After Helping Bernie Sanders Win 70 Percent of Humboldt’s Primary Vote, Local Activists Shift Focus to Local Politics
Press release:
Humboldt is the only county in California to exceed 70% for Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary, and the local organizers who helped deliver this win are now poised to fight for many of the issues Sanders championed at the local level. [….]
Senator Sanders’ win in Humboldt County represents his highest margin of victory in the entire state of California. Many credit this success in large part to the organizing efforts of the local grassroots group, Northern Humboldt for Bernie (NHFB), which was formed in mid-2015 by local activists and organizers enthusiastic about Senator Sanders’ messages of justice and equality.
NHFB volunteers were trained in voter registration, phone banking, and canvassing, and dedicated hundreds of hours over the course of several months to these activities. During the final four days leading up to the Democratic primary alone, volunteers knocked on over 5,000 doors in Eureka to engage local voters and get out the vote.
“Humboldt is the only county in California where Bernie won with more than 70% of the vote. That’s a landslide and a direct reflection of the work volunteers put in ringing doorbells and making calls every day during the months leading up to the primary. The volunteer leadership, the canvas and phone bank captains and the volunteers who worked with them — everyone shares credit for the result,” according to Bernie2016 Field Organizer for California’s 2nd Congressional District, Dave Doering.
Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee Chair Bob Service comments, “The achievements of the Sanders campaign in Humboldt County have been truly amazing. I cannot overstate my respect for this achievement; nor can I escape the belief that the outcome of the primary election would have been substantially different had this organization, skill, dedication, and enthusiasm been extended across the state. The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee is proud that many of its members were actively involved in the Sanders campaign. I look forward to expanding this relationship so that together we may build a fairer, more progressive community.”
Asked about what will become of the NHFB group after the Democratic convention later this month, one of the group’s lead organizers, Tamara McFarland responded, “We’re not going anywhere. So many of us have been inspired by Bernie’s ideas and empowered by the skills we acquired through working for his campaign. We’re excited to capitalize on this momentum and energy to begin working for positive changes at a local level, whether through ballot initiatives or by supporting progressive candidates for local office.”
Doering says, “It’s clear that lots of Humboldt County voters agree with Bernie’s progressive values. Sanders has called for the ‘political revolution to continue’ – and I really hope the volunteers who worked together so effectively will continue to work for other progressive candidates. The same energy that got 70% of the vote for Bernie can elect progressive candidates to city and county councils, state legislature, and Congress.” [….]
Video link: The Young Turks — Clinton Embraces Bernie Sanders’ College Plan
In platform fight, Sanders loses on trade but wins on minimum wage
Bernie Sanders’ campaign is declaring victory after striking deals with Hillary Clinton’s allies over climate change, health care and a $15-an-hour minimum wage as Democrats finalized the party’s 2016 platform.
The primary rivals’ negotiators never found common ground on trade — with Clinton’s supporters voting down the Sanders backers’ language to specifically reject the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sanders supporters were also frustrated to see their proposals denouncing Israeli settlements and banning fracking rejected.
Overall, though, they celebrated, touting the party’s platform — finalized in the wee Sunday morning hours — as one that reflects the causes that animated the Vermont senator’s campaign.
“We got 80% of what we wanted in this platform,” top Sanders foreign policy adviser Warren Gunnels told CNN. [….]
Clinton’s campaign also touted the platform. “We are proud of the work that Democrats did in Orlando and for coming together to further strengthen the most progressive platform in the history of our party,” said Clinton senior policy adviser Maya Harris.
The weekend was the culmination of Sanders’ month-long push, since the Democratic primary contest ended, to move the party’s platform leftward.
“Now let’s put in place a president that can actually deliver on this and let’s make sure that she does,” Sanders supporter Ben Jealous, the former NAACP head, said in a nod to Clinton after the climate deal was announced.
Why Sanders’ endorsement probably won’t help Hillary Clinton with millennials
Sure, Trump might be falsely playing the part of an outsider against corruption. In reality he's as much an insider and benefactor of corruption as any other elected official. But he's sold millions of Americans by playing a fire-breathing populist who'll untangle the rigged political web Clinton helped create.
