The Sanders Movement 2016 – An Ongoing News Collection
June 3 and 4, 2016


http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/federal-politics/nebraska-superdelegate-chooses-sanders/article_1900af09-7344-5b13-91d2-8c7af04d02d1.html

Nebraska superdelegate chooses Sanders
DON WALTON Lincoln Journal Star
June 3, 2016 Updated 8 hrs ago

Maureen Monahan of Omaha, an uncommitted superdelegate to the Democratic national convention, announced Thursday she will support Bernie Sanders for her party's presidential nomination.

"I am encouraging all still unpledged superdelegates to support Senator Sanders as well," Monahan said in a written statement.

Sanders, the Vermont senator, won Nebraska's Democratic presidential caucus in March, defeating Hillary Clinton with 57 percent of the vote.

Clinton subsequently won the Democratic presidential primary election in Nebraska last month, but allocation of Nebraska's Democratic delegates already had been determined at the party caucus.

Nebraska's five superdelegates -- Rep. Brad Ashford of Omaha and four party officials -- are not bound by either the caucus or the primary vote.

With Monahan's declaration for Sanders, Nebraska's Democratic delegation is now divided 16-13 in favor of Sanders over Clinton.

Democratic State Chairman Vince Powers of Lincoln remains the only uncommitted superdelegate and he said he'll withhold a pledge for now.

"There is a time for it," he said, "and it's not right now."

Monahan said her job is to "grow and build the party" and Sanders is doing that with his campaign. Sanders has "brought in thousands of new people to the Nebraska Democratic Party," she said.

"His determination to end the income inequality that plagues our economy, rebuild our aging infrastructure, establish universal health care as a right, and slash the cost of attending college has struck a chord with millions, particularly the young," Monahan said.

"We need new, energetic people in the Democratic Party to spread our effective message," she said. "Together, we can win in 2016 and beyond."

Monahan's position as party vice chair will be on the line at the Democratic state convention in Kearney later this month. Sanders supporters hold a majority of convention delegates as a result of his victory in the party caucus.

Sanders emerged from the caucus with 15 committed national convention delegates compared to 10 committed to Clinton.

Three of the five superdelegates previously committed their support to Clinton.

Already in the Clinton camp were Ashford, National Committeewoman Patricia Zieg of Omaha and National Committeeman Ron Kaminski of Omaha.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.




http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/bernie-sanders-leads-hillary-clinton-new-poll-california

Poll: Sanders edging Clinton out in California
By Jessie Hellmann
June 02, 2016, 07:41 pm


Bernie Sanders could pull off a win in next week's California primary, with a new poll showing the White House hopeful ahead by 1 percentage point.

A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released Thursday evening shows Sanders leading with 44 percent to Clinton's 43 percent.

Sanders's 1-point lead falls within the poll's margin of error.

California's primary is open to independent voters that give Sanders a boost; among registered Democrats, Clinton still leads Sanders by 4 points, while Sanders has 50 percent support from independents to Clinton's 34 percent.

But, the poll found, Clinton has a 10-point lead among those likely to vote next week, primarily due to support from older voters.

Sanders has continued to close the gap between him and Clinton and has been campaigning hard across the state.

“Bernie Sanders has tapped into a wellspring of support in the Democratic primary over the last several weeks and he’s closing with a rush,” said Dan Schnur, director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, which partnered with the L.A. Times to conduct the poll.

"If Clinton manages to hold him off and win the primary, it would be as a result of a low turnout that tilts the electorate in her direction."

Sanders has barnstormed California in recent weeks, hoping to grab a large share of the state's 475 pledged delegates up for grabs. However, if primary results are as close as recent polls indicate, Sanders and Clinton would split the 475 delegates evenly, which wouldn't give the Vermont senator much of a boost in his search for the nomination.

Clinton leads Sanders in the pledged delegate count 1,769 to 1,501. When superdelegates, the unbound party leaders who vote at the July convention, are factored in, the former first lady's lead blossoms to 2,313 and puts her just 70 delegates short of the Democratic nomination, according to The Associated Press delegate tracker.

