Debbie Wasserman Schultz has officially jetted out of Pennsylvania after resigning in disgrace from the Democratic National Committee and facing down hordes of angry Bernie Sanders supporters.
But while she may now have several states between her and her most recent troubles, Wasserman Schultz has an August 30 Florida primary to look forward to, and right now, things are looking pretty grim for the longtime congresswoman. And the DNC isn’t going to help.
Florida is strange in that it hosts separate presidential and statewide office primaries. Although the state has already awarded its DNC delegates, Wassserman Schultz will face progressive Democrat (and Bernie Sanders acolyte) Tim Canova in a Democratic contest for her House seat in just a few weeks. And according to the same DNC emails that revealed she was railroading the Vermont senator’s chance at the Dem nomination, DNC staffers close to Wasserman Schultz were similarly handicapping Canova.
DNC staffers fretted privately that Canova had hired top-notch Democratic staffers, that he was speaking at major progressive-focused rallies competing with DNC events, and that he was aggressively raising money. In one case, a DNC staffer encouraged others to “do some digging” on Canova’s speeches. No surprise, a reporter in Florida soon discovered that Canova had lifted several “sentence fragments” for his website.
The last laugh may be on Wasserman Schultz, however. Canova recently surpassed the $2 million mark in financing (he raised $10,000 just on the day she resigned her DNC post). And although the Cook Political Report still has Wasserman Schultz solidly in the lead, her opponent is taking full advantage of the DNC hack.
Wasserman Schultz says she will spend the next several weeks in Florida. But, in a strange turn of events, the DNC that she headed up won’t be backing her.
According to reports in The Hill on Tuesday morning, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has all but completely dismissed the idea of providing financial help to Debbie’s campaign. They will provide “technical and logistical” support for her, they said, but they will reserve resources and TV ad buys for committee “priorities.” Since Democrats will likely keep Wasserman Schultz’s seat whether she or Canova occupy the ballot slot, logically they’re not interested in getting too deeply involved—but Wasserman Schultz should definitely get the message.