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Lawmakers
withholding their dues said that their decision was the culmination
of several years of frustration with what they view as the
Democratic Party’s failure to reach out to Hispanics and include
them in the decision-making process. They are also increasingly
concerned by results at the ballot box and of post-election surveys
showing that President Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic
vote.
Caucus members last week demanded meetings with House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and told
The Hill that they would use their pending party dues as leverage to
secure an audience.
Pelosi is scheduled to receive the caucus in
her office tomorrow, and Emanuel will host members one week later at
DCCC headquarters.
Party leaders are levying dues — which
range from $100,000 to $600,000 — on a quarterly basis this cycle,
and the Hispanics’ threat that they might not comply by March 31 is
the first instance of lawmakers chafing under the new
deadline.
It was unclear how wide and deep Hispanic
disenchantment with their party leaders ran, with several members
saying that their threats on dues was a caucuswide initiative. But
Emanuel said he had already received dues from at least two
Hispanics, Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Hilda Solis
(D-Calif.), and his staff later added Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard
(D-Calif.) to that list.
One Hispanic lawmaker, who requested
anonymity, said, “We’re withholding our dues until we get some
agreements.”
“We’ve made that very clear and will make it
clearer,” the lawmaker added.
A spokeswoman for caucus
Chairwoman Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) said that this week’s
meetings were not officially brokered by the caucus but rather by
individual members. Napolitano, however, was not in Washington last
week and missed the Wednesday meeting where some of the plans to
withhold dues and seek meetings were hatched.
“We don’t
take a stand on members’ personal meetings,” Imelda Aguirre said.
“It’s not a caucus meeting.” However, both Pelosi’s office and the
DCCC had the meeting scheduled as a caucus event.
Rep. Raul
Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, “It’s not a single person. It’s a group
protest to say there needs to be a serious discussion on strategy,
on the integration of staff, and more attention paid to Latino
issues.”
“We are saying that we have the money and that until
we have an honest, serious and frank discussion, we’re not going to
give it to you,” Grijalva said.
“We want to feel fully
vested in the effort,” he added.
Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas)
said that Hispanics wanted the meetings “to sit down and talk about
more participation in the community.”
“Not enough money has
been spent” on reaching out to Hispanics, he said.
Caucus
anger with the party first bubbled to the surface in December when
congressional leaders wrote a bristling letter to Democratic
National Committee delegates that they would ignore Hispanic
concerns at their own peril.
Solis confirmed that she had
paid her dues and said that she was unaware of any caucus plan to
withhold them. But she added, “I missed the last two
meetings.”
“I was invited to their regular Wednesday morning
meeting and I am going to attend like I’ve been invited to other
groups,” said Emanuel.
Greg Speed, spokesman for the DCCC,
later said that the meeting had been scheduled at the committee’s
headquarters.
The DCCC has launched some new Hispanic
outreach initiatives. A senior member of the DCCC met with Rep.
Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) to identify key leaders at the grassroots
level, a Democratic leadership aide said.
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