Bernie Sanders goes for broke leading up to CA primary

 

Bernie Sanders rallyWith California the final battleground in his insurgent campaign to beat Hillary Clinton for the Democrats’ nomination for president, Sen. Bernie Sanders has pulled out the stops, barnstorming the state and demanding a final televised debate, which Clinton has now declined, as his team’s lawyers filed suit in the hopes of pulling in as many new voters as they can.

Last minute schemes

The lawsuit, “alleging widespread confusion over California’s presidential primary rules,” asked a judge to push voter registration “past Monday’s deadline until the day of the state’s primary election on June 7,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “At issue is whether voters understand the rules for the presidential primary, which differ from those governing other elections in California.”

Campaign lawyers also requested that the judge “require state elections officials to conduct a broad public awareness campaign about the voting rules before May 31, the deadline for requesting a ballot by mail,” the paper added. 

Angling for one more shot at contrasting himself to Clinton before a wide audience, Sanders signed off on a televised event that Clinton, so far, has shied away from. “Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the Vermont senator has accepted an invitation from Fox News to debate ‘with the understanding that we can reach mutual agreement on the debate moderators, the format and other details,'” as The Hill reported. “Weaver said both campaigns in January agreed to hold a debate in May in California, adding that the Clinton campaign has ‘balked at keeping that pledge.'”

Scrambling for votes 

Beyond the high stakes raised by the increasingly acrimonious partisan split between Clinton and Sanders supporters, the state primary’s significance has been increased by the potential role to be played in shaping the campaign’s final stages by California’s significant chunk of voters expressing no party preference. Recent research has shown “a spike with registrations for independents, another group than leans to the senator” along with younger voters, ABC News reported. “However, a wrinkle in the state’s vote-by-mail rules could undercut that support with independents.”

“More than half of California voters are expected to vote by mail. But independent voters must ask local election officials to send them a presidential ballot with their state ballot. So far, 2.1 million independents have been sent vote-by-mail ballots. But most were sent to voters without a presidential ballot, according to Paul Mitchell with Political Data.”

That news had Sanders allies questioning whether the Democrats’ so-called “open primary” system was really in effect in California — giving Clinton an edge despite her relative lack of a presence in the Golden State this season. “Mrs. Clinton, a known and popular quantity who won California in 2008, has spent far less time in the state than Mr. Sanders. The Vermont senator and underdog has flooded California with rallies, commercials and organizers, hoping an upset win can help him convince superdelegates that he is the candidate best poised to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump in the fall,” the New York Times noted. “While Mr. Sanders’s path appears mathematically impossible, his continued fight has meant the Clinton campaign has had to invest limited resources in the remaining primary states, rather than fully pivoting to the general election battleground states.”

The long game

With the Democrats positioned to grant Sanders and his supporters a significant degree of influence at their nominating convention, regardless of the primary season’s outcome, Sanders himself has shown a willingness to temper his attacks in California, which ramped up as his campaign’s longevity began to upset establishment expectations. “At a rally in Vista in northern San Diego County, Sanders put the brakes on his customary criticism of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton,” as the Los Angeles Times observed. “He omitted his usual criticism of her for not backing a $15-per-hour national minimum wage, and for failing to join him in support of a carbon tax to fight climate change. In only one paragraph [of his remarks], he dispensed with his criticism of her for allowing super PACs to raise money for her benefit and for taking donations from Wall Street employees.”

15 comments

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  1. Dude
    Dude 24 May, 2016, 09:55

    Funny watching Dims eat their own. I guess Bernie should’ve put on a couple hundred extra pounds and endangered our national security for a chance at the presidency.

    Reply this comment
    • TTT Ted---- Winner!
      TTT Ted---- Winner! 24 May, 2016, 14:19

      Well Dood— true enuf– or you could watch the Republi clown car circus— little Marco, Lying Ted and Trump the Loon—– lmao—- THAT show still has some potential for hyjinx!

