Bernie Sanders is Going to Town on the Democratic Convention. That’s Fine.

Over at the Washington Monthly, D.R. Tucker is pretty fed up with Bernie Sanders. He agrees with me that Sanders seems too bitter these days, and he also thinks that Bernie should dial back the attacks on Hillary now that

As the old joke goes, evenStevie Wonder can see that Sanders is going to have an epic meltdown at the convention if superdelegates reject his request for the nomination. The behavior of Sanders, his campaign staff, and some of his supporters is profoundly disappointing to those who wanted Sanders to play a constructive and healthy role in defining the post-Obama Democratic Party. During the 2008 Democratic primary, Clinton may have said a few undiplomatic words about Obama in the final days of her campaign, but it never seemed as though Clinton personally loathed the future president. Things are much different this time around.

….Clinton and the Democratic Party should be quite concerned about the prospect of a disastrous convention, disrupted by Sanders supporters upset over their hero not getting what they believe he was entitled to. For the full article click here 

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Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders are fighting over how to resolve the nation’s only remaining state budget deadlock while simultaneously keeping a constant eye on the November election

CHICAGO — The emails started arriving as heads were still spinning in the state Capitol over Democrats ramming through a state budget proposal. The missives from Republicans on Wednesday accused the majority party of approving a plan that’s out of balance by $7 billion.

By the next night, voters were receiving automated “robocalls,” paid for by the GOP, accusing Democrats in key swing districts of siding with House Speaker Michael Madigan to “force record high income tax rates.”

Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders may be fighting over how to resolve the nation’s only remaining state budget deadlock, but they’re also keeping a constant eye on the November election, and how each vote and each statement can help them or hurt them come Election Day.

Each side is preparing to spend millions as Rauner and other Republicans campaign to weaken the Democrats’ years-long dominance in the General Assembly. For the full article click here 

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Without The Voting Rights Act, 2016 Will Be Our Least Democratic Election In Decades

The 2016 presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holderdecision to strike down two sections of the Voting Rights Act, both of which had served as crucial structural safeguards against voter disenfranchisement since the ‘60s. This time around, states and municipalities have the freedom to run their own elections without oversight from the Justice Department. They can run democracy into the ground, if they want to, and in many cases, they have.

The VRA outlined a coverage formula that required states with a strong history of structurally disenfranchising voters be subject to federal oversight. The sections of the law on the Supreme Court’s chopping block — Section 4(b) and Section 5 — stipulated that states and municipalities that perfunctorily precluded voters would be subject to a preclearance requirement, which required these states to seek federal approval before instituting any changes to their voting practices.

Advocacy groups have tracked the effects of Shelby County v. Holder since 2013, and they claim there has been a clear uptick in racially discriminatory voter suppression since the ruling — in fact, such a trend is plain to see. For the full article click here 

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As Trump makes peace with Republicans, Sanders ratchets up war with Democrats

As the Republicans’ internal battles over the presidential nomination have quieted down, and will likely continue to simmer now that Donald Trump has crossed the threshold of delegate support, the war within the Democratic ranks has surprisingly intensified.

“For the last week it’s been a game of opposites where Democrats have been behaving like Republicans and Republicans behaving like Democrats,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist.

The ranks of the NeverTrumpers — those vocal prominent conservative writers and politicians who have vowed that they will never support Trump as a candidate — may be dwindling.

With former Trump-hater Senator Lindsey Graham now reportedly reaching out to donors to support the real-estate mogul, it seems that many Republicans, albeit some reluctantly, are unifying behind the presumptive nominee.  For the full article click here 

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Poll: Should Bernie Sanders quit the Democratic race?

TRENTON — Technically, 913 delegates are still up for grabs in Democratic primaries still to be held in hugely populous states like New Jersey and California next month.

But U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is confronting a hard political truth: His rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now 97 percent of the way toward securing the Democratic nomination for president. She currently has 2,310 of the needed 2,383 delegates to become their party’s nominee for president.

When NJ Advance Media asked senior Clinton campaign operatives how much longer Sanders should stay in the race, they answered politely and politically: “As long as he feels he needs to.” For the full article click here 

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DOES HILLARY CLINTON STILL BELIEVE?

Personal history is an instrument for everyone, but for politicians most of all, and so the part of Hillary Clinton’s past that she has emphasized in the primaries, to repel the threat of Bernie Sanders from her left, has been her years as a young idealist. The image of Clinton put forward by her campaign has been that of the woman who turned down high-paying corporate jobs to work in the public interest, who conducted undercover investigations in Alabama to see whether local schools were in violation of federal anti-segregation laws, and who, in 1969, delivered a magnificently ambitious Wellesley Class Day address—taking as her subject the project of human living and saying, “The goal of it must be liberation.”

It isn’t only this character, the expansive and idealistic Clinton, whose absence you can feel in the present campaign. There is also the more mature person we saw during her husband’s political ascent, who was more certain than she seems now about where the country was headed and how people’s position could be improved. “Not long ago, on a trip to Arkansas,” Hillary Clinton wrote, in “It Takes a Village,” published in 1996, “I ran into a man whom Bill and I had known years earlier,” a man who had never graduated college and who did odd jobs for a living, and who had recently become a father. “He reminded me that he was quiet and shy by nature, not one to converse much with anybody, let alone an infant.” This story comes in the middle of a chapter dedicated to explaining the research on the early interactions between parents and children, on how much children’s possibilities can be expanded when their parents take some time with them. With these ideas in her head, Clinton gives the man some advice. “I suggested that he and his wife tell their daughter about their experiences during the day, or what they were watching on television, or even the trees, flowers, cars, and buses they could see as they walked down the street.” Running through this scene is the book’s basic feeling: an evangelism for personal betterment, for aspirational living. The man “looked a little uncertain,” Clinton reports,“but he promised to try.” For the full article click here 

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Jane Kleeb eyes Democratic chairmanship

Jane Kleeb, the founder and leader of Bold Nebraska, may be a candidate for state chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party when Democrats hold their state convention in Kearney next month.

If Kleeb decides to enter the race, that would set up a high-profile showdown with 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chuck Hassebrook who already is a candidate for the party’s top leadership post.

Kleeb said Friday she’ll wait until Tuesday to make a decision.

“We have new voices and faces ready to change the political landscape of our state,” Kleeb said. For the full article click here 

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Democratic Unity Project: Where Does It Stand?

Bloomberg View’s Al Hunt and Bloomberg Politics’ Margaret Talev discuss the Democratic race and efforts to end the discord in the party on “With All Due Respect.”

For the full article click here 

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Elizabeth Warren: the US Democratic senator determined to derail billionaire Trump

Elizabeth Warren has a rare talent for distilling political messages. In 2011, as she was running for the Senate seat that she won the next year, the former Harvard law professor delivered the kind of concise, pointed rationale for public investment – and the taxation to support it – that the White House had been striving to master for the previous three years.

Speaking inside a supporter’s home, her remarks captured on a crude video that has since been viewed more than a million times, Warren addressed a prosperous, albeit entirely make-believe, business owner who was presumably questioning his tax burden:

You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. For the full article click here 

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WYOMING STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: OFFICIALS BRACE FOR TENSION AS BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTERS ALLEGEDLY HARASS OFFICIALS

The Wyoming State Democratic Convention could lead to chaos on Saturday as state officials brace for tension from angry Bernie Sanders supporters — a group that may already be harassing state officials.

Though it is the smallest state by population, Wyoming will play a big part in the process of picking the next Democratic Party nominee when delegates meet at the convention in Cheyenne on Saturday. There is at least one delegate up for grabs, and the Sanders campaign appears determined to scoop up as many available delegates as possible ahead of this summer’s Democratic National Convention.

