Dems Choose Philly for ’16 Convention, Reject de Blasio’s Pro-Amnesty, Anti-Cop NYC

On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee chose Philadelphia to host the party’s 2016 convention, rejecting New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) anti-cop and pro-amnesty Brooklyn.

In recent weeks, Latino leaders in New York City tried to convince Democrats that New York, which they said was the “tip of the arrow” on amnesty issues, could be a shining symbol of the party’s pro-amnesty agenda.

In a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, 21 Latino leaders in New York wrote that “New York City is the tip of the arrow when it comes to civic issues most important to the Latino community” and “there is no city more committed to advancing these causes than New York and thus no better way for the Democratic Party to reach out to this community than by choosing New York to host its convention.”

“Perhaps no issue is more important to the Latino community – nor more crucial to the coming election cycle – than immigration. The success of President Obama’s initiatives will depend largely on local municipalities’ ability to implement them,” the letter stated. “New York City, home to over 2.4 million Latinos (more than the population of most U.S. cities) has taken the lead: in December, Mayor de Blasio hosted mayors of more than 20 cities from around the country, as well as senior White House officials and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, to discuss the best practices for implementation. The group, Cities United for Immigration Action, is shaping the national immigration debate and pressing for comprehensive reforms.”

If Hillary Clinton becomes the party’s nominee, though, the party’s strong embrace of massive amnesty legislation may drive away working-class Democrats that supported her in 2008. So would tying the party to de Blasio’s New York on law and order issues. As Breitbart News noted, after NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were executed, Democrats may have worried “that a convention in New York could turn off Americans like their 1968 convention in Chicago”:

Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential win was arguably assured when riots broke out during the convention in Chicago. The national audience that saw the breakdown in law and order started to associate Democrats in general with being on the wrong side of law-and-order issues. That label stuck to the party and helped Republicans win elections across the country for a generation.