The Washington Post - 02.03.2020

MONDAy, MARCH 2 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 A

ILLINOIS

Man shot by police

won’t face charges

A man who was shot and
seriously wounded by a Chicago
police officer in a downtown
train station won’t face charges,
as prosecutors on Sunday
dropped the criminal case
stemming from an incident
captured on bystander video and
shared widely.
Cook County prosecutors
moved to drop resisting arrest
and criminal narcotics charges
against Ariel Roman, and a judge
approved doing so on Sunday,
the Chicago Tribune reported.
Earlier in the day, Charlie
Beck, the interim police
superintendent, said he asked
Cook County State’s Attorney
Kim Foxx to drop the charges,
according to a statement.
“Given the totality of
circumstances and the
department’s significant level of
concern around this incident, it
would be insensitive to advocate
for these charges,” police
spokesman Anthony Guglielmi
said. “While we will not rush to
judgment, the level of concern
over the tactics used in this

incident is significant.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said

that footage of Friday’s shooting

was “extremely disturbing” and

that she supported Beck’s rare

request for prosecutors to be

sent directly to the scene. The

shooting came the same day that

Lightfoot and the department

announced a safety plan for the

city’s rail system amid a spike in

crime, including more officers on

trains and at stations.

The Civilian Office of Police

Accountability was investigating

the use of force, while the state’s

attorney and FBI conducted the

underlying criminal review.

Guglielmi said the department

was cooperating fully.

Foxx’s office didn’t return

messages Sunday.

Roman’s attorney, Gloria

Schmidt Rodriguez, said that he

had surgery after he was shot in

the abdomen and buttocks and

that he will probably need more

operations. He remained

hospitalized Sunday but was no

longer in critical condition.

Police have said only one

officer fired a weapon, striking

Roman twice, but the

department has not named

either of the officers involved.

— Associated Press

Police kill armed man: Police in

Santa Ana, Calif., fatally shot an

armed man Sunday afternoon in

a Catholic church, the Orange

County Register reported. The

shooting took place shortly after

the officers were flagged down at

4:20 p.m. and told that someone

in Immaculate Heart of Mary

Church had a gun, police Cpl.

Anthony Bertagna said. The

officers found the man in the

church, and the shooting took

place shortly thereafter,

Bertagna said. The man ran

outside with a gun and collapsed

on the street, Bertagna said. He

was pronounced dead at the

scene. Officers were told by

people inside the church, who

had arrived for a 5 p.m. service,

that another person may have

been with the man. Officers

searched the church and a

nearby school, but by early

Sunday evening had not found

anyone, Bertagna told the

Register. Police withheld the

man’s name pending notification

of relatives. “It’s scary to think

we’re not even safe here,” said

church member Maria Roque,

39, of Santa Ana. “I’ve been

coming here since I was 16 years

old.”

