美国国家公共电台 NPR Tight Race For DNC Chair Narrows Ahead Of Weekend Vote

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Democratic Party is in search of a leader. Now, often, that means finding the next inspirational figure to run as a presidential nominee¹. But in their current state, Democrats² are beginning with electing someone to chair the Democratic National Committee, which has seen a fair amount of upheaval³ over the past year. Party officials vote in Atlanta. And NPR's Scott Detrow is there right now. Scott, good morning.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE⁴: Morning, David.

GREENE: So a whole lot of candidates have been running for this job. We've heard from many of them on this program. What are the differences between them?

DETROW: Well, you know, it's hard to tell at times because many of the candidates are just agreeing with each other so much. Still, a lot of people are viewing this race as a proxy⁵ for last year's primary. You have the grassroots, more liberal and activist⁶ wing of the party that backed Bernie Sanders. Then you have the establishment wing that was with Hillary Clinton and, before that, Barack Obama.

And if you take that view, Minnesota Congressman⁷ Keith Ellison is the grassroots candidate. He did get really early support from Bernie Sanders. And former Labor⁸ Secretary Tom Perez has the backing of Obama allies like Joe Biden and Eric Holder⁹. So those guys are the two main contenders right now in a seven-person field.

And I think another candidate to keep an eye on who could be a dark horse tomorrow is South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He's seen as a future leader of the party. And he's gotten some big endorsements¹⁰, too - especially Howard Dean, who endorsed¹¹ him a few days ago.

GREENE: Yeah. We heard from him on the show. He was talking about his strength being the fact that he is an outsider and the fact that he doesn't have much Washington experience. This race, Scott, has been going on for a long time now. We were talking to some of these people, you know, just after the election about how the party can reconnect with working-class voters. Has much changed since then?

DETROW: Yeah, and the race feels especially long because so much has changed politically since November...

GREENE: Yeah, really.

DETROW: ...A lot. It was pretty static until the last week or so, when it's changed a lot. Yesterday, you had one of the candidates drop out. That was South Carolina party chair Jaime Harrison. He now says he's endorsing¹² Tom Perez. And that happened a few days after another candidate and another party chair, Ray Buckley from New Hampshire, left the race. And Buckley endorsed Ellison.

So those two moves really solidify¹³ Perez and Ellison as the top contenders here. Their camps are both claiming - and most observers watching this agree - that, going into Saturday, they have way more votes than anybody else running.

GREENE: Let's meet some of them. Let's hear from some of what they've told us on the program. And it has been remarkable¹⁴ that they've been pushing basically the same message.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOM PEREZ: When Donald Trump¹⁵ says, I'm going to bring those coal jobs back, we know that's a lie. But people understand that he feels their pain.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

KEITH ELLISON: We've got to build a durable¹⁶ relationship of trust with voters around the things that they are most concerned about.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

PETE BUTTIGIEG: We've got to be talking about what our values actually are and what the policies are that flow from them.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

SALLY BOYNTON BROWN: And we need to make sure that everything that we're doing then promotes our values. And I think we've been out of alignment¹⁷ for a while.

GREENE: That was Sally Boynton Brown there - also Pete Buttigieg, Keith Ellison and Tom Perez. Scott, I mean, they all seem to be saying the challenge is the same for the party here.

DETROW: Yeah. And, I mean, when you think about it, the Democrats - they are in the minority at all levels of government, state government, the House, the Senate, the White House. So there's a lot of work for this DNC chair to do. A lot of that is messaging, also raising a lot of money for the party and serving as a key face for Democrats going forward. Whoever wins this will have a lot of work on their plate.

GREENE: OK. And, briefly¹⁸, how does this vote actually work tomorrow, Scott?

DETROW: A lot of rounds of voting in a hotel room in Atlanta. You have to get a majority of 447 votes. And they keep voting until somebody clears that majority. So it could take a while.

GREENE: And you're in Atlanta, and you will be covering this tomorrow. That is NPR's Scott Detrow, covering the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee. Thanks, Scott.

DETROW: Thank you, David.

1 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

10 endorsements   

n.背书( endorsement的名词复数 )；（驾驶执照上的）违章记录；（公开的）赞同；（通常为名人在广告中对某一产品的）宣传

参考例句：

• He must make much money on those tennis shoe endorsements he does. 他替那些网球鞋珍重广告，就赚了不少钱。 来自互联网
• But celebrity endorsements remain an important promotional tool for marketers. 尽管如此，邀明星助阵仍是营销人员重要的推广手段之一。 来自互联网

11 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

13 solidify   

v.(使)凝固，(使)固化，(使)团结

参考例句：

• Opinion on this question began to solidify.对这个问题的意见开始具体化了。
• Water will solidify into ice if you freeze it.水冷冻会结冰。

14 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

15 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

16 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

17 alignment   

n.队列；结盟，联合

参考例句：

• The church should have no political alignment.教会不应与政治结盟。
• Britain formed a close alignment with Egypt in the last century.英国在上个世纪与埃及结成了紧密的联盟。

18 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。