Sanders backers dogging the superdelegates
In a year when the acrimonious Democratic presidential primary battle is likely to continue all the way to the July convention, being a party superdelegate sounds like way more fun than it is. Just ask Shawn Bagley. It was 2 a.m. when the insistent ring of his cell phone woke the Salinas man from a sound sleep. Fearing the worst, he staggered through the house and picked up the phone, only to find a nasty message from a supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, angered that the Democratic National Committee member was supporting Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
“Now I know what it feels like to be targeted,” Bagley said. “Since December, I’ve probably had more than 300 calls,
Facebook messages, tweets and emails — almost all of them from