Four longtime Democratic National Committee officials have been removed from their posts under the leadership of the committee’s chairman Tom Perez.
The four who were ousted either supported candidates other than Perez for campaign chairman, ran against him or supported former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), NBC News reported Thursday morning.
The ousted officials include Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman who ran against Perez for chairman; as well as Alice Germond, a former party secretary; and Barbra Casbar Siperstein, the first transgender member of the DNC. Both Germond and Casbar Siperstein supported Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) for DNC chair.
James Zogby, who backed Sanders in the Democratic primaries and is the president of the Arab American Institute, was removed from his post as the co-chair of the Resolutions Committee and was kicked off the Executive Committee.
Buckley was pushed out of the Executive Committee and DNC Rules Committee, Casbar Siperstein was removed from the Executive Committee and Germond lost her at-large appointment.
A DNC spokesperson said the changeover in the DNC’s at-large membership was to make the committee’s representation more reflective of the “unprecedented diversity of our party’s coalition.”
NBC also reported that there is an over-representation of former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backers on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, which sets the rules for the Democratic presidential primaries.
