The Bronx machine gathered on Saturday at an Italian restaurant in the borough to assess the damage wrought by the surprise victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over longtime party boss Joe Crowley.

The meeting at F&J Pine was called by Bronx Democratic County Committee Chair Marcos Crespo, an Assembly member who represents the borough.

Ocasio-Cortez was not invited but neither, according to sources familiar with the decision-making, was state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat who won an insurgent campaign against an incumbent in 2010 and whose district covers parts of the Bronx.

Absent the two popular insurgents, the gathered members of the organization performed a post-Crowley autopsy. One conclusion, Crespo said, is that the organization — the term that insiders more often use to refer to the machine — needs to do a better job getting its message out, particularly on social media, as well as on the ground with constituents. “We did talk about what the race means, what lessons were learned,” he said, making the case that many machine Democrats are just as progressive as Ocasio-Cortez, noting that the Assembly recently approved a single-payer bill. “We talked quite a bit about social media and what are the best approaches to get out that message.”

Rivera said that his exclusion was disappointing. “If you’re having a conversation about the future of the Democratic Party here in the Bronx, you should include everybody, and the fact that there was an explicit exclusion, it was incredibly disappointing, to say the least,” he said. “You’d have to ask Marcos why that was the case.”

Crespo explained that it wasn’t personal. “I have a good working relationship with Gustavo Rivera, but he has not been an active participant with county for some time,” he said when asked by The Intercept about Rivera’s exclusion.

Otherwise, however, Crespo said the meeting was about making sure the organization remained united. “We talked about the importance of all of us continuing to work as an organization,” said Crespo. “I’ve said from day one it doesn’t have to be a battleground. We share the same goals. We may categorize whether we are Democrats or democratic socialists, but the focus in on a Democratic majority in the House and taking back the White House. That ultimately has to be the goal, otherwise you have misguided anger syndrome.”

The machine’s unity, he said, has contributed to a renaissance in the Bronx, including falling unemployment rates that he ascribed to the organization’s ability to work together toward a common political goal. “We’ve been at this for several years and it’s been working. Unlike in other neighborhoods, we did it without drastic gentrification,” he said. “As an organization, all the members understand the unity the organization has helped us maintain and has been imperative for getting those results. We need to make sure we all remain committed to that and on the same page.”