There is greater attention on the Wyoming State Democratic Convention after the controversy in Nevada earlier this month. There was already high tension coming into the Nevada convention, with Sanders delegates managing to flip an extra delegate in the second round of the three-tiered caucus when they outnumbered Clinton delegates. For the full article click here 

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As Sanders Campaigns in California to Change the Democratic Party, How Far Can He Push It?

Can Bernie Sanders change the Democratic Party from the inside out? Several campaign developments this week have posed that question. The Sanders campaign’s latest TV adbefore California’s June 7 primary features Sanders asking, “What choice do Californians have in this election?” His reply, “The biggest one of all. You have the power to choose a new direction for the Democratic Party.”

That followed Monday’s Democratic National Committee announcement that it will allow him to appoint five people to the party’s 15-member 2016 platform-writing committee. Sanders picked outspoken progressives including Cornel West, one of the nation’s leading racial justice critics; environmentalist and climate change activist Bill McKibben (who has been arrested during anti-Keystone Pipeline protests); and Arab-American Institute co-founder James Zogby (who in 2008 testified to the DNC’s platform committee about changing America’s anti-Palestinian foreign policies and opposing Islamophobia).

Then on Wednesday, the Washington-based outlet The Hill ran a lengthy reportsuggesting that Democrats in Congress were discussing whether the DNC’s controversial chairwoman and longtime Hillary Clinton loyalist, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, might have to be replaced to bring the party together after the nominating season ends to satisfy Sanders’ supporters. “There have been a lot of meetings over the past 48 hours about what color plate do we deliver Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s head on,” it quoted a Democratic senator as saying. For the full article click here 

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Burning Israel: Sanders’ vision for the Democratic Party

What a hoopla has arisen over the fact that the first Jewish candidate to get to the homestretch of a Democratic presidential primary is making it his business to move the party formally away from its support of Israel.

At least to the degree that President Obama hasn’t already done so.

This story comes into focus with the announcement of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ nominees to the Democratic Party’s platform committee. The five — out of a total of 11 on the committee — are a parody of leftist politics.

They include a radical environmentalist, Bill McKibben; a Native American activist, Deborah Parker; and a particularly progressive congressman, Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)

The big news, though, is that Sanders’ surrogates include the pro-Palestinian activist James Zogby and the leftist professor Cornel West. They are two of the harshest critics of Israel on the national scene. For the full article click here 

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Iowa Democrats criticize Grassley during televised debate

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Democrats in Iowa vying to challenge Republican Sen. Charles Grassley in his upcoming re-election race used a televised debate Thursday to reiterate their criticism of the longtime senator’s leading role in a U.S. Supreme Court nomination fight.

The four candidates, including former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and state Sen. Rob Hogg, began the hour-long debate in Johnston focusing on what Democrats see as an opening to defeat Grassley in November — his decision not to hold hearings for President Barack Obama‘s U.S. Supreme Court pick.

“The No. 1 job of the Senate Judiciary chair is to hold a hearing on a presidential nominee for the Supreme Court,” said Hogg, referring to Grassley. “This obstruction is unprecedented.” For the full article click here 

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Bold Nebraska founder weighs run for top post in state’s Democratic Party

LINCOLN — A leading opponent of the Keystone XL oil pipeline says she’s thinking of running for the top leadership post of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Jane Kleeb, during the Adams County Democratic convention Wednesday, announced she is exploring the position.

Kleeb became well-known as the founder of Bold Nebraska, a group that helped organize opposition to the Canadian pipeline rejected last year by President Barack Obama.

Chuck Hassebrook, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2014, previously had announced his candidacy for the chairmanship.

Vince Powers, a Lincoln attorney who is the current chairman, is not seeking re-election. For the full article click here 

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Bernie Sanders talks debating Donald Trump, makes case for Democratic nomination on Jimmy Kimmel

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders touted why he should represent the Democratic Party in the November, as well as discussed his proposed debate with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a late-Thursday appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

The Vermont senator, referencing Jimmy Kimmel’s role in asking Trump to square-off with him, thanked the television show host for facilitating the potential debate between “two guys who look at the world very, very differently.”

He further contended that he’s the best candidate to defeat Trump in a general election matchup, as we made his case to California voters ahead of the state’s upcoming primary election For the full article click here 

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How Bernie Sanders Is Changing The Face Of Vermont’s Democratic Party

It’s only been a year since Bernie Sanders stood on the waterfront in Burlington to announce his bid for the presidency. But his impact on the Democratic Party he chose to run under has already been substantial, and many left-leaning Vermonters say Sanders’ candidacy is shifting the ideological balance of the Vermont Democratic Party.

Audio for this story will be available by approximately 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 26.

The Vermont Democratic Convention this past Sunday was Ashley Andreas’ first. And an afternoon announcement from the elevated stage at the Barre Opera House was the moment she’d been waiting for.

“For district-level delegate on the women’s side,” convention chairman Rich Cassidy said, “Ashley Andreas. Congratulations!” For the full article click here 

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More Washington Democrats look to do away with caucuses after Clinton primary win

Hillary Clinton’s victory in Washington’s presidential primary on Tuesday is causing more Democrats to ask why they are ignoring those results.

Jamal Raad, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said party officials received “a handful of emails” Wednesday morning questioning whether the state party’s use of caucuses to allocate delegates to presidential candidates truly represents the will of Washington voters.

Clinton lost the state’s March 26 caucuses in a landslide for Bernie Sanders that handed the Vermont senator 74 of the state’s 101 delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

But the former secretary of state then turned around and won Tuesday’s nonbinding Democratic primary election, earning 53 percent of the vote compared with Sanders’ 47 percent.

Votes are still being counted in the all-mail election, but by Wednesday almost three times as many Democrats had voted in the primary as participated in Democrats’ March 26 precinct caucuses. For the full article click here 

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Democrats said debating ouster of Wasserman Schultz as party chair

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Feeling the heat over her clashes with Bernie Sanders, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is at the center of a debate among Democratic lawmakers over whether to push for her ouster as party chair.

The Hill reported Tuesday that about 12 senators have been discussing what to do about Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman and one of the most prominent Jewish members of the party.

The senators, none of whom spoke for quotation, said Wasserman Schultz’s clashes with Sen. Sanders, I-Vt., in his bid to defeat Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, could lead to tensions at this summer’s convention. They worry that could distract from the effort to defeat the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Wasserman Schultz has also lost the support of liberal groups that support Sanders, including Credo, Moveon.org and RootsAction. For the full article click here 

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Indian-American appointed to Democratic Party’s policy panel

Indian-American Neera Tanden has been appointed by the Democratic party to a panel that would draft its policy agenda for the November presidential election.

Ms. Tanden (45), a long-time associate of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, is being touted as a potential cabinet member if Ms. Clinton is elected as the US president in the November general elections.

Ms. Tanden is currently the CEO of the Center for American Progress, a top US think-tank.

The Drafting Committee is responsible for developing and managing the process through which the Democratic party’s National Platform is established. Ms. Tanden is the only Indian-American in this committee of 15 members.

The platform committee would draft the party’s policy agenda which is akin to election manifesto in India.

Ms. Tanden was the policy director for Clinton’s campaign in 2008. She was a key protagonist in developing President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform proposals — the Affordable Care Act — during her tenure in the Obama administration. For the full article click here 

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As Democratic race tightens in California, ads hit airwaves from Clinton, Sanders

As the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in California grows tighter and the competition more fierce, both campaigns are now devoting additional money to television advertising.

A day after Sanders announced a new ad buy of less than $2 million in the state, Clinton announced her own television campaign.

Ads featuring actor Morgan Freeman as well as labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta will air beginning on Friday in Fresno, Sacramento, and Los Angeles media markets. Some ads will also target Latino voters and Asian American voters. The total value of the buy is about six figures according to the Clinton campaign.

