Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is at the center of the biggest test his party has faced in recent history. The party has rebounded from its disastrous 2016 performance with key midterm victories, but now stares at a long and potentially divisive presidential primary fight that could include dozens of candidates. The DNC is rehabilitating from years of neglect and infighting and lags its Republican counterpart in fundraising and data capabilities — key elements a national party organization provides its nominees. The decisions Perez faces in the coming weeks — from finalizing rules for presidential debates to convincing state leaders to give up control of voter files and choosing which city will host next year’s Democratic convention — will be picked apart for any sign that he’s throwing his weight behind one candidate or another. That underscores what could be Perez’s most daunting task: convincing party faithful and activists that the DNC is a neutral actor in the primary process. It’s a tough argument to make to a Democratic base scarred by a bitter primary in 2016 that many supporters of Bernie Sanders said was tilted in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Cold air has taken root in New England and will remain in place throughout the rest of the workweek.
Temperatures are some 10 to 15 degrees colder than normal for this time of the year and they will couple with a busy wind to produce a wind chill only near 20 degrees at the warmest time of the day through Thursday. The cold air will really limit how much melting happens.
Of course, a relatively strong March sun angle will play its part in keeping melting going, particularly from the pavement with resulting road spray and glare on many roads, making sunglasses and windshield washer fluid important accessories.
A few energetic disturbances will ripple through the atmosphere above, bringing building clouds later Tuesday. Scattered snow showers will bring a coating here and there Tuesday night, then the sun will be followed by building clouds and scattered flurries and snow showers Wednesday.
The next organized storm system to move near New England won’t arrive until Friday night, as a storm center winds up to our south and puts us on the northern fringe of its shield of snow and mix. If we do see any impact from the Friday night system, it should move on by Saturday morning.
This will afford some drying ahead of the next storm center Sunday afternoon through night, likely to bring rain or a brief mix changing to rain before departing early Monday morning and giving way to milder air for much of next week – in the 40s and 50s instead of 20s and 30s in our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