— Associated Press

DIGEST

Politics & the Nation

BY MIKE DEBONIS

An insurgent candidate at odds
with party elites attempts to seize
the nomination from establish-
ment rivals: That infighting roil-
ing the Democratic presidential
race is playing out in this week’s
Super Tuesday congressional pri-
maries.
Just as Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) i s rankling m oderate Demo-
crats in his quest f or the p residen-
cy, two Te xas House candidates —
one a Democrat, the other a Re-
publican — have crossed swords
with party regulars in their bid to
unseat veteran incumbents. The
same dynamic exists in a pair of
Democratic Senate primaries, in
North Carolina and Te xas.
All told, while Sanders’s perfor-
mance might headline Super
Tuesday’s results, the down-ballot
races c ould say just as much about
the present willingness of each
party’s voters to eschew pragma-
tists and dealmakers for more
ideologically driven candidates.
No race is being more closely
watched on Capitol Hill than the
Democratic primary in Te xas’s
28th Congressional District,
where Rep. Henry Cuellar is seek-
ing nomination to a ninth term
representing a heavily Latino
swath stretching from the Rio
Grande to the San Antonio sub-
urbs.
Cuellar is one of the most con-
servative members of the House
Democratic Caucus; he once
backed Republican George W.
Bush’s presidential bid and has
more recently stumped for GOP
House colleagues while voting
against some of his party’s signa-
ture legislative efforts.
But party leaders, including
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
Calif.), have rallied around him —
fearful that a win by challenger
Jessica Cisneros could boost the
threats to other incumbents, in-
cluding a trio o f powerful commit-
tee chairmen who are facing chal-
lenges from younger, more liberal
candidates this year — Reps. Eliot
L. Engel (N.Y.) of the Foreign Af-
fairs Committee, Jerrold Nadler
(N.Y.) of the Judiciary Committee,
and Richard E. Neal (Mass.) of the
Ways and Means Committee.
Cisneros, a 26-year-old human
rights attorney, has cast Cuellar as
too conservative for a n overwhelm-
ingly Democratic district — one
that voted for Hillary Clinton over
Donald Trump by 20 points in the
2016 presidential race. She has won
endorsements from Sanders, Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
and other leading lights of the left.
In a call with reporters Friday
arranged b y Emily’s List, the influ-
ential Democratic women’s group
that has endorsed her, Cisneros
played down the ideological di-
mensions of the primary clash
and s aid her c ampaign was “ about
true representation for border
communities.”
“We’re still left out of so many
decisions and policies that are
coming from Washington,” she
said.
Also in the crosshairs Tuesday
is Rep. Kay Granger (R-Te x.), a
former Fort Worth m ayor who has
risen up the ranks of the House
Appropriations Committee since
her i nitial 1996 election to become
the top Republican on the power-
ful panel — and by extension, one
of the most powerful GOP women
in the House.

But her role as a senior appro-

priator — one who has had to cut

deals with Democrats to pass jam-

packed spending bills — has

earned her the enmity of her par-

ty’s fiscal purists and an aggres-

sive primary challenge in the

North Te xas-based 12th District

from businessman Chris Putnam,

who has also highlighted her past

position as a supporter of abor-

tion rights.

Putnam’s challenge has been

amplified by national conserva-

tive groups that see a chance to

harden the GOP against govern-

ment spending by ousting a top

appropriator. The anti-tax Club

for Growth calls the race a “Re-

publican Upgrade Opportunity”

and has funneled more than

$1 million into the race.

Endorsing Putnam earlier this

year, club president David M.

McIntosh noted derisively that

Granger w as a 12-term incumbent

and had “recklessly voted for out-

of-control deficit-spending, back-

room bloated budget deals, and

debt limit increases.”

Voters, he added, “deserve a

fiscal conservative with a voting

record to match.”

Granger said in an interview

that she has tried to sell voters on

the importance of her position as a

senior appropriator — as well as

her December endorsement from

President Trump, which has done

little to stop Putnam’s claims that

he would b e the more reliable vote

for Trump’s agenda.

“I didn’t expect a primary chal-

lenge to try to take o ut someone in

my p osition, R epublican by anoth-

er Republican,” Granger said. “It

does take me by surprise. We

should b e trying to get the m ajori-

ty back instead of taking out the

people who are here.”

Karin Dyer, a Putnam campaign

spokeswoman, blasted Granger’s

“long record of betraying Republi-

can values during her 24 years in

office” a nd promoted Putnam’s s ta-

tus as “a business outsider that is

being attacked by the political es-

tablishment, just like President

Trump.”

“President Trump needs real

allies i n Washington, n ot just ones

that show up during campaign

season,” she said.

Granger has outraised Putnam

by nearly $1.5 million, according

to campaign finance reports filed

in mid-February, b ut the s pending

gap narrowed thanks to the Club

for Growth’s spending as well as

another $1.1 million spent against

Granger from the conservative

Protect Freedom PAC.

T he Congressional Leadership

Fund, the biggest Republican su-

per PAC focused exclusively on

House races, made a rare detour

into a primary race, spending

$1.3 million to help Granger fend

off the Club for Growth’s attacks.

Rep. To m Cole (R-Okla.), a vet-

eran appropriator and a former

national campaign chairman for

the House GOP, said the race is

being closely watched by House

leaders and senior lawmakers

who fear that governance could

suffer if Granger is ousted.