Sanders has pledged to fight up until the Democratic National Convention to convince superdelegates to flip and hopes a convincing win in California will help.

The Los Angeles Times poll is just the latest to show it will be a close race for the two Democratic candidates.

A Field poll released Thursday morning showed Clinton leading Sanders by just 2 points, 45 percent to 43 percent, among likely Democratic primary voters.

And a NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday similarly shows Clinton and Sanders within 2 points of each other: Clinton leads Sanders 49 percent to 47 percent in that poll.

The LA Times poll surveyed 1,500 voters from May 19-31 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. That included 903 Democratic voters, with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points, and 503 likely Democratic voters, with a margin of error of 5 points.



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/02/sanders-win-california-could-mean-summer-agony-clinton/85300960/

A Sanders win in California could mean 'summer of agony' for Clinton
Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY
7:11 a.m. EDT June 3, 2016

Photograph -- With Hillary Clinton edging closer to clinching the Democratic nomination for president, some Bernie Sanders supporters are digging in saying they won't support Clinton. Both candidates are barnstorming California ahead of Tuesday's primary. AP


WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders calls it the “big enchilada.”

California, the most delegate-rich state on the Democratic primary calendar, has recently become almost a second home for the Vermont senator as he barnstorms there ahead of Tuesday's primary. In May alone, Sanders' more than two dozen rallies in the state drew more than 160,000 people. The campaign expects its biggest turnouts this weekend in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“By the time our campaign in California is over on Monday, we will have spoken to a quarter-of-a-million people in California, face to face,” Sanders said Thursday at a news conference in Modesto. “That may well be unprecedented, but that’s the kind of campaign that we are running. It’s a grass-roots campaign, it’s going directly to the people, and I think that is why we stand an excellent chance to win it on Tuesday.”

Even if that happens, Sanders would still be far from overtaking Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead in pledged delegates and in superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the Democratic National Convention.

Counting her superdelegate support, Clinton is only 71 delegates short of the magic number of 2,383 needed to clinch the nomination, according to the Associated Press. She undoubtedly will reach that number on Tuesday, when voters cast ballots in California (475 delegates) and five other states. After that, only the District of Columbia’s June 14 primary will remain.

But a California victory would keep Sanders’ campaign going and help him make his case to superdelegates that he’s the best candidate to defeat presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. That would create a “summer of agony” for Clinton leading up to the convention, forcing her to fend off both Trump and Sanders simultaneously, said Brad Bannon, a Democratic pollster and consultant.

“If Sanders loses California, it’s hard for him to tell the superdelegates that ‘I’m the better candidate,’” said Bannon, who has stayed neutral in the race. “Even if he wins California, he’s not going to be the nominee, but he will keep his campaign alive and there will still be a lot of sniping between Sanders and Clinton. That means she can’t focus on what she wants to do, which is win over the Sanders people.”

Clinton leads Sanders in California by only about 6 points, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll released this week showed Sanders only 2 points behind Clinton among California’s likely Democratic electorate.


USA TODAY
New poll shows Clinton leads Sanders by just two points in California

Sanders’ focus on the state hasn’t gone unnoticed by Clinton’s campaign. Clinton, who defeated Barack Obama in the 2008 California primary, changed her schedule to be in California on Thursday rather than in New Jersey, which also holds its primary Tuesday. Clinton's California state director, Buffy Wicks, sent out a May 16 fundraising letter telling supporters that although the primary is “all but over,” “Bernie’s team is working hard to pull off a big upset here to try and make some trouble.”

“We need to be strong enough to take on Bernie’s grassroots army and Donald Trump at the same time,” Wicks wrote.

Clinton has a strong ground game and support from all major Democrats in the state, said Mindy Romero, director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of California, Davis, Center for Regional Change. On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown endorsed her, citing her “long experience,” “firm grasp of the issues” and preparedness.