The decision of both campaigns to begin airing television advertisements about two weeks before the state’s primary on June 7 reflects the growing closeness of the race. For the full article click here 

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Unity Won’t Come Easily for Democrats

It looks like Bernie Sanders’s political agitation is paying off.

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced the 15 members of its platform drafting committee on Monday, a selection designed to give the Vermont senator an unusual amount of influence on the process. As The Washington Post reported, “party leaders hope [the move] will soothe a bitter split with backers of the long-shot challenger to Hillary Clinton.” Sanders has been allowed to name five members to the committee charged with writing the party platform, while Clinton named six. The tally reflects the fact that Clinton leadsSanders in the popular vote for the presidential primary election, but nevertheless grants Sanders allies a significant amount of input. The announcement could mark the start of a reconciliation of sorts between Sanders and the Democratic establishment. Protests over the outcome of the Nevada Democratic convention, a process that Sanders and his supporters described as unfair, have recently escalated tensions. Sanders’s decision toendorse a primary challenger to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz also raised questions over how far the senator will take his fight against party elites. Fears that divisions might deepen likely motivated Democratic Party leaders to grant Sanders substantial representation on the drafting committee. For the full article click here

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U.S. Sen. Cory Booker to speak at Democratic luncheon in Cleveland

It’s mostly a Republican summer in Cleveland, but one of the Democratic Party’s stars is coming to town about a month before the GOP convention.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, will headline what’s billed as the inaugural Ohio Democratic Party Northeast Ohio Luncheon on Friday, June 17, at the Westin Hotel in downtown Cleveland.

Booker “will discuss the clear choice and the high stakes for Americans in the 2016 election on priorities like expanding economic opportunity for all and strengthening America’s national security,” according to an announcement from the Ohio Democratic Party.

Tickets for the event are available here.

The party said the Booker event is the first in what it intends to make an annual luncheon “bringing together Democratic leaders, activists and partners from across the many communities and counties of Northeast Ohio.” For the full article click here

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California Looms as Delegate Prize, and as One More Democratic Battlefield

COMMERCE, Calif. — With two weeks before California’s delegate-rich primary, Hillary Clinton stopped here on Tuesday and went on the attack against a rival. Just not the one she is currently running against.

Mrs. Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont each courted voters in California, which has more delegates to divvy up than any other state, but their appearances showed how differently they are approaching the coming contest. Both have harshly criticized Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but while Mrs. Clinton has made him her main focus, Mr. Sanders’s hopes are centered on an upset victory in the primary.

California, the nation’s most populous state, would be a prize for Mr. Sanders, who is hoping for a marquee victory that he could showcase heading into the party’s summer convention in Philadelphia. But however lustrous a victory might be, it would be largely symbolic given Mrs. Clinton’s nearly insurmountable delegate lead, and she is spending her time building a case against Mr. Trump.

At a rally in Los Angeles County, Mrs. Clinton continued to try out different attacks against the billionaire businessman, touching on subjects including his business acumen, his foreign policy views and even his reality-show catchphrase. For the full article click here

 

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Democratic Senators Headed for Rematch on Military Sexual Assault Reform

Two Democratic senators could be gearing up for an ideological rematch on the best ways to curb sexual assaults in the U.S. military.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said Tuesday she will reintroduce a bill that would remove the decision of whether to prosecute military sexual assaults from the military chain of command — a legislative effort which failed to move forward in 2014 after being opposed by the Pentagon.

Pushing the bill again may put Gillibrand at odds with Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who argues that reforming the military from within is the best path to change. She says the Pentagon has made strides in stemming sexual assault in part due to legislation she sponsored that was passed that same year. For the full article click here

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It’s no time to panic: Ignore the national polls and the Democratic tensions — none of it matters (yet)

A quiet panic is spreading among Democrats. Two national polls were released Sunday, one by ABC News and the other by NBC News. In the former, Trump edged Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent. In the latter, Clinton retained a 46 percent to 43 percent lead. As a result of the latest shifts, Trump passed Clinton in the RealClearPolitics average.

At the same time, tensions between Clinton and Sanders are rising, as Sanders digs in for the final primary battles. He even implied over the weekend that a potential Trump-Clinton match-up amounts to a “lesser of two evils” election. Although he won’t win the nomination, Sanders continues to suggest he can, to the chagrin of Clinton staffers. “I don’t think he [Sanders] realizes the damage he’s doing at this point,” a Clinton ally told The Hill. “I understand running the campaign until the end, fine. But at least take the steps to begin bringing everyone together.” “It [Sanders’s presence in the race] holds her back from controlling the narrative,” said another Clinton supporter.

The worry is that by extending the Democratic race to the convention, Clinton is forced to wrestle with Sanders while Trump defines himself as a “normal” or credible candidate. “I do not want Americans, and, you know, good-thinking Republicans, as well as Democrats and independents, to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy,” Clinton told Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.” For the full article click here

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Hillary Clinton Declines Invitation to Debate Bernie Sanders

DETROIT — Eager to move on from the Democratic primary race, Hillary Clinton has turned down an invitation to debate Senator Bernie Sanders ahead of California’s primary, her campaign said on Monday.

The announcement came hours after Mrs. Clinton unleashed a biting critique of Donald J. Trump while addressing a union convention, mocking his business record and offering a glimpse at how she might confront him in the general election.

Mr. Sanders’s campaign last week tentatively accepted an invitation by Fox News to participate in a debate before California’s June 7 primary, and expressed hope that Mrs. Clinton would agree to face off against the senator.

In a statement issued Monday evening, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, Jennifer Palmieri, said Mrs. Clinton’s team would contest California while “turning our attention to the threat a Donald Trump presidency poses.” For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton Tries to Consolidate Support of Democratic Base

With the Democratic nomination in reach, Hillary Clinton is taking steps to consolidate support in the party’s base by rallying labor groups to her campaign and wooing backers of her primary challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Mrs. Clinton, who is just 90 delegates short of primary victory, is counting on organized labor to bring manpower and money to her White House bid as she pivots to the general-election campaign.

She appeared before the Service Employees International Union’s convention in Detroit on Monday, and she will continue to make her case Thursday when she addresses a United Food & Commercial Workers International Union conference in Las Vegas.

Also Monday, the Democratic National Committee ensured Mr. Sanders’s backers will have enough representatives on a key committee to influence the drafting of the party’s platform at the July convention in Philadelphia, meeting one of their chief demands. For the full article click here 

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Persistent Sanders Earns Role in Shaping Democratic Platform

In the span of one year, Bernie Sanders has gone from 40 points down in polls to having near equal presence with Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Party shapes its platform of policies at its convention in July.

In addition to formally nominating their presidential candidate every four years, the Democrats and their rivals in the Republican Party use the conventions to present detailed statements of what they stand for and the direction they seek for the country.

The Democratic National Committee announced Monday its platform committee will include five representatives picked by Sanders and six by Clinton, with another four chosen by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

“We will be in a very strong position to fight for an economy that works for all of our people,” Sanders told reporters Monday, highlighting the cornerstone of his campaign. For the full article click here 

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Sanders: Democratic Convention Could Get ‘Messy’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday said that if his supporters are able to push his progressive agenda at the Democratic National Convention in July, then the event could get “messy.”

“I think if they make the right choice and open the doors to working-class people and young people and create the kind of dynamism that the Democratic Party needs, it’s going to be messy,” he told the Associated Press. “Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle but that is where the Democratic Party should go.”

The Democratic presidential candidate indicated that there’s nothing wrong with a messy convention.

