The Los Angeles Times: Liberals pull from Republican toolbox to sway Hillary Clinton

By Evan Halper, May 12, 2015, Latimes.com

In their bid to push Hillary Rodham Clinton to the left, liberal activists are trying a tactic more commonly associated with the right.

Progressive standard bearer Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, was in Washington on Tuesday, kicking off a campaign to pressure politicians to embrace a 13-point policy blueprint, much the way Newt Gingrich did in 1994, just before Republicans took control of Congress. The effort is timed to influence Clinton as she develops her policy agenda.

But can the De Blasio plan have anything close to the effect of Gingrich’s Contract With America?

Gingrich thinks not. He wrote in the New York Post this week that the contract articulated a vision that already prevailed among Republicans, whereas De Blasio is picking a fight within his own party, timing the effort to influence Clinton as she develops her agenda.

The bigger challenge De Blasio faces, though, may be articulating a plan as simple and straightforward as the tax cuts, welfare cuts and government reform that conservatives rallied around before taking control of Congress two decades ago.

More:  www.latimes.com