Et tu, Jeff Weaver?https://t.co/Q4BwI3PH7E#wematterfornow pic.twitter.com/Ahjkgir4GU
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 3, 2016
One of our regular commentors went to their local county convention over the weekend, and reported back:
… I spent the day with a huuuuge gang of Bernistas and Hillary-ites, and I’ve gotta tell you, after the first 2 hours, I changed from a casual “yeah, I support Hillary” to a “I will call, go door-to-door, whatever is necessary to beat Sanders” die-hard fan. His supporters, by and large, were *that* awful at the convention. They booed Hillary’s name always, they drowned out any speaker who asked that we all support whoever gets nominated with unending “Bernie,Bernie” chanting, they regularly paraded around the convention center, also chanting, several individuals walked through the seats spouting really hateful, dishonest crap about Hillary, they had long, loud conversations about how the committee counting the delegates was “obviously” trying to cheat for Hillary. Also, the debacle at the Arizona primary? ALL Hillary’s fault. She, personally, decided to cut the number of polling places. It was as close as I ever want to get to being at a Trump rally. Things were that uncomfortable & out-of-whack.
And then, the chair threw out for a voice vote “Should we seat all elected alternates and unelected alternates as delegates?” It was seconded & passed. Turns out part of the Bernie campaign’s tactics was to get as many people as possible to just show up as “unelected alternates”, get them counted & essentially steal the county. Hillary won here by (I believe) 8-9 points in the popular vote. Bernie won the convention, technically by the rules, but unethically as hell.
In a WTF conversation about it with a fellow Hillary delegate, I was told by a Bernista that it was only fair, because his supporters are so much more enthusiastic, their votes should count for more. She was entirely serious.
I found out today that the convention chair, who was a Sanders supporter, was removed early yesterday morning, after sharing information with just the Sanders campaign & not the Clinton campaign. There is also talk about how delegates were checked in, an email that was sent to Hillary supporters who were told that if they pre-registered they didn’t have to show up at the convention, and more. The whole experience, from caucus to convention, is so tremendously fucked-up and undemocratic that it makes me nuts…ETA: and the scheduling makes zero sense. The county convention was scheduled for all day Saturday on Final Four weekend, guaranteeing that Culinary Union & most service-industry people will be working. The state delegate convention is scheduled for May 14 & 15, which is also the date for UNLV and UNR’s graduation. Planning, WTF?
Local political expert Jon Ralston reports:
Despite losing the state on Feb. 20 in the caucus, Bernie Sanders’ campaign swarmed the Clark County caucus and probably flipped two delegates from Hillary Clinton’s camp.
Clinton was presumed to have a 20-15 delegate edge after the caucus based on her 5 percentage point win in the caucuses. But because the caucus process allows some delegates to be unbound, 12 of those were up for grabs at the 17 county conventions Saturday. Sanders had 600 more delegates in Clark on Saturday despite losing the state’s most populous county by nearly 10 percentage points.
That is expected to switch two delegates to Sanders, giving Clinton an 18-17 lead in Nevada, but that is still pending the results of the state convention next month when those 12 slots could again change. (Sanders also dominated in Washoe and did well elsewhere.) Ah, the caucus process…
The horse-race touts at the Washington Post preferred to formulate it as “A scrappy Sanders campaign narrows the Nevada delegate count six weeks after the caucuses”.
Between the Wisconsin primary coming Tuesday and the media’s excitement over the New York primary on April 19, it looks like this contretemps will be seen as important only to those most immediately concerned. On the other hand, a large part of Bernie Sanders’ marketing appeal has been based on his reputation as The Last Pure Crusader — the only guy in politics who preferred ideals to low, nasty politicking. Eroding that elite image (and if even Jeff Weaver is whining, it’s hurting Sanders) damages Bernie’s most valuable political asset. When Nevada’s delegates are finally appointed in June, and when the DNC meets at the end of July, it’s the hardcore activists who’ll remember what happened in Clark County, and that won’t be good for Sandernistas.
***********
Apart from scrapping for every marginal advantage, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
Some Clinton supporters in LV were duped by a dirty trick, but this is also on Clinton camp for not countering it. https://t.co/tInscsfX7x
— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) April 3, 2016
Marshall better! That's the lesson here. Don't let it repeat at the May state convention and y'all will be fine. https://t.co/a0VCal7iol
— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) April 3, 2016
Monday Morning Open Thread: Dark Doings in the Silver StatePost + Comments (216)