“Democracy is messy. Everyday my life is messy,” he said. “But if you want everything to be quiet and orderly and allow, you know, just things to proceed without vigorous debate, that is not what democracy is about.” For the full article click here 

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Clinton Will Likely Clinch The Democratic Nomination In New Jersey

We’ve known for some time that Hillary Clinton will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. But when will she clinch the nomination? If you look at the few remaining contests on the Democratic primary calendar, themajor news outlets — barring something devastating happening to the Clinton campaign in the next few weeks — are likely to declare Clinton the nominee on June 7. More specifically, New Jersey will likely push Clinton across the finish line, and she may clinch the nomination even before thepolls close in California.

If major news outlets declare Clinton the nominee on June 7, they will be counting superdelegates, as they did in 2008 when they declared Barack Obama the presumptive Democratic nominee on June 3. Now, you might ask “why include superdelegates?” It’s a fair question; superdelegates can change their minds, after all. For that reason, we haven’t included them in our delegate tracker — there was a chance that superdelegates backing Clinton might switch sides, particularly if Sanders was able to win a majority of elected delegates.

But that seems virtually impossible now. Sanders would need to win 68 percent of the remaining elected delegates to take a pledged delegate lead, and both the polls and demographics point to his defeat in the two largest delegate prizes remaining, California and New Jersey. Which is all to say there’s now a good argument for counting superdelegates. For the full article click here 

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‘I appreciate his openness to it': Hillary Clinton expresses interest in Mark Cuban as her running mate

Hillary Clinton responded Sunday to Mark Cuban’s suggestion that he’d be open to serving as her running mate, and she seemed more than open to the idea.

“I think we should look widely and broadly,” she told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s not just people in elective office. It is successful businesspeople. I am very interested in that. And I appreciate his openness to it.”

The Democratic frontrunner said she’s “absolutely” intending to look “far and wide” to find a potential vice president — and took a shot a presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump while doing so.

“I think that is the best way to find somebody who can really capture what’s needed in the country, and businesspeople have, especially successful businesspeople who are really successful as opposed to pretend successful, I think have a lot to offer,” Clinton said.

On the same Sunday program, Cuban indicated his willingness to serve as Clinton’s vice president if asked. For the full article click here 

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Mayor Brown nominated to head State Democratic Party

Mayor Byron W. Brown was nominated Sunday to become chairman of the State Democratic Committee, to succeed Sheila Comar, who has been acting chairwoman of the state party since 2014.

Brown’s nomination was announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who called the Buffalo mayor an “exemplary leader” who would “continue advancing the core values of the Democratic Party.” Members of the state committee are expected to ratify the nomination during a meeting Monday in Saratoga Springs.

In a statement issued Sunday evening, Brown said he was looking forward to “working diligently to ensure that we elect our hometown Senator, Hillary Clinton, as the next President of the United States.” For the full article click here 

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Cuomo is taking control of New York’s Democratic Party

Gov. Cuomo, hobbled by US Attorney Preet Bharara’s probe of longtime political operative Joseph Percoco, will take personal control of the state Democratic Party on Monday — even as he names Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown as its new “figurehead” chairman, sources told The Post.

Brown’s selection — to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of the state Democratic Committee — is worrying many city and suburban Democrats, who say the Buffalo mayor, unlike Percoco, won’t have direct access to the governor when important decisions have to be made.

“Joe was also Andrew’s eyes and ears, letting him know how party people were feeling, but Byron’s a six-hour drive from [Albany] and he can’t do that,’’ a senior Democrat said. For the full article click here 

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Politics In The News: Sanders Presses On In Democratic Contests

Tensions between Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s camps continue to simmer. David Greene talks to columnist and commentator Cokie Roberts and Jonah Goldberg, senior editor at the National Review. For the full article click here 

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Florida Bernie Sanders delegates insist Hillary Clinton hasn’t locked up Democratic nomination

Bernie Sanders‘ Democratic convention delegates from Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast aren’t conceding their party’s nomination to Hillary Clinton. “I’m still planning to see Bernie win,” said Sanders delegate Hillary Keyes of Boca Raton. In this week’s Politics column, the Sanders loyalists outline the reason they believe a massive super delegate flip can happen at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July. And they offer thoughts on where Sanders supporters will go if Clinton is the nominee against Republican Donald Trump. For the full article click here 

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Why Hillary Clinton is sinking faster than the Titanic

I’ve predicted publicly for a year now that Hillary Clinton,   although a prohibitive favorite, still may never become the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Don’t look now, but at this moment Hillary is still far from a sure thing to become the Democratic standard-bearer. This week, she lost Oregon and barely squeaked by in Kentucky. Bernie has now won 11 of the last 14 primaries and caucuses.

I ask Democrats, is this your nominee? The winner of your presidential nomination has lost just shy of 80 percent of her races coming down the homestretch. If Hillary were a racehorse with that record, she’d be sent home.

Call me crazy but don’t presumptive nominees usually win about 80 percent of their races? This has to be the first time in history the leader of her party has lost 80 percent of them. I’m not sure you call someone like that a “leader” or “nominee.” Usually you call someone like that…“loser!” For the full article click here 

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Are Democrats frittering away a shot at the Senate majority?

Democrats have been congratulating themselves on their good fortune in the Senate races. Donald Trump will sink the Republicans! Look at our fine recruits! There are problems on both fronts.

First, so far Trump is running more competitively in states with critical Senate races. For example, he is statistically tied with Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, where Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) is running against Gov. Maggie Hassan (D). Moreover, as Trump becomes more erratic and less associated with standard Republican messaging, it becomes harder to make the case that Ayotte or, say, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is a Trump-clone or will go along with Trump’s agenda.

Indeed, in the three races most likely to determine control of the Senate — Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire — Clinton leads Trump by single digits in the RealClearPolitics poll averages and the Senate races are statistically tied. For the full article click here 

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The Democratic race for president

In his May 19 op-ed, “A shared Democratic vision,” E.J. Dionne Jr. missed the point of the Sanders campaign. The system is rigged for the wealthy and connected, and the Democratic Party has shown no willingness to change this.

The total vote outcome would have been better for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and more inclusive with a less-restrictive primary voting process. Many of the primaries excluded independent voters and potential voters who hadn’t registered months in advance. While this was known, it doesn’t take away from the idea that the system is rigged. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has more votes, but the voting isn’t over. Mr. Sanders could narrow that substantially or take the lead.

Mr. Dionne wrongly said the core policy differences between Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders “relate less to goals than to the speed and means through which they’re achieved.” Until Ms. Clinton refuses money from big donors and Wall Street and forgoes PACs, she is part of the problem, not the solution. Universal access to health insurance is not the same as single-payer health care, and making higher education more affordable isn’t the same as college education being tuition-free. These differences are huge. For the full article click here 

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Democratic leaders pitch new rules for state conventions

Democratic Party leaders are pitching new rules for state conventions after chaos in Nevada last weekend, Politico reported Friday.  Association of State Democratic Chairs leader Raymond Buckley of New Hampshire addressed concerns of state conventions with fellow party chairs in Philadelphia.

Guidelines laid out by Buckley would requireHillary Clinton’s and Bernie Sanders’s campaigns to send senior staff to the remaining state conventions.

Convention leaders would need to provide proposed rules to both campaigns and the Democratic National Committee 48 hours in advance. Campaigns would also help cover the cost of any needed law enforcement or security.

Buckley also called for campaigns and the DNC work more closely together to help conventions run more smoothly.   For the full article click here 

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Sanders wants to change the Democratic Party’s approach to Israel

The Republican Jewish Coalition responded that the Democratic Party is ‘not the home for pro-Israel voters’

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is seeking to drive change in his party’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even as he battles to stay in the race for his party’s nomination, reports the Jewish Insider, citing theWashington Post.

Sanders wants to see the Democratic Party increase its focus on Palestinian rights and revise its wording regarding US-Israeli relations. He also wants the party to reformulate its stance towards trying to achieve peace between the two sides without sacrificing Israel’s security, according to the Post, which cites party insiders currently working on these changes.

