Bernie Sanders Emails Ice Warning Again
Democratic Leaders Willing to Adventure Political party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders
Interviews with dozens of Democratic Political party officials, including 93 superdelegates, found overwhelming opposition to handing Mr. Sanders the nomination if he fell brusque of a majority of delegates.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, hear constant warnings from allies about congressional losses in November if the party nominates Bernie Sanders for president. Democratic House members share their Sanders fears on text-messaging chains. Bill Clinton, in calls with old friends, vents most the party getting wiped out in the general election.
And officials in the national and state parties are increasingly anxious near splintered primaries on Super Tuesday and beyond, where the liberal Mr. Sanders, of Vermont, edges out moderate candidates who collectively win more than votes.
Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week evidence that they are not just worried well-nigh Mr. Sanders's candidacy, merely are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. Since Mr. Sanders's victory in Nevada'due south caucuses on Saturday, The Times has interviewed 93 party officials — all of them superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention — and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates simply fell short of a bulk.
Such a state of affairs may event in a brokered convention, a messy political battle the likes of which Democrats have not seen since 1952, when the nominee was Adlai Stevenson.
"We're way, way, way past the 24-hour interval where party leaders can make up one's mind an outcome hither, but I think in that location'south a vibrant chat near whether at that place is anything that tin be done," said Jim Himes, a Connecticut congressman and superdelegate, who believes the nominee should accept a bulk of delegates.
From California to the Carolinas, and North Dakota to Ohio, the party leaders say they worry that Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist with passionate but limited support so far, will lose to President Trump, and drag downwards moderate House and Senate candidates in swing states with his left-wing agenda of "Medicare for all" and free 4-year public college.
Mr. Sanders and his directorate insist that the contrary is true — that his ideas will generate huge excitement amid young and working-course voters, and lead to record turnout. Such hopes take nonetheless to exist borne out in nominating contests so far.
Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic Party chairman and a superdelegate, echoing many others interviewed, said that superdelegates should choose a nominee they believed had the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump if no candidate wins a majority of delegates during the primaries. Mr. Sanders argued that he should become the nominee at the convention with a plurality of delegates, to reflect the will of voters, and that denying him the nomination would enrage his supporters and split the party for years to come.
"Bernie wants to redefine the rules and merely say he merely needs a plurality," Mr. Jacobs said. "I don't think nosotros buy that. I don't recall the mainstream of the Autonomous Political party buys that. If he doesn't accept a majority, it stands to reason that he may not get the nominee."
This commodity is based on interviews with the 93 superdelegates, out of 771 total, equally well as party strategists and aides to senior Democrats virtually the thinking of party leaders. A vast bulk of those superdelegates — whose ranks include federal elected officials, former presidents and vice presidents and D.Due north.C. members — predicted that no candidate would clinch the nomination during the primaries, and that there would exist a brokered convention fight in July to choose a nominee.
In a reflection of the establishment's wariness virtually Mr. Sanders, only nine of the 93 superdelegates interviewed said that Mr. Sanders should get the nominee purely on the ground of arriving at the convention with a plurality, if he was short of a majority.
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"I've had sixty years experience with Democratic delegates — I don't think they will practise annihilation like that," said former Vice President Walter Mondale, who is a superdelegate. "They will each do what they desire to exercise, and somehow they will work information technology out. God knows how."
Every bit for his own vote, Mr. Mondale, the 1984 Autonomous presidential nominee, said, "I vote for the person I call up should be president."
'I've had 60 years experience with Democratic delegates. I don't call back they will do annihilation like that.'
— Former Vice President Walter Mondale
While there is no widespread public effort underway to undercut Mr. Sanders, arresting his ascension has emerged as the dominant topic in many Democratic circles. Some are trying to deed well before the convention: Since Mr. Sanders won Nevada'south caucuses on Saturday, 4 donors have approached former Representative Steve Israel of New York to ask if he can propose someone to run a super PAC aimed at blocking Mr. Sanders. He declined their offer.