For low-information voters who've not been glued to politics for a year like myself and many of you, who's just tuning in a few months before Election Day—who's going to sound more appealing? [….]
Ultimately, like most elections, independent voters and millennials may play a deciding role. What will be crucial will be the rate at which the latter turns out for Clinton.
In platform draft, Sanders wins on climate, loses on trade
Bernie Sanders’ still-impassioned campaign electrified debate over a draft of the Democratic Party’s policy positions Saturday, winning concessions on climate change but failing to include opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
During a frequently combative session in an Orlando hotel ballroom Saturday, members of the Democratic National Convention’s full Platform Committee voted down amendments to the party platform to explicitly oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. But Sanders supporters exploded in cheers when they won environmental amendments that included support for pricing greenhouse gases, prioritizing renewable energy and limiting fracking.
“None of this would have happened in this forum without Bernie Sanders pushing this issue front and center over and over again,” said environmentalist Bill McKibben, a supporter of the Vermont senator.
Hillary Clinton backers offered support for the environmental language, but stressed that pricing greenhouse gases was a reflection of the views of some party members and was not a part of her current climate plans. “Her plan is clearly articulated on her website,” said Energy Policy Adviser Trevor Houser. “It’s not her plan.”
Since Clinton effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders has aggressively campaigned to include his progressive policies in the party platform. He has avoided endorsing Clinton, but appears to be closing in on backing her campaign. He told reporters Saturday that the campaigns are “coming closer and closer together in trying to address the major issues facing this country.”
Video link: Climate Mobilization Added to Democratic Party Platform!
Sanders secures health-care promises from Clinton before expected endorsement
Hillary Clinton, in moves aimed at securing an endorsement from Bernie Sanders, on Saturday highlighted her support for a “public option” in health insurance and proposed additional funding for community-based centers championed by her rival for the Democratic nomination.
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in a statement that she would affirm her support for allowing states to offer government-run health plans as part of the Affordable Care Act. And she said she would support allowing people 55 and older to buy into Medicare, which is available to people 65 and older.
Those steps fall well short of the single-payer, “Medicare for all” program at the centerpiece of Sanders’s presidential campaign. But on a call with reporters Saturday, Sanders praised Clinton for “an important step forward” toward universal health care.
Clinton’s statement also included support for expanding funding by $40 billion over the next decade for primary-care services at community-based centers that serve largely rural areas, a long-standing priority for Sanders, a senator from Vermont.
“Together these steps will get us closer to the day when everyone in this country has access to quality, affordable health care,” Sanders told reporters.
He stopped short of confirming his widely reported plans to endorse Clinton at an event in New Hampshire on Tuesday, saying only that “we’ll have more to say in the very near future.”
Democrats Add Bernie Sanders’s $15 Minimum Wage Call to Party Platform
Bernie Sanders notched a victory Friday night in the battle over the Democratic Party’s official platform, winning approval of an amendment that calls for a $15 federal minimum wage indexed to inflation.
The vote by the Platform Committee is the latest sign that Mr. Sanders and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are reaching compromises on thorny policy questions that divided them during the hard-fought primary season.
During the campaign, Mr. Sanders called for a $15 minimum wage. Mrs. Clinton backed a $12 minimum wage, while saying she favored $15 in certain locations.
An early draft of the party platform carried language more consistent with Mrs. Clinton’s position. It said that “Americans should earn at least $15 an hour” but didn’t explicitly call for a federal minimum wage of $15.
The full, 187-member Platform Committee took up the issue Friday night as part of a two-day meeting on the platform — a written manifesto laying out the party’s goals and values.
The committee approved an amendment that endorsed the $15 minimum wage—with one caveat. The increase from $7.25 an hour to $15 should happen “over time,” the new platform language reads.
Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns deemed that wording acceptable.
“A few years ago, the fight for $15 was considered radical. Today, it is a cornerstone of the Democratic Party. Now let’s make it the law,” Mr. Sanders said after the amendment passed.
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