The Vermont senator has previously gone on the record as saying that he wants to see a more “even-handed” approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The current Democratic Party platform does not specifically refer to Israel’s military government in the West Bank, instead setting out its commitment to “a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian accord, producing two states for two people,” the Post says. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton says she ‘will be the nominee’ for the Democratic party

In an interview with CNN Thursday, Hillary Clinton asserted that she ‘‘will be the nominee’’ for the Democratic party, noting her lead in delegates and votes over her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders.

‘‘That is already done in effect. There is no way that I won’t be,’’ said Clinton, who is 90 delegates short of clinching the nomination, though Sanders continues to win contests and has vowed to march on to the Democratic convention in July. On divisions among Democrats, Clinton said she was committed to party unity, but argued that Sanders will also have to play a role in bringing Democrats together. She recalled that in 2008, after losing the primary to President Barack Obama, she endorsed him and campaigned for him. For the full article click here 

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Burning Bernie: Democratic leaders continue to pile on Sanders (VIDEO)

Leading Democrats continue to slam Bernie Sanders for his reluctance to take responsibility for the fracas led by his supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention, but some key leaders are pushing back against the criticism.

“I kind of agree with Bernie on this one,” Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), a Hillary Clinton supporter, said during a Thursday interview on CBS This Morning. “I think that Nevada was an aberration. I think the millions of Bernie Sanders supporters are not people who want to resort to harassment and threats and throwing chairs.”

“I do believe this was an outlier because I think the millions of people who support him are passionate and inspired by the message that Bernie is delivering,” she added.

McCaskill said the math lying in front of Sanders’ chances of winning the nomination is “unforgiving,” but added that she thought the Vermont senator would do his part when it comes time for the party to unite against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

During the Nevada convention last weekend, Sanders supporters became upset over the delegate selection process and reportedly threw chairs. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) said she feared for her life when she was booed during a speech in support of Clinton, and Nevada party state chairman Roberta Lange received threatening phone calls. However, there is no video evidence of violence taking place at the convention. For the full article click here 

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Democratic resolutions target need for ethics reforms

ALBANY — Progressives on the Democratic State Committee are again pushing resolutions asking state lawmakers to pass “real” ethics reforms and for members of the Independent Democratic Conference to reunite with other Democrats in the state Senate.

The state committee will convene Monday in Saratoga, with the selection of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as the main order of business. The party is currently without a chair, and may fill that post during the conference.

The first resolution declares that “recent scandals have again highlighted the corrupting influence of money in New York politics,” and says “the pay-to-play culture of New York politics must end.” It asks officials to pass “meaningful campaign finance legislation.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the de-facto leader of the party, has proposed bills that seem to meet the Progressive Caucus’s demands, but in the final weeks of the legislative session has set his sights on other, less-controversial government reforms. Democrats in both the state Senate and Assembly have either sponsored or supported bills overhauling the campaign finance system that are non-starters for Republicans who control the state Senate. For the full article click here 

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Will 712 Democratic Officials Decide 2016 Election? Uncovering the Secret History of Superdelegates (Video)

At the start of the 2016 election campaign. former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began the primaries with a more than 400-delegate lead by securing support from superdelegates—the 712 congressmembers, senators, governors and other elected officials who often represent the Democratic Party elite.

Now a new article from In These Times by Branko Marcetic uncovers “The Secret History of Superdelegates,” which were established by the Hunt Commission in 1982. We are joined by Jessica Stites, executive editor of In These Times and editor of the site’s June cover story, and Rick Perlstein, the Chicago-based reporter and author of several books, including “Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. And we are on the road in Chicago, broadcasting from WYCC PBS Chicago. It has been an—it has been an eventful few days for the Democratic Party, from the contested Nevada state Democratic convention Saturday to the split results Tuesday night in primaries Kentucky—in both Kentucky and Oregon. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared victory against Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the primary on Tuesday in Kentucky, though it is razor-thin margin, while Sanders won a decisive victory in Oregon. Last night, Sanders spoke to about 12,000 supporters in Carson, California, directly addressing the Democratic Party leadership. For the full article click here 

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The Democratic Party is much more unified right now than it was 8 years ago

Here’s a reality check for people spending a lot of time wondering whether Bernie Sanders’s supporters will support Hillary Clinton if, as seems overwhelmingly likely, she is the Democratic nominee.

• The most recent CBS/New York Times poll shows that 6 percent of Democratic primary voters (many of whom, as we’ve learned in this campaign, are not registered Democrats) say they won’t support Clinton, plus another 2 percent who say they’re not sure.
• Back in late May 2008, a CBS/New York Times poll found that 12 percent of Democratic primary voters said they would vote for John McCain, plus 3 percent who said they wouldn’t vote and 4 percent who weren’t sure.

Obama needed, in other words, to overcome a hurdle that was twice as big as the one facing Clinton.

And for a sanity check, note that this aligns with other independent indicators For the full article click here 

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Obama attends Democratic Party fundraiser in Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is raising money for the Democratic Party at an event in the District of Columbia.

Obama is attending a Democratic National Committee “roundtable” fundraiser Wednesday at the Jefferson Hotel just blocks from the White House.
Officials say about 25 supporters who gave up to the maximum of $33,400 per person were expected to attend. The event was closed to the news media.

Obama’s participation comes as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continue to campaign against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination. On Tuesday night, Sanders won Oregon’s presidential primary and battled Clinton to a razor-thin margin in Kentucky. For the full article click here 

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Ohio Republican Primary Attracted 115K Democratic Voters

Data released by the Ohio secretary of state on Wednesday indicates that the state Republican Party attracted more than 115,000 Democratic voters during the primary in March.

Jon Husted, the Ohio secretary of state,announced that the count of Democrats who chose to affiliate with the Republican Party in the March primary was more than three times the number of Republicans who chose to affiliate with the Democratic Party.

“Voter turnout is driven by the enthusiasm and interest that groups and candidates can generate for their cause,” Husted, a Republican, said in a statement Wednesday. “Nearly 1.8 million Ohioans decided to join or switch a political party, highlighting the intensity with which Ohioans are engaging this election season.”

Specifically, 34,867 voters who previously affiliated with the Republican Party cast votes in the Democratic primary, accounting for nearly 3 percent of the 1,197,725 primary ballots cast. Meanwhile, 115,762 voters previously affiliated with the Democratic Party cast ballots in the Republican primary, representing nearly 6 percent of the 1,952,684 primary votes. For the full article click here 

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Sanders willing to inflict heavy damage on Clinton to win California

WASHINGTON — Defiant and determined to transform the Democratic Party, Senator Bernie Sanders is opening a two-month phase of his presidential campaign aimed at inflicting a heavy blow on Hillary Clinton in California and amassing enough leverage to advance his agenda at the convention in July — or even wrest the nomination from her.

Advisers to Sanders said Wednesday that he was newly resolved to remain in the race, seeing an aggressive campaign as his only chance to pressure Democrats into making fundamental changes to how presidential primaries and debates are held in the future. They said he also held out hope of capitalizing on any late stumbles by Clinton or any damage to her candidacy, whether by scandal or by the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump. After sounding subdued if not downbeat about the race for weeks, Sanders resumed a combative posture against Clinton, demanding Wednesday that she debate him before the June 7 primary in California and highlighting anew what he asserted were her weaknesses against Trump. For the full article click here 

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Democratic super PAC buys $9.5 million in TV time

A week after Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s campaign reserved $15 million in ad time for the fall campaign, a Democratic super PAC supporting Democratic nominee Ted Strickland has bought $9.5 million worth of TV time.

Senate Majority PAC is dedicated to electing Democrats to the U.S. Senate. The PAC has also reserved fall television advertising time worth $7.5 million in New Hampshire and $8.5 million in Nevada.

