Liberal groups are mounting a preemptive effort to discourage Hillary Clinton from tapping Wall Street veterans as she fills out her potential administration.
A coalition of 15 left-leaning groups sent a letter to Clinton on Wednesday, urging her to reach beyond executive suites on Wall Street and corporate America in filling out the key economic policy openings in her potential White House.
{mosads}The letter, first reported by Bloomberg, makes clear the Democartic nominee’s left flank will be closely watching her every move, and prepared to cry foul if they feel she is drifting too far from their principles and too close to Wall Street.
As Donald Trump and Clinton both begin establishing presidential transition teams, the groups want to see Clinton put together a transition team “whose commitment to the public interest in unimpeachable.”
A key part of that message is Clinton should steer clear of Wall Street.
“The interests of elites are over-represented in Washington,” the groups wrote. “Ordinary Americans understandably feel they lack a seat at the table.”
They also called on Clinton to publicly commit that if elected, she would fill top spots in her administration with a wide range of perspectives, from public interest advocacy and academia rather than the “usual set of corporate insiders.”
The letter marks one of the first rounds of jockeying within the Democratic Party to shape a potential Clinton administration. While she has granted significant concessions to the left wing of the party in the Democratic platform to win over supporters of Bernie Sanders, some on the left are still wary of whether Clinton will stick to those principles in the White House.
Among the signers were Democracy for America, MoveOn.org, the Center for Popular Democracy Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and the Rootstrikers Project at Demand Progress.
“Personnel as policy” has become a mantra on the left, as liberals are worried that the financial sector enjoys too much influence in Washington, particularly at the top tier of power players.
Their concern is that even if there are public commitments to pursue certain policies, those efforts could be undermined by relatively unknown administration officials with little intent to pursue them. The “personnel is policy” language actually made its way into the official Democratic platform.
Many on the left were frustrated by top officials in former President Bill Clinton’s administration who were seen as too sympathetic to Wall Street, and liberals have also sparred with the Obama administration over the presence of financial industry experience at the top of the president’s team.
Clinton, who faced criticism of being too close to Wall Street herself, has said she supports the overall “personnel is policy” philosophy, which is frequently espoused by liberal darling Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Clinton has yet to announce a transition team, but speculation in Washington is gearing up about who could potentially fill out her White House.
Her campaign’s chief financial officer, Gary Gensler, was previously a top executive at Goldman Sachs. However, Gensler’s credibility with the left has risen significantly since then, after he was widely seen as a tough regulator under Obama when he led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.