Sanders: DNC vetoed union leader pick for platform committee
By David Weigel June 1

Photograph -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, wearing a Warriors cap, speaks during a campaign rally at Oakland's City Hall in California on May 30. (Anda Chu/Oakland Tribune via AP)


SPRECKELS, Calif. — When the Democratic National Committee announced that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont would get to pick five of the 15 people who'll write the party platform, it was seen as a small coup. But at a news conference today, Sanders revealed that the DNC had actually vetoed his nomination of a key labor ally, and said he was told not to pick anyone else from the labor movement.

“What we heard from the DNC was that they did not want representatives of labor unions on the platform-drafting committee,” he said. “That’s correct.”

Yesterday, Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Nicholas was the first to report that Sanders had included RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, on his list of preferred platform committee members. "He told me that he really wanted me on the committee to advocate for Medicare for All, especially," DeMoro told The Washington Post today.

According to Sanders and DeMoro, the DNC nixed her, resulting in a Sanders delegation of four men, one woman (Native American activist Deborah Parker), and no one from organized labor. While many progressive commentators cheered Sanders's picks, which include the environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben and the academic iconoclast Cornel West, the gender and work balance opened him up to criticism.

"I think it was a set-up," said DeMoro. "It fed into the 'Bernie bro' narrative and meme -- oh, Bernie picked one woman, he's a sexist. As soon as the list was out, there were articles about how he chose two 'anti-Israel' people. The truth of the matter is that they were choices the DNC had signed off on."

In an interview Wednesday, DNC platform committee spokeswoman Dana Vickers Shelley confirmed that the DNC had not wanted labor leaders on the platform drafting committee, limiting labor's presence to Paul Booth of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union.

“Because union leadership was represented on the full platform committee, a decision was made no union leadership would be represented on the platform drafting committee,” said Vickers Shelley. “That was communicated to the campaigns, and they understood our rationale.”

That was cold comfort to DeMoro. "The most insidious thing, frankly, is that only one of 15 people on this drafting committee is for labor," she said. "It shows you how insidious the DNC has become. Labor built this party. Labor built this country. One person is enough to represent all of that? If you look at the composition of who they chose, besides Bernie’s choices, K Street’s far better represented than the labor movement."

Juliet Eilperin contributed reporting from Washington.




BAH, HUMBUG! THE GENERAL ELECTION HAS NOT STARTED!

USA TODAY
Gov. Jerry Brown says he'll support Clinton, says general election has started


But California has seen an unprecedented surge of newly registered voters — 1.1 million between January and April — driven largely by an easier online registration process launched in 2012, Romero said. Millennials aged 18-34 comprise more than 53% of those voters. That could bode well for Sanders, whose coalition includes young people and independents.

“We think that these voters are particularly motivated, they’re registering in big numbers, and because they’re young, we know from polls that they’re going to favor Bernie,” she said. “He has to seal the deal and get them to actually turn out.”

Sanders said on Meet the Press on Sunday that his strategy is to win California, perform “very, very well” in the five other states, and go to the convention with a majority of pledged delegates. That would require winning 67% of those remaining, which Sanders acknowledges is an “uphill fight.”

Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally in San Francisco on May 26, 2016. (Photo: Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images)

He also aims to win the support of superdelegates from states where he won landslide victories — such as Washington, Minnesota, Colorado and New Hampshire — and make the case to many others that he would be the stronger candidate against Trump. He highlights polls that show him outperforming Clinton against Trump in general election matchups.

“We’re going to fight till the last vote is cast and try to appeal to the last delegate that we can,” Sanders said on Meet the Press.

Already, some of his supporters are making that case for him.

On Tuesday, Jim Zogby, a Democratic National Committee official who will represent Sanders on the committee drafting the party platform, said he and others are starting to make calls “in earnest” to uncommitted superdelegates and to those who committed to Clinton early on. The message: “Take another look."

“If he wins California, I think it sends a very powerful message to the country as a whole, but also to Democrats, to superdelegates — some of whom made their mind up way too early and some of whom are still undecided — that this is a guy whose momentum is growing and they need to take a look at (him),” Zogby said. “Win or lose, I think he still has a compelling message to make. But I think if he wins it, it’s a compelling message writ large.”