The Democratic senators are reportedly asking Clinton to apply a series of ‘litmus tests’ to prospective appointees should she be elected — and preparing a “blacklist” of candidates they want off the table
Hillary Clinton is still ahead in the polls, although anything can happen between now and Nov. 8. Still, many Democrats are proceeding on the assumption that Clinton will win. With that in mind, Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are informally putting together lists of “acceptable” candidates for senior regulatory positions in the Clinton administration — and a “blacklist” of unacceptable candidates.
According to a Washington Post report, Warren and Sanders are pressuring Clinton to apply “litmus tests” to potential nominees. These “tests” reportedly include not only a strict adherence to the Democratic Party platform, “but also avoidance of any connection to the financial industry — notwithstanding whatever expertise it might confer,” according to the Post.
“You can’t claim to want to rein in Wall Street if your Treasury Department is filled with Wall Street executives,” Jeff Weaver, former manager of Sanders’ presidential campaign, told the Post. Weaver said that progressive groups were “prepared to mobilize people to put a tremendous amount of pressure” on Clinton to nominate progressive candidates for top positions.
But conditions like that could eliminate many qualified candidates for positions like Treasury secretary and other top financial jobs, the Post reported. Warren also wants Clinton to do something that President Obama has so far declined to do: fire Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White.
White earned Warren’s ire by refusing to advance a regulation — described in a Post editorial as “largely symbolic and arguably irrelevant to the SEC’s statutory mandate” — that would require publicly traded companies to disclose their political donations.
What do you think? Should Warren be “blacklisting” certain people to try and keep them out of top regulatory jobs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
