters remain passionate.
At Mr. Sanders’s request, the DNC allowed him to pick six drafting committee members while Ms. Clinton got to pick five and Ms. Wasserman Schultz picked four.
Sabrina Shrader, of the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, asked the drafting committee to prioritize plans to incorporate Mr. Sanders’ plan to provide free access to college — something Ms. Clinton has characterized as overly burdensome on taxpayers.
One drafting committee member staked out a firm position early on another contentious issue.
“I really don’t personally think anyone should have a gun. I mean, that’s just my own philosophy,” said North Carolina resort owner Bonnie Schaefer, who was appointed by Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
Her comment came after Lucy McBeth, testifying on behalf of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, asked for stricter laws that would keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
Tianna Gaines-Turner of Philadelphia also testified. She spoke on behalf of Witnesses to Hunger, a group of parents whose children have experienced hunger and poverty.
“We work, we struggle, we scrape, we save but it’s never enough,” she said. She asked the drafting committee to prioritize efforts to strengthen and support safety-net programs to better serve needy families.
The five-and-a-half-hour hearing also included testimony from stakeholders seeking greater investment in urban communities, a higher minimum wage, broader use of body cameras by law enforcement officers, better dispute-resolution processes between the federal government and tribal nations, continued support for gay rights, increased support for historically black colleges, expanded access to the Internet in poor communities, and much more.
“We want to include your views in our statement,” U.S. Rep Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who chairs the drafting committee, told them. He said others can submit comments online at www.demconvention.com.
Still, not all felt their voices were represented well enough inside the hotel ballroom. They include throngs who gathered outside. Among them were more than 200 employees of federal contractors who used bullhorns and loud voices to demand a higher minimum wage and the right to unionize.
“I’ve been a Bernie Sanders supporter,” said Alba Morales, 26, of Washington, D.C., while she marched toward the hotel from nearby Rock Creek Park. “Now we’ve got to get Hillary with us. We have to let her know we need her, and we need her to hear our voice.”
Nearby, members of labor unions demonstrated more peacefully. They included the National Education Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Workers.
“We’re here to show support for Hillary,” said Mia Dell, UFCW’s legislative director. “We endorsed her before the Nevada caucuses and we’ve been with her ever since. We want to let everybody inside know that we support Clinton’s priorities and values.”
Washington Bureau Chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com; 703-996-9292 or on Twitter @pgPoliTweets.
First Published: June 9, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