"People are worried," said former Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a old Democratic National Committee chairman who in October endorsed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. "How you lot can spend 4 or five months hoping y'all don't have to put a bumper sticker from that guy on your car."
That anxiety has led even superdelegates to propose ideas that audio ripped from the pages of a political drama.
In recent weeks, Democrats have placed a steady stream of calls to Senator Sherrod Brownish of Ohio, who opted against running for president near a yr ago, suggesting that he can sally as a white knight nominee at a brokered convention — in function on the theory that he may carry his home state in a general ballot.
"If you could become to a convention and selection Sherrod Brown, that would exist wonderful, merely that'due south more similar a novel," Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said. "Donald Trump'southward presidency is like a horror story, then if you lot tin take a horror story you might as well have a novel."
Prototype
Others are urging former President Barack Obama to go involved to banker a truce — either among the four moderate candidates or between the Sanders and institution wings, co-ordinate to iii people familiar with those conversations.
William Owen, a D.North.C. member from Tennessee, suggested that if Mr. Obama was unwilling, his wife, Michelle, could be nominated as vice president, giving the party a figure they could rally behind.
"She's the just person I can recall of who can unify the party and help us win," he said. "This ballot is about saving the American experiment every bit a republic. It'southward also near saving the world. This is not an ordinary ballot."
People close to Mr. Obama say he has no intention of getting involved in the primary contest, seeing his role as less of a kingmaker than as a unifying figure to assistance heal political party divisions once Democrats settle on a nominee. He also believed that the Democratic Party shouldn't engage in fume-filled-room politics, arguing that those kinds of deals would have prevented him from capturing the nomination when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2008.
'This ballot is about saving the American experiment every bit a republic.'
— William Owen, a D.Due north.C. member from Tennessee
Officials at the Democratic National Committee maintain that it is highly improbable to head to the convention without an assured nominee. Historically, superdelegates had e'er supported the candidate who won the most pledged delegates, which accrue from master and caucus wins. While those delegates are proportioned based on the results of those elections, they are non legally bound — meaning that they are technically complimentary to change their votes equally the race progresses.
In recent days, both Mr. Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said that Mr. Sanders should not become the nominee if he arrived at the convention short of a delegate majority. "Bernie had a big mitt in writing these rules," Ms. Warren said during a CNN forum on Wednesday nighttime. "I don't run into how he thinks he gets to alter them now that he thinks there's an reward for him."
Slightly less than three percent of delegates have been allocated in the race so far, and Mr. Sanders, of course, can win a bulk, making him the nominee. But while Mr. Sanders has demonstrated momentum in the race, winning the nigh votes in each of the offset iii contests, he has still to show that he tin expand his coalition enough to set his campaign on a path to capturing the majority of delegates. As a result, some within Mr. Sanders's own campaign foresee a possible brokered convention.
The argument of Mr. Sanders and his allies — that a plurality of delegates should exist sufficient to clinch the nomination — is a different standard than the one laid out in party rules that his team helped draft two years ago. Information technology's also a reversal of their stance in 2016, when Mr. Sanders encouraged superdelegates to support him over Mrs. Clinton, who secured the bulk of pledged delegates.
"The volition of the people should prevail," he said when asked during last week's debate if the candidate with the nearly pledged delegates should be the Autonomous nominee. "The person who has the most votes should become the nominee."
Supporters of Mr. Sanders said that blocking him from the nomination if he had the most delegates would repel progressives, and would deliver a second term to Mr. Trump.
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"If Bernie gets a plurality and nobody else is even close and the superdelegates weigh in and say, 'Nosotros know meliorate than the voters,' I retrieve that volition be a big problem," said Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, a Sanders supporter who is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
'We don't accept to freak out.'