So far, about $50 million has been committed to advertising in Ohio in the Senate race.

A total of at least $82.2 million was spent in Ohio’s last U.S. Senate race in 2012, between Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel, the state treasurer. Mr. Brown won the election.

Senate Majority PAC has already spent $1.8 million attacking Mr. Portman for exporting U.S. jobs from Ohio and for being a D.C. insider. In a statement, Senate Majority PAC spokesman Shripal Shah said the ad campaign will continue the same theme. For the full article click here 

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Democratic Unity Remains Elusive As Trump Consolidates His Support

After months of unwavering support for Bernie Sanders from progressives and, especially, progressive journalists, Bernie went too far.

This past weekend’s chaos and violence at the Nevada Democratic Party convention wherein Bernie Sanders supporters threw chairs, screamed obscenities, booed Senator Barbara Boxer and even sent death threats to the party chair has exposed a rift in the party that has been boiling for months and hit its climax.

Sanders’s response? Not what you’d expect. He refused to apologize for his supporters’ actions.

Sanders’s statement read, “Within the last few days there have been a number of criticisms made against my campaign organization. Party leaders in Nevada, for example, claim that the Sanders campaign has a ‘penchant for violence.’ That is nonsense. Our campaign has held giant rallies all across this country, including in high crime areas, and there have been zero reports of violence.” He went on to blame Democratic leadership for using “its power to prevent a fair and transparent process from taking place.” For the full article click here 

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To Beat a Nasty, Brutish Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Will Have to Do Something Different

Maybe Ted Cruz and John Kasich looked at the numbers and just gave up. Or more likely, Republican grandees decided that short-circuiting the final primaries would deprive Donald Trump of the oxygen of campaigning, thus buying a few quiet weeks to regroup. Instead, the party’s slowly widening fracture is now a gaping, unbridgeable chasm. The Bushes, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Lindsey Graham can hold their collective breath until they pass out; their condemnations only strengthen Trump’s grip on the news cycle and further embolden his most ardent supporters. This is a candidate who understands only one language: brute animal dominance. Trump has won. A generation of unimaginative and entitled Republican careerists have lost. Period. It’s Trump’s campaign, Trump’s nominating convention, and—for now at least—Trump’s Republican Party.  That makes it all the more important to recognize that, while Trump is a captivating celebrity, his electoral appeal—at least thus far—remains narrow. His support cannot be called a movement; he merely stretches the edges of the permanent resentment faction—mostly white, mostly male—that has figured continuously in our political scene, in various guises, since the George Wallace campaign of 1968. Often, the resentment faction votes Republican, egged on by Roger Ailes’s Fox News and smart GOP operatives of the Lee Atwater/Roger Stone school, backed up by enthusiastic dog-whistle politicking from mainstream Republican officeholders like Reagan and the Bushes. Sometimes, if the dog whistles aren’t loud enough, the resentment faction stays home, as it largely did in 2012. Occasionally, it aligns with a protest candidate like Ross Perot. But it’s always with us. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Condemns Protester in Kentucky

Hillary Clinton condemned a protester at a rally in Kentucky Monday, calling her factually misinformed.

“Now, you are entitled to your opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts,” Clinton said. “I’ll be happy when I finish talkin’ to everybody else for you to come over here, and you can tell me what you’re saying, and we can talk, and we can hear what’s on your mind.”

Clinton was criticizing Kentucky Republican governor Matt Bevin when the woman shouted her disapproval.

“I personally do believe in the golden rule, and I don’t think it means, he who has the gold, rules. It means, it means, as you well know, what we’re supposed to be doin’ fer each other,” Clinton said. “Your governor did such a great job and your current governor is trying to undo it all. Undo it all.” For the full article click here 

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Congressional candidates highlight Democratic fundraiser

It’s time for new congressional leadership for southwest Iowa, according those who want to unseat the current Republican representative.

The three Democratic candidates for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District stated their reasonings for that at Sunday’s fundraiser by the Pottawattamie County Democrats at Dixie Quicks in Council Bluffs.

Jim Mowrer, for one, said he has lots of support from labor.

“I’ve been endorsed by over 10 labor unions,” he told about 50 people at the event.

Desmund Adams said the current occupant, Rep. David Young, can be beaten.

“We can beat David Young by building coalitions,” he said. “We have to be in all 16 counties.”

Mike Sherzan emphasized his support for women’s rights and the underpaid.

“I’m in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It should have been done a long time ago,” the former investment firm owner said. “I support equal pay for women.” For the full article click here 

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Kentucky Democratic primary winner will challenge Rand Paul

LOUISVILLE, KY.

With his sights set on unseating freshman U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray’s campaign gets its first test in Tuesday’s primary election as Kentucky Democrats look for a comeback after last year’s drubbing.

Facing six underfunded primary opponents, Gray cast himself as a problem-solving leader of Kentucky’s second-largest city. He also played up his business pedigree in helping build his family’s successful construction company. During the campaign, he looked past his Democratic foes to focus criticism on Paul, Kentucky’s Republican junior senator.

“I don’t know if Rand Paul’s ever created a job in his life,” Gray said. “So there’s a big difference in our experiences.”

Paul juggled dual campaigns for the presidency and Senate until ending his White House bid. He faces two primary challengers — James Gould and Steve Slaughter, neither of whom is regarded as a serious threat.

Last November, Republicans solidified their political power in Kentucky by winning all but two statewide constitutional offices, including governor. Paul looks poised to use an effective strategy for other Kentucky Republicans by trying to tie Gray to national Democrats — namely President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. For the full article click here 

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How a Democratic Super PAC is Hitting Donald Trump

Barack Obama super PAC now backing Hillary Clinton, released its first television ads critical of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trumplate Monday. The two spots feature some of Trump’s most controversial comments about women, aimed at increasing the already substantial gender gap between Clinton and Trump. The first, “Speak,” is reminiscent of a GOP super PAC’s anti-Trump spot, featuring women and men repeating Trump’s comments. The second, “Respect,” highlights Trump’s comments about Megyn Kelly and his call for criminal punishment for women who undergo abortions. They are part of a three-week initial $6 million buy airing in the swing states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Nevada, and are gaining a significant boost in free airings on cable television. Trump responded in a tweet claiming a quote was taken out ofcontext in one of the ads, but didn’t directly challenge the overall premise.

The Republican Party is making clear it won’t rush to Trump’s defense on these issues, with top party leaders making themselves scarce on television as Trump faces his worst stretch of media coverage in months. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus repeatedly declined on Sunday to defend his party’s nominee on taxes, women, and even the alleged impersonation of a public relations professional, instead arguing that voters don’t care about those issues. The GOP is seeking to carve out a middle path between a full embrace of Trump and outright rejection of his more controversial comments as they hope to protect vulnerable Republicans down ticket. Meanwhile, Trump will appear on Kelly’s new primetime special Tuesday evening in a much-anticipated interview. For the full article click here 

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Sanders Supporters Protest at Nevada Democratic Convention: ‘This is Fixed’

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) protested what they viewed as unfair practices by Hillary Clinton’s supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention on Saturday.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, the dispute between supporters of Sanders and Clinton began when a voice vote occurred to replace the convention’s temporary rules as permanent. Sanders’ supporters began to chant, “This is fixed!” and “No confidence!”

The Hill obtained video via Facebook and Twitter of some of the action that occurred.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) spoke to the crowd and was booed by Sanders supporters. Boxer is a well-known backer of Clinton.

“When you boo me, you’re booing Bernie Sanders. Go ahead! You’re booing Bernie Sanders!” Boxer said.

