New York State Senator James Skoufis, a candidate for Democratic National Committee Chair, recently said he would go on “permanent offense” and “dismantle” the infrastructure of the Green Party if successful in his bid. Skoufis made the remarks last month on social media, specifically citing the results of the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.
“The Green Party spoiled another major race for us (PA SEN), just the latest on a very long list,” Skoufis wrote in an X post shortly before the New Year. “As [Democratic National Committee] Chair, I’ll go on permanent offense, not just taking up the legal fight during ballot access. We’ll dismantle these Republican-enablers’ infrastructure. The gloves come off.”
The Green Party itself did not respond to Skoufis’ comment; however, it reposted remarks from the party’s 2024 presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein, who posted on X in response: “This DNC chair candidate is planning to make the Dems’ war on Greens permanent. Does anyone fight harder against democracy than the DNC?”
In his initial statement, Skoufis refers to last November’s U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, where Republican Dave McCormick narrowly defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Robert Casey Jr. and three other candidates by a plurality. McCormick won with 48.82% of the vote, followed by Casey at 48.6%. Green Party candidate Leila Hazou garnered 0.95%, Libertarian John Thomas earned 1.29%, and Constitution Party candidate Marty Selker received 0.34%. While Skoufis attributes the loss to the Green Party, polling data suggests Hazou’s impact on Casey’s campaign may have been minimal—or at the very least, inconclusive.
For example, a Data for Progress poll conducted in the final weeks of the election showed Hazou drawing limited support, primarily from self-identified independents and Republicans, with negligible statistical backing from Democrats. A Suffolk University poll showed similar trends. However, in both cases, the sample sizes were small, making any definitive conclusions difficult.
While it’s not clear what Skoufis meant by dismantling the Green Party’s infrastructure, the Democratic Party took an aggressive approach to third party efforts last year, especially those of the Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein and independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Cornel West. Throughout the 2024 election cycle, the party did things such as challenge state ballot access efforts, hire operatives tasked with countering these campaigns, launch attack ads against Stein, and briefly sought a project manager to attend events and collect campaign intelligence on third party and independent candidates, among other responsibilities.
Skoufis referenced the Green Party again last week, doubling down on his previous post by stating that the Democratic Party “needs to go on offense” and that, as Chair, he would build a “significantly larger team of in-house lawyers to take the fight to the Republican Party, the Green Party, and anyone trying to make it harder to vote.”
The Democratic National Committee will formally vote on its next chair on February 1. Skoufis is one of nearly a dozen candidates seeking the position, including Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, and past presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson. Incumbent Jaime Harrison is not seeking reelection.
When the Democrats call us “spoilers” and blame their losses on us, they ignore the fact that a far larger percentage of people don’t vote than vote for Green candidates, and that it is the Dems’ failure to inspire those folks, not us Greens, that loses elections for them. Of course, they’ll never admit that.
The more that I think about it, the more I believe that our larger, more populous states ought to be split up into smaller ones. Some of these, like Pennsylvania, can be easily split up where a major metro area has political leanings divergent from the hinterlands. Pennsylvania is clearly one of these. NYC in New York, Chicago in Illinois, Detroit in Michigan, Seattle in Washington, Portland in Oregon, Phoenix in Arizona, Las Vegas in Nevada, and Atlanta in Georgia are some others. These metro regions could be split off into new states, making both them and the residents of the remainder states much happier places politically.
“In his initial statement, Skoufis refers to last November’s U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, where Republican Dave McCormick narrowly defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Robert Casey Jr. and three other candidates by a plurality. McCormick won with 48.82% of the vote, followed by Casey at 48.6%”
Has anyone in Pennsylvania ever proposed run-off elections there? It seems like both major parties think that they “deserve” to win Pennsylvania, when there are usually enough voters in every statewide election to say otherwise.
Or maybe, metro Philadelphia can be split off in a new state, and then this new state will be safely in Democratic hands, and the rest of the state solidly Republican.
Skoufis will also ban Progressives from the Democratic Party as well.
Putting aside the obvious that voting is the scam of the victim choosing how the mugger mugs you…
Of course Democrats hate Greens, just as Republicans hate Libertarians, because the Democrats and Republicans both ascribe to the Entitled Vote Fallacy, which states that only Democrats and Republicans (and nobody else) are entitled to votes.
It’s a fallacy because votes are earned, not entitled. It’s easily disproven by flipping the parties around conversely and watching the Democrats and Republicans lose their minds in correct denial. “That’s not the case!” they cry, to which the response is, “Well, neither is the opposite.”
The reality is because votes are earned, the way to win is to run better candidates to earn those votes. That’s true for all parties.
Plus, having an electorate where 95% of them don’t need help tying their Velcro shoes every morning.
Same ole same ole from the Democratic Party. Their response to election losses is seemingly never to look in the mirror. They always start and finish with the blame game. It’s always someone else’s fault that they lost an election. The answer is never to work harder to earn votes, it’s never to adopt more popular positions, it is always blame other parties and their candidates and make limit people’s choices at the ballot box. The party that ran on “defend democracy” consistently wants to deny people choices on election day.
“…anyone trying to make it harder to vote.” – NY Sen James Skoufis
I wonder if he has any idea about the irony in his words? He wants to make it much harder to vote for anyone but his favored candidates.
“I’ll go on permanent offense”
When did Americans start using “offense” when they actually mean “the offensive”? It feels like a fairly recent development (last decade or so), but seems to be spreading fast. Is it a result of gridiron lingo?
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@Anwar Hamilton’s Spook
“He gave standing ovations to Netanyahu in the Capitol. He voted for all the funding to to send arms to Netanyahu.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Unfortunately, Casey is nowhere near the hero you are making him out to be:
https://www.conservapedia.com/Bob_Casey,_Jr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Casey_Jr.#Political_positions
Bob Casey is a butcher among butchers. Leila Hazou confronted him publicly, in person, in her town and told him she would run as a Palestinian woman and put her name next to his on the ballot if he did not change his position on the genocide. He didn’t change–he got worse. He gave standing ovations to Netanyahu in the Capitol. He voted for all the funding to to send arms to Netanyahu. He ultimately had to recognize at least one Arab woman as a human being–the woman who may have cost him his job. His narcissism, hubris, and hatred for Arab people were his Shakespearean tragic flaws. There is no one to blame but Bob Casey.
Disgusting. It should be plainly obvious to everyone that the Democrats and Republicans will gladly play this game of “Us or Nobody”. It’s infuriating; where is this same energy to “dismantle” the Republican Party?
And, don’t suppose that some folks vote Republican out of spite.
Yes, it ‘s the fault of the Green Party that the Democrats run lousy candidates that lose votes to the Greens