— Jane Kleeb, the Nebraska Autonomous chairwoman
Non only would a messy convention fight risk alienating a sizable part of the Democratic base that supports Mr. Sanders, it would too requite Republicans ammunition to employ in the general election.
"Nosotros don't have to freak out," said Jane Kleeb, the Nebraska Democratic chairwoman, who helped write Democrats' presidential nominating rules and supported Mr. Sanders in 2016. "Nosotros shouldn't be 2nd-guessing voters. If that's what our party leaders are going to practise, you lot'll run across rebellion not just in the presidential race, but in downwards-election races too."
Others in the party view Mr. Sanders as such an existential threat that they encounter stopping him from winning the nomination as less risky than a public convention fight. Many feared that putting Mr. Sanders on the top of the ticket could cost Democrats the political gains of the Trump era, a menstruum when the party won control of the House, took governor's mansions in deep red states and flipped statehouses across the state.
"Bernie seems to have declared war on the Autonomous Party — and it's acquired panic in the House ranks," said Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Bailiwick of jersey, a supporter of onetime Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. Individual polling of Mr. Gottheimer'south northern New Jersey commune, for example, shows a double-digit gap in the approval ratings of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders.
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Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas said that if Mr. Sanders arrived at the convention with xl percent of the delegates, it wouldn't exist enough to convince her to vote for him on the second election.
"If 60 pct is not with Bernie Sanders, I call up that says something, I really do," she said.
Results in the Super Tuesday contests should give Democrats a strong indication of where the nominating competition is headed.
'If 60 per centum is not with Bernie Sanders, I think that says something, I really do.'
— Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas
Should Mr. Sanders win large in the 16 states and territories belongings primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday next week, he could be on a path to the 1,991 pledged delegates needed to capture the nomination on the first ballot at the party'due south convention. Only if the Super Tuesday vote is sharply divided among Mr. Sanders and 2 or more other rivals, the Vermont senator could find himself with more delegates than the competition simply non plenty to win the nomination outright.
Nether the current rules, the convention would and so go to a second ballot. On that vote, all 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 superdelegates would exist costless to vote for any candidate they chose.
That would give Autonomous delegates a huge corporeality of power to determine the nominee, setting off a fierce round of jockeying by the candidates to win over 2,375.5 delegates and superdelegates. (Superdelegates from Democrats Abroad count as half a vote each.)
"It is a mini master process in the making," said Leah Daughtry, who ran the party's 2008 and 2016 conventions. She's been warning Democratic donors nearly the prospect of a contested convention for nearly a year. "If you don't have a political operation that volition get you through a 2nd ballot and then what are you lot going to do in a general?"
The campaigns are already strategizing about how they will handle a protracted convention battle. Superdelegates, too, are brushing up on the rules: Ms. Pelosi invited House Democrats to a meeting at D.North.C. headquarters on Thursday to review the details of the convention process.
"Whatsoever the atmosphere is, and I would hope that everyone would say, no matter who the nominee is for president, nosotros wholeheartedly embrace that person," she said, in a private caucus meeting on Midweek morning, according to an aide in the room.
According to a person familiar with the private conversations, Mr. Schumer told people he had and so far stayed out of the primary because many members of his caucus were running. He argued that in that location was i schoolhouse of thought that you needed to win the base of operations and i that you needed to bring new voters in, and said that he did not notwithstanding know which candidate would be able to accomplish those goals.
A number of superdelegates dream of a savior candidate who is not now in the race, perhaps Mr. Brown, or mayhap someone who already dropped out the race, like Senator Kamala Harris of California.
Representative Don Beyer of Virginia bandage an fifty-fifty wider cyberspace, suggesting senators from Virginia and Delaware, along with Ms. Pelosi, as possible nominees.
"At some point you could imagine proverb, 'Let'due south go get Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Nancy Pelosi,'" he said, while preparing to introduce the former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., at a campaign outcome near his home on Sun. "Somebody that could win and we could all go backside and gloat."
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/democratic-superdelegates.html
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