The DLC has just announced that Al From, the long-time CEO and co-founder of the group over 20 years ago, is stepping down. He will be replaced by Bruce Reed, who recently co-authored a book on policy with Rahm Emanuel. And the organization itself will be shifting its focus from politics — that is, elections — to formulating and enacting policy, as well as highlighting a farm-team of elected officials across the country.
“I am immensely proud of the DLC’s success,” From said in the statement. “The DLC has largely achieved what we set out to do when I formed it in 1985. It has played a vital role in resuscitating the Democratic Party, and it has championed ideas that have changed our country for the better. Now is the right time for the DLC to take the next step, and Bruce Reed is the right person to lead it.”
The political environment has changed dramatically since 1984, the landslide Democratic defeat that spurred centrists to come together and form their own organization. The group has had both its successes and failures over the years, to be sure. But this is now a different time, with a newly-elected president who was nominated from the more liberal end of the Democratic Party’s ideological range. And that means the Democratic centrists will be shifting their own focus, too.
