[BwayDems] from the Steering Committee

[Pat Almonrode]

Dear members and friends of the Broadway Democrats,

Please see the attached letter (text also included below), sent jointly by
Robert Jackson and Micah Lasher to NYS Senator-elect Marisol Alcantara,
urging her NOT to align with the Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC). As
many of you already know, *the Daily News ran an article about this letter*
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/senator-elect-alcantara-asked-reject-breakaway-dem-group-article-1.2918911>
on the 21st.

A majority of the Steering Committee of the Broadway Democrats endorses the
substance of this letter. We agree that the Republican-aligned IDC has been
a roadblock to progressive legislation in Albany, and we strongly urge that
the Senator-elect caucus with the REAL Democrats in the Senate. We will ask
the club to take a similar position at our next general meeting on January
19.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that in the club's Assembly District (the
69th), Mr. Lasher and Mr. Jackson combined received 13 times as many votes
as Ms. Alcantara in the recent election.

Please be sure to join us for the January 19th general meeting, 8:00pm at
Bank Street, 610 W. 112th Street.

Thanks, and Happy Holidays!

Pat Almonrode
President,
Broadway Democrats

********************************************************
Text of the Jackson/Lasher letter:

December 21, 2016

Hon. Marisol Alcantara
210 Sherman Avenue New York, NY 10034

By e-mail

Dear Senator-Elect Alcantara:

We write to urge you to caucus with the State Senate Democrats and not the
so-called “Independent Democratic Conference” (IDC). For four years now,
the IDC has perpetuated Republican leadership of the Senate. They have done
so by:

 Depriving Democrats of a majority and preventing the election of the
first female Senate Majority Leader, even when—as will be the case in
January—a majority of Senators are in fact registered Democrats;

 Providing critical votes to the Republican leadership on a day-to-day
basis—in committee and on the floor of the Senate—stymieing the efforts of
Democrats to advance a progressive agenda and call attention to the
Republicans’ failure to act on a wide range of progressive legislation;

 Undermining the efforts of Senate Democrats to raise funds and build
support for candidates running against Republicans. This happens both
because donors and institutions are skeptical that the IDC would ever
support a Democratic majority, and because those donors and institutions
can, in the alternative, support the IDC, knowing that the conference will
be a requisite part of any majority—since, to put it charitably, the IDC is
ambidextrous.

The result of all of this has been the trappings and crumbs of personal
power for the IDC—and the shaft for residents of the 31st Senate District.

New York State has no DREAM Act because of the IDC. Public schools remain
underfunded to the tune of billions of dollars. We have some of the worst
campaign finance laws in the country and loophole-laden rent laws that,
every day, force tenants in the 31st Senate District out of their homes.
All because the IDC has killed the prospect of a Democratic majority that
would take action on these issues.

Now, in the Trump era, with its plans for an anti-public school Education
Secretary, an anti-environment EPA Administrator, an anti-voting rights
Attorney General and an anti-diversity, anti-women and anti-equality
agenda, Democrats
cannot afford to be divided. You and others have made the specious argument
that the IDC is responsible for the few good things that have come out of
the State Legislature in recent years, such as an increase in the minimum
wage. This is nonsense. To the extent the Senate has been coaxed into the
occasional compromise, the coaxing has not truly been done by the IDC and
the results have been heavily watered down versions of what would pass
under a united Democratic majority, which the IDC could make a reality but
instead obstructs.

For all of these reasons, it is unconscionable to us that you would join
the IDC, and we write to express hope that you will change course. You and
each of us ran to represent the 31st Senate District on strong progressive
platforms—and there can be no surer way to prevent progressive action than
by strengthening the hand of the IDC.

Finally, it should be noted that most voters in the September Democratic
Primary—even among the less than 33% that constituted your plurality and
delivered a 294-vote margin of victory—had no idea that you planned to
caucus with the IDC, nor that hundreds of thousands of dollars came into
your campaign from the IDC’s various political action committees through
elaborate circumvention of individual contribution limits. In addition to
being at cross-purposes with helping your constituents, caucusing with the
IDC is to perpetrate a fraud on them, as well.

For the people you represent, and the issues you claim to care about,
please reconsider and join the Democratic Conference.
Sincerely,

Micah Lasher Robert Jackson
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