Sanders sticks it...

Sanders sticks it to the Democratic Party

Doubts are growing about the party's ability to unite after a contentious primary.

By Daniel Strauss

In the wake of a chaotic state convention that resulted in death threats for party officials and vandalism to party headquarters, the Democratic establishment asked Bernie Sanders for his help Tuesday in getting some of his overzealous supporters to stand down. His response: Stick it.

As fallout from Saturday’s Nevada Democratic convention expanded across Democratic circles, the Vermont senator’s defiance appeared to confirm some of the party’s worst fears: The rifts caused by the presidential primary may be deeper than anyone knew.

The level of vitriol generated by the convention outcome — in which Sanders backers erupted in fury over Hillary Clinton’s delegate win there — and Sanders’ reaction to those pointing the finger at his supporters are suddenly raising doubts about the party’s ability to quickly unite after its long slog of a primary.

"The perception that the DNC and other state parties have unfairly favored Hillary Clinton is going to make the reconciliation of Sanders and Clinton supporters nationally and in the states far harder," said Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, president of the NDN think tank. "The DNC should have tried much harder to address this perception early on, as it always had the potential to become a reason for Sanders partisans to question the legitimacy of Clinton's victory."

Sanders has long contended that the Democratic Party machinery has been working against him. After Nevada Democrats filed a formal complaint with the Democratic National Committee on Monday about the conduct of Sanders’ supporters and campaign representatives on Saturday — and after DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz released a statement Tuesday calling on the Clinton and Sanders campaigns to denounce "the type of behavior on display over the weekend in Las Vegas" — Sanders left no doubts about where he stood on the matter.

“It is imperative that the Democratic leadership, both nationally and in the states, understand that the political world is changing and that millions of Americans are outraged at establishment politics and establishment economics,” he said in a statement. “If the Democratic Party is to be successful in November, it is imperative that all state parties treat our campaign supporters with fairness and the respect that they have earned.”

Sanders’ response came during a day marked by sniping between the Nevada Democratic Party and his campaign. After Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on CNN that the state party "has a lot of problems, they've run things very poorly,” the state party accused him of making "baseless, conspiracy theory allegations.”

Sanders himself had a 10-minute conversation with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who called the episode a “test of leadership.”

"I wanted to make sure he understands, that he's heard what went on there. The violence and all the other bad things that has happened there," Reid told reporters in Washington. "He said that he condemns that. And I'm confident that he does. I'm confident he will be saying something about it soon. This is a test of leadership, as we all know, and I'm hopeful and very confident that Sen. Sanders will do the right thing."

Yet Sanders put the onus for reconciliation on the Democratic establishment in his own statement, alluding to the deep sense of frustration that many Sanders supporters have expressed about the Democratic presidential primary process.

They‘ve raged against the superdelegate allocation process and criticized the Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman for calling the Democratic contest for Clinton amid confusion in the early hours of the morning. More recently, they fumed at the Colorado Democratic Party for failing to notify the Sanders campaign of a counting error in reporting its caucus results but telling the Clinton campaign about the mistake.

Tensions between the DNC and the Sanders campaign itself have been simmering for months, ranging from disputes over debates to a legal fight over the committee's decision to revoke the Sanders campaign's access to its voter data file following a data breach. The Sanders campaign has also accused the DNC of having an inappropriate fundraising agreement with the Clinton campaign.

At the grass-roots level, the superdelegate system utilized by the party is a source of resentment. In Maine, where Sanders won the state caucuses by a landslide margin, a group of more than a dozen activists and pro-Sanders delegates to the national convention met Monday evening to discuss ways to win over the handful of Maine superdelegates who are supporting Clinton or remain uncommitted despite the overwhelming popular vote for Sanders.

"[We're] supposed to invite the superdelegates to our next meeting to try and explain to them why it would be in their best interest, why Sanders is the best candidate for Democrats and why it's best for the Democratic Party in Maine to support the person who won the caucus," said Maine DNC committeeman Troy Jackson.

The focus of the two-hour meeting, held at the office of Severin Beliveau, a former Maine Democratic Party chairman, was to make a fresh go at superdelegates, but the interest in the meeting was at least partially fueled by Nevada and the sense that the Democratic establishment is aligned against Sanders.

"We're certainly concerned about what appears to be a failure of democracy," said Seth Berner, a Sanders delegate who attended the meeting. "But I think until we know more about it, we're just aware of the situation, and nobody is quite sure what the answer needs to be at this point."

Publicly and privately, senior Sanders aides say the DNC, the Clinton campaign and state party leaders don't fully grasp the level of frustration felt by Sanders supporters — frustration that runs so deep that the candidate can no longer rein it in. The Sanders campaign and the DNC haven't had any direct contact beyond the public statements, campaign officials said.

Maryland Democratic Party chairman Bruce Poole cast the fighting as plain counterproductive.

"Relative to the conventions, I think Bernie has got to watch it, because at some point he's got to be accountable, and if he allows this to go from debate and democracy to mayhem there will be a backlash," Poole said. "As a superdelegate who still is unpledged, I am watching this unfold, and as I have told his campaign, to me what is most important is the how, not the what. Tell us how you're going to do things. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be where his campaign is headed right now. Instead, he seems to be getting away from the substance and into things like what we saw in Nevada."