“If all of sudden somebody who

supported the president i s vulner-

able in a primary because they

cast tough spending votes, then

there won’t be nearly as many

people supporting the president

when he has to cut a deal, and

that’s when Kay’s been there,” he

said. “You’re not helping build a

Republican majority and you’re

not helping the president by beat-

ing people like Kay Granger.”

Intraparty tensions are also at

play in a pair of Senate primaries

in North Carolina and Te xas.

Democratic Party leaders in

Washington are bracing f or a close

race in the Ta r Heel State between

their favored candidate, former

state senator Cal Cunningham,

and a more liberal candidate, s tate

Sen. Erica Smith.

Adding to the intrigue: A super

PAC with ties to Senate Majority

Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

admitted last week to spending

$3 million on a covert effort to

boost Smith — a bid to force Cun-

ningham and his Democratic al-

lies to spend down their campaign

accounts, if not eliminate him

from the general election entirely.

And in Te xas, military veteran

M.J. Hegar won plaudits for a

strong 2018 House campaign and

has, like Cunningham, won the

endorsement of the Democratic

Senatorial Campaign Committee.

But she has s truggled to break out

amid challenges from labor orga-

nizer Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez,

state Sen. Royce West, former con-

gressman Chris Bell and Houston

City Council m ember A manda Ed-

wards, among others.

While Cisneros’s run has invit-

ed comparisons to Ocasio-Cortez’s

2018 upset of Rep. Joseph C rowley

(N.Y.), then the Democratic Cau-

cus chairman, the comparisons

may be superficial. Cuellar, 64, h as

taken a much more aggressive

approach to his campaign than

Crowley did, engaging in a ground

effort that his allies say is in much

closer touch with a politically lib-

eral but culturally conservative

district than Cisneros is.

That i ncludes a major fundrais-

ing push, d rawing heavily on allies

in the business world. As of mid-

February, the most recent filing

deadline, Cuellar had already

spent $2.2 million, with another

$2 million left in his campaign

coffers, while C isneros spent more

than $1 million. Te xas Forward, a

super PAC supporting Cisneros,

has spent another $1.3 million,

while unions have added another

$200,000 in spending on her be-

half.

Supporting Cuellar have been a

pair of typically Republican

groups: the U.S. Chamber of Com-

merce and American f or Prosperi-

ty A ction, t he campaign arm of the

conservative network overseen by

industrialist Charles Koch.

Cuellar campaign spokesman

Colin Strother said a victory

would send a message that “we are

a big-tent party.”

“No faction of four or five peo-

ple a nd a couple of PACs are going

to perform purification rituals on

this caucus,” Strother said. “When

we have the gavel and we have the

speaker, it's because we have a

diverse caucus filled with moder-

ates and conservatives.”

For Pelosi, who visited Cuellar’s

hometown of Laredo last month

for a high-profile fundraiser, the

imperative is simple: Stop an in-

surrection before it spreads, thus

insulating other incumbents from

costly challenges.

“My role is to win the House for

the Democrats and to do so by

winning for our incumbents,” she

said Friday. “I would like them to

get a nice win so that there’s a

message for the future, for the

next election and the rest — that

would be t hat members who come

here, who help us win the majori-

ty, will have the support of the

leadership of the House.”

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D), who

represents a neighboring South

Te xas district, was even more

pointed, s aying he hoped a Cuellar

win w ould send t he message “that

New York and Massachusetts and

California don’t dictate politics in

South Te xas” — r eferring to Cisne-

ros’s high-profile endorsers.

“We’re Democrats, strong Dem-

ocrats, but we’re just a little more

moderate than other parts of the

country,” he said before echoing a

point made by allies of both Cuel-

lar and Granger: “I think it’s very

foolish that we’re wasting monu-

mental amounts of resources that

we should be using for Novem-

ber.”

[email protected]

Echoes of insurgency, down ballots and across the aisle

NICK WAGNER/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at a rally in Austin with Jessica Cisneros, who is challenging a Democratic congressman from the left.

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