Many supporters of Sanders are upset with Clinton and her supporters for what they believe is a primary process rigged in her favor from the beginning, especially because of superdelegates. The vast majority of superdelegates are supporting Clinton over Sanders, making her nomination almost a lock. For the full article click here 

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Democratic Senate candidates discuss foreign policy

Several hundred Iowans sat for two hours in the pews of First Christian Church in Des Moines to listen to four Democratic senatorial candidates speak about war and peace issues.

The forum, presented by the Stop The Arms Race Political Action Committee or Star*Pac, held the “strictly informational meeting” for constituents to hear the positions of the candidates vying for election in November, said Tom Leffler, Star*Pac chair.

Former state Sen. Tom Fiegen, state Sen. Rob Hogg, former Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and former state Rep. Bob Krause were all presented with 15 questions by Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie on topics regarding international and domestic security and diplomacy. The four are in a four-way race for the June 7 Democratic primary. The winner will face six-term Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in November.

For opponents, they agreed on quite a bit. All candidates said they supported the multinational Iranian nuclear program agreement. They each wished for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution stipulating corporate speech and corporate contributions to political campaigns. All four participants said they would advocate for the U.S. to follow international laws on the use of torture. For the full article click here 

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How Many Delegates Does Kentucky Have? It’s Time For The State’s Democrats To Pick A Candidate

Although Kentucky may have only just begun to shake off its mint julep hangover following the excitement of the Kentucky Derby, the state will dive headfirst into the political frenzy of the presidential primary on Tuesday, May 17. While Kentucky’s Republican voters caucused for their preferred presidential candidate back in March, the state’s Democratic voters have held off on casting their votes. But the wait is over as Kentuckians head to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the Democratic presidential primary. So,how many delegates does Kentucky send to the Democratic National Convention?

A total of 61 delegates will represent Kentucky Democrats at the party’s national convention this July in Philadelphia. National party rules stipulate that the majority of those delegates are awarded to candidates using a proportional system of allocation in accordance to the results of the statewide primary. For the full article click here 

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Never underestimate the Democrats’ ability to blow a presidential race

Democrats should be nervous about Donald Trump. Well, more specifically, they should be worried about Democrats.

Yes, demographics favor the Democrats in modern presidential elections, and yes, Trump is a spectacularly flawed candidate. But you’d almost never lose money betting on the Democrats blowing a good thing.

Hillary Clinton has her own weaknesses as a candidate, as others havenoted, frequently, but this article isn’t about Clinton. This is about Democrats, the American political party that most resembles a Hollywood dark comedy about going home for the holidays.

If you start the clock in 2006, the idea of Democrats as hapless self-saboteurs might sound odd. That was the year the party captured the House, the Senate, and a majority of governorships, elevating Nancy Pelosi to the House speakership, thus making her the highest-ranking woman in U.S. government history. Two years later, Democrats elected a black first-term senator to the presidency in a landslide. They re-elected him four years later. For the full article click here 

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Democrats use Trump as bogeyman to get people to vote

Democratic Party activists in some U.S. states are using Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who has stirred controversy with his comments about illegal immigrants and women, as the centerpiece of their “get out the vote” campaign for the November elections.

In California, canvassers from the Orange County Democrats carry pictures of Trump when they knock on doors ahead of the June 7 California primary. They ask if people will vote in the primary, and warn that if they don’t help pick the strongest possible Democrat, “this guy will win,” said Henry Vandermeir, the local party chairman in Orange County, a traditionally Republican island in the state.

 

Democrats in New Hampshire have unveiled Trump/Sununu lawn signs, looking to tie Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Sununu to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on issues such as climate change (Trump is a skeptic) and healthcare. For the full article click here 

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Why It’s a Big Deal Hillary Clinton Plans to Shake Up the Fed

Hillary Clinton is taking on the United States Federal Reserve System, but in a wonky, bottom’s-up way that shows her understanding of a complex and widely misunderstood organization. This is not “End the Fed” or even “audit the Fed” — she wants to rebuild it from its fundamentals at the regional level. To paraphrase Mitt Romney, the Federal Reserve is people, my friend. Hillary Clinton’s recent proposal to change the roster of Fed officials who ultimately make monetary policy and regulatory decisions might be the most effective Fed-reform idea since the financial crisis. Generally, the public pays attention to little more than the face of the organization — the Fed’s chairperson, currently Janet Yellen — who announces and explains the Fed’s decisions. But beneath Yellen functions an intricate and influential bureaucracy that’s dominated by interests from the financial sector, the vast majority of them white men, and may well be blind to the reality of a vast majority of Americans. For the full article click here 

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A Dozen Delegates Up For Grabs At Nevada Democratic Convention

Nevada Democrats are meeting Saturday for their state convention in Las Vegas. The party’s main task is electing presidential delegates. Reno Public Radio’s Michelle Billman reports.

Nevada Democrats will send 43 delegates to the national convention in July. During the February caucuses, Hillary Clinton nabbed 13 of them while Bernie Sanders claimed ten. There are also super delegates who are appointed. Right now, more are supporting Clinton.

Megan Messerly, a political reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, says that for tomorrow, a dozen final delegates are up for grabs.

“There are these what are known at-large delegates, there are seven of those, and then five of these so-called party leader and elected official delegates, and so it’s the delegates at the state convention that get to select those, so those percentages aren’t set in stone.” For the full article click here 

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Riled Sanders fans rise up as state Democratic convention begins

Internal strife rocked the Alaska Democratic Party on Friday as it headed into its three-day state convention, with some members of the party that heavily favor Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton protesting the convention by planning an alternative event Saturday night.

“Alaska voters are an independent people and they don’t want to be told what to do,” said Ed Cullinane, a member of the state central committee from an Anchorage House district.

Cullinane helped organize the protest to the convention, where Democrats on Saturday will choose delegates to cast votes at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

Though Clinton appears poised for victory in the hard-fought race, Sanders supporters say he can still claim a win though it would take a surge of delegates.

The anti-convention event at the Egan Civic and Convention Center comes because Florida congresswoman and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz plans to give the keynote speech at the convention in Anchorage Saturday, Cullinane said.

Alaskan Democrats gave Sanders 81.6 percent of their support in the March caucus. Many believe Wasserman Schultz has limited debates and unfairly allocated resources to give Clinton a boost, he said.  For the full article click here 

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Donald Trump faces long odds in heavily Democratic Sonoma County and California

Based on statistical figures alone, Donald Trump is a long shot to win approval from California’s 17 million registered voters in November.

Polls and political rhetoric aside, the lopsided Democratic advantage in registered voters statewide and in Sonoma County runs strongly against the real estate tycoon and former reality TV star, now the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president.

California’s 55 electoral college votes are the most by far — with Texas second at 38 votes — accounting for more than 10 percent of the 538 total in the college, the institution established in the U.S. Constitution that actually elects the chief executive. California, like all but two of the 50 states, awards all of its electoral votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote. To do that, Trump would have to overcome the GOP’s whopping gap of nearly 2.8 million registered voters behind the Democrats, who have 44 percent of voters compared with 28 percent for Republicans. For the full article click here 

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Alaska Democratic Convention gets underway in Anchorage

ANCHORAGE –

At the State Democratic Convention in Anchorage, one of the big jobs party leaders have is to elect delegates to attend the national convention in July, when the presidential nominee will be decided.

Back in March, candidate Bernie Sanders won the state’s Democratic caucus in a big way. All 16 of the state’s regular delegates who will go the national convention in Philadelphia are pledged to vote for him. But the state also has four super delegates who can vote for whomever they want.

Casey Steinau is one of the super delegates. Steinau is the chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, but as a super delegate, she’s undeclared.

”I am the chairman of the party and I believe that it is my job to represent 100 percent of the Alaska Democrats and I take that roll very seriously,” Steinau said. “I don’t think my personal preferences should be influencing anyone.”