      Reply this comment
    • SeeSaw
      SeeSaw 27 May, 2016, 21:03

      And, I suppose you are the reincarnation of Adonis! If you had to spend four years on airplanes, sitting in meetings several times a day, and eating food that is not the usual American fare, would you put on a few pounds? She certainly did not put on 200 lbs and if you would bother to take a close look, you would actually see a very attractive women for 69 years of age. Just can’t bring yourself to see the truth can you! She has admitted multiple times that the use of a private server was a mistake. You have no concrete evidence that our national security was endangered. Wait–if your idol is elected, you won’t have to worry about your security being endangered–you will be going up in smoke with the rest of us! Wake up–get rid of whatever you are on and just smell the coffee!

      Reply this comment
  2. Mike
    Mike 24 May, 2016, 20:05

    Primary news.
    ‘bernie beats the hag’

    Reply this comment
  3. Spurwing Plover
    Spurwing Plover 25 May, 2016, 09:22

    Will the Dumb-O-Crats run off the cliff like lemming and drown themselves folowing after sanders or Hillary which one will get big support from Hollyweed?

    Reply this comment
  4. SeeSaw
    SeeSaw 26 May, 2016, 20:29

    I’m not that stupid! I am not voting for the Party. I intend to support the most qualified candidate and its not fascist Trump and certainly not grumpy Bernie.

    Reply this comment
  5. Spurwing Plover
    Spurwing Plover 27 May, 2016, 15:05

    The bird that lit on sanders podium should have left a little calling card on his head

    Reply this comment
  6. Dude
    Dude 27 May, 2016, 21:15

    She admitted it was a mistake only after being caught. Also, a “mistake” is like painting the living room purple. Violating our national security is a felony.

    Reply this comment
    • SeeSaw
      SeeSaw 28 May, 2016, 09:33

      If she is criminally indicted you can talk. In the meantime all you have is your opinion. None of this changes the fact that she is the only one of the three remaining candidates for POTUS that is qualified for the position.

      Reply this comment
  7. Dude
    Dude 28 May, 2016, 10:00

    “None of this changes the fact that she is the only one of the three remaining candidates for POTUS that is qualified for the position.”

    With regards to your unfounded, and non-factual statement that Hitlery is qualified for POTUS, to use your own words…..all you have is your opinion. However, I believe you would have no detractors if you had stated she is uniquely qualified to extend Obama’s unconstitutional behavior if she were to escape indictment and become POTUS.

    Reply this comment
  8. SeeSaw
    SeeSaw 28 May, 2016, 19:11

    There is nothing unfounded or non-factual in my statement that she is qualified. She is qualified in her own right. Your statement that Obama has committed unconstitutional behavior is your opinion.

    Reply this comment
  9. Dude
    Dude 28 May, 2016, 19:23

    You have no facts that Trump is unqualified. You also have no facts that Hitlery is qualified for anything other than first lady. We already know what a mess she made of the office of Secretary of State. My first and current comment still stand.

    Reply this comment
  10. SeeSaw
    SeeSaw 28 May, 2016, 20:32

    She was a NY Senator for six years; rated in the top 150 lawyers in the country prior to Bill’s tenure. I don’t know that she made a mess of the office of Secretary of State–she used her own server–that’s all any of us knows to this point. Being qualified includes representing the USA as a dignified statesman all over the world and Trump is so unqualified to do that! He is dangerous and will immediately put all our lives at risk!!

    Reply this comment
  11. Dude
    Dude 28 May, 2016, 20:56

    You’ve only restated the same weak argument I’ve already dismantled. You’re too weak to debate. Come back when there’s substance to your argument. Btw, before Hitlery was a weak Secretary of State she was a failed house wife. And with regards to her standing as an attorney, she was fired from Watergate by her boss Jerry Zeifman because of unethical activities.

    Democrat Jerry Zeifman, a counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Clinton on the Watergate investigation, states that she “… engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules. Asked why specifically, “Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

    Reply this comment
  12. SeeSaw
    SeeSaw 28 May, 2016, 22:19

    OMG, a failed housewife! How awful!

    Reply this comment

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