On Thursday the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, with a 20-member board including 11 lobbyists, 7 elected officials, and 2 people who work for the PAC, endorsed Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The CBC-PAC is the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus.
If this is supposed to mean black folks have confidence in Debt-Trap Debbie, the CBC-PAC, Debt-Trap Debbie, and anyone else believing that hype, is sorely mistaken.
The African American community in Congressional District 23 is not feeling Debbie Wasserman Schultz AT ALL.
Getting a pseudo-black organization run primarily by lobbyists to endorse Debbie isn’t worth a thing here in South Florida.
Notwithstanding the fact that Debbie’s support of the payday loan industry helps keep the African American community disproportionately trapped in a cycle of debt, paying upwards of 300 percent on predatory payday loans that Debbie doesn’t want legislated, Debbie has not addressed the main thing plaguing the African American community in her district.
Jobs.
In the words of Janet Jackson, “What have you done for me lately?”
What has Debbie done for the African Americans in Congressional District 23? If African Americans in her district held a forum to address issues with her, would she attend?
In reading the press release by the CBC-PAC, all they talked about was what Debbie supposedly did, of any significance, as DNC Chair.
Sorry Debbie, but you can’t mix that job with representing your community in Congressional District 23.
It has become abundantly clear that Debbie hasn’t been present in the African American Community in CD 23.
The fact that there was nothing substantial the lobbyists making up the CBC-PAC could name that Debbie did for African Americans in her district is pathetic.
I’m sure at the 11th hour Debbie will grab some black legislators and run through a few black churches.
She may even get Alcee Hastings and Frederica Wilson to get her a one-day buddy pass into the black community.
We still aren’t buying it.
Here's the fact: Tim Canova is all over Debbie Wasserman Schultz like a cheap suit and she is running scared.
Democracy For America endorsed Tim Canova, so Debbie called up her lobbyist friends and decided to kill two birds with one stone: 1) attempt to appeal to black people and 2) get an endorsement to break up Tim Canova’s string of news releases.
I knew Debbie was desperate for positive news coverage when she announced she had qualified to be on the ballot.
Really?
She needed to announce that?
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, that CBC-PAC board includes the following lobbyists:
- Daron Watts: Purdue Pharma, makes OxyContin
- Mike McKay: Navient, student loans
- Chaka Burgess: Navient, Student Loans
- Al Wynn: Lorillard Tobacco, Newport Cigarettes
Those are just some of the lobbyists, but you get the picture.
The CBC-PAC wouldn’t endorse Donna Edwards, an African American woman who was running for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland, but they endorse Debt-Trap Debbie here in Florida?
Now, that could be because the person Donna beat for her House seat was none other than Al Wynn ...
At any rate, the 13 percent African American population living in Congressional District 23 should get behind Tim Canova.
It’s time Debbie did something she has never done before:
Work in the private sector.
Leslie Wimes is founder and president of Women On The Move, and the Democratic African American Women Caucus, www.daawc.com.