But the idea that super delegates can vote for whomever they want doesn’t sit well with many Democrats. For the full article click here 

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The enormous ambition of Hillary Clinton’s child-care plan

Hillary Clinton this week unveiled her vision for more quality child care in the United States, a lofty plan that includes raising pay for the industry’s workers. But the boldest idea targets parents, who now face day-care costs that rival college tuition. Clinton wants to cap that expense at 10 percent of a household’s income.

Considering that some people spend more on child care than rent, such a price shift would significantly ease the financial strain for families nationwide. Getting there, however, could be an extraordinary challenge.

Average child-care costs in the United States devour at least 30 percent of a minimum-wage worker’s earnings in every state, according to a report last yearfrom the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

To pay for a year of full-time infant care in Hawaii, for example, where the median minimum wage in 2015 was $7.75, a full-time worker would have to fork over every paycheck from January to September. Those at the bottom of the wage scale in New York and Massachusetts would have to spend about 80 percent of their annual earnings. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton’s Faded Footprint in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Michael Sanders is 50 years old, retired from the Navy, and working toward a college degree. His t-shirt and tight afro are the same shade of gray. He was scrolling the internet on a desktop computer at Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library when I asked him to play a word association game: When I say “Hillary Clinton,” what word that pops into your head?

“Smart,” Sanders replied.

I nodded, silently welcoming more.

“Powerful.”

“Strong.”

“Game changer,” Sanders said, rattling off another half-dozen positive adjectives before I stopped him to note the one word that never seems to come up in these conversations: Arkansan. “You’re right,” Sanders smiled, “People don’t really think of her as being from here. Not anymore.”

A generation after she left Arkansas, Arkansas seems to have left Clinton. No knock against the state’s former first lady: Time marches on and so has she. For the full article click here 

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California Democratic voter registration ticks up in latest tally

California began last month with nearly 17.3 million voters on the rolls, according to anupdated tally released Thursday by the Secretary of State’s Office.

Democratic registration ticked up from January, from 43.1 percent of voters in January to 43.7 percent as of April 8. Republican registration declined from 27.6 percent to 27.5 percent of voters. The share of no-party preference voters also dropped slightly, from 24 percent in January to 23.9 percent as of April 8.

The largest Democratic gain was in Humboldt County, where the party’s share of registrants increased by 1.8 percentage points. Amador County had the largest increase in Republican registration, 1.4 percentage points.

Republican registration, meanwhile, ranks third behind registered Democrats and no-party preference voters in 177 of California’s 482 cities. Democratic registration trails Republican and no-party preference voters in just eight cities, the largest of which is 13,000-voter Ridgecrest, in Kern County. For the full article click here 

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Iowa Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls make case for nomination

GRINNELL — With Iowa Democrats sensing an opportunity to deny Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley a seventh term, three candidates hoping to replace him made their cases to be Iowa’s next U.S. senator.

Democrats believe that the inevitability of Grassley’s re-election has disappeared — or at least diminished, according to Charlene Doyle of the Poweshiek County Democrats and one of the organizers of the Democratic debate Thursday in Grinnell.

“It’s different now that he’s refused to have hearings on the Supreme Court nominee,” she said. “Even out here in the rural areas, at his town hall meetings, Republicans are standing up and asking him why he’s doing that.”

In making their cases, Clarence attorney Tom Fiegen, Sen. Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids and veterans’ advocate Bob Krause of Fairfield sounded similar themes on the minimum wage, college affordability, defending a woman’s right to an abortion, opposing fracking and supporting weaning America from fossil fuel.

It was in their approaches to the race and the job of being a U.S. senator where the trio broke ranks. For the full article click here 

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DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TRY TO MAKE PRESENCE FELT WITH VOTERS IN SOUTH BAY

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) –

The battle for California is on and both Democratic candidates pushed to make their presence known in the South Bay, without actually physically being there.

At Hillary Clinton’s newest campaign office in San Jose, the excitement was palpable.

Silicon Valley has historically been Clinton country. Still, her reps stress the campaign isn’t taking anything for granted.

“It’s important to make sure folks in Northern California know that it’s not just for the fundraising efforts, it’s because every vote matters,” said Melody Alemansour, a Clinton filed organizer.

It’s a sentiment also shared by the Bernie Sanders campaign.

“You get ideas of how to fix problems within your own community,”

Sanders is turning to Hollywood for help. Actors visited south bay campuses today to register students to vote. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton: A woman and candidate with seriously complicated woman issues

On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump assured people that he will bring up Bill Clinton, his history with women who are not his wife, and Hillary Clinton’s role as a political adviser and defender during these crises. She’s an enabler, Trump said of the Democratic presidential front-runner. And, he’s planning to continue, Trump told CNN, in “retribution” for Hillary Clinton “playing the woman card.”

The Fix would rehash the “woman card” debate if it weren’t for the well-established fact that one does not simply get to deploy one’s gender at will for political advantage. The experiences that come with being a woman in the United States are constant, and the decision to make these issues part of one’s campaign are no more or less legitimate than a developer, such as Trump, supporting the government’s exercise of eminent domain.

And, quite frankly, we might go there if so many others had not already done sovery, very well. For the full article click here 

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Reinvention and Whiplash: Bernie, Hillary, and “Strange Bedfellows” in the Democratic Party

One year ago, at a conference held in Chicago on Independent Left Politics, the International Socialist Organization’s Lance Selfa observed that the United States’ corporate and imperial Democratic Party had recurrently demonstrated a remarkable capacity to seemingly “reinvent itself” by coopting once-insurgent social forces and identities. Selfa cited the party’s development of Black Democratic political machines across urban America in the wake of the Black Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s. That development provided critical background for the dedicated imperialist and “vacuous to repressive neoliberal” (Adolph Reed, Jr. 1996) Barack Obama’s ascendency to the White House – something that helped boost the Democrats’ branding as the party of the nation’s racial minorities.

Selfa could also have noted the party’s success in cultivating female, feminist, gay, and Latino/a constituencies, organization, and networks. He might also have reflected on how Democrats sucked up the rhetoric of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street rebellion by branding themselves as “the party of the 99%” during the 2012 presidential election pitting Obama against “Mitt 1% Romney” (Never mind that Obama had dutifully served and protected the nation’s unelected dictatorship of finance capital throughout his first term or that his Department of Homeland Security worked with Democratic city halls across the country to dismantle Occupy with police state repression). For the full article click here 

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The sun is setting on the final planned Democratic primary debate

Back in February the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns agreed to extend the Democratic debate schedule by four more debates.

Three have been held, but the final debate, to be held in California in May according to the agreement, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. There are 19 days left in May, and the California primary is on June 7.

At the moment there have been few if any discussions about a date, location, or network agreed upon between the campaigns and the Democratic National Committee, multiple sources said.

The Sanders campaign has not been in negotiations with the Clinton campaign or the DNC, and is waiting for a cable network to come forward to offer a location and a primetime slot, a Sanders adviser said on background. Spokesman Michael Briggs said they’re trying to ‘nail down a date and location’ but would only say that there ‘have been discussions’ when asked for specifics. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton Mocks Donald Trump Over Not Releasing Tax Returns

BLACKWOOD, N.J. — Hillary Clinton on Wednesday mocked Donald J. Trump as evasive and secretive after he suggested that he would not release his tax returns before the November election, which would be a break with 40 years of political precedent.

But Mr. Trump quickly hit back, saying that he still intended to release his tax returns as soon as a federal audit was completed — and that Mrs. Clinton was hitting him out of desperation.

Mrs. Clinton, at a rally here to open her campaign for the New Jersey primary on June 7, had just begun attacking Mr. Trump’s proposed tax cuts for wealthy Americans when a man in the audience called out, “What about his tax returns?”

Mrs. Clinton, who often ignores catcalls, smiled and said, “We’ll get to that.” For the full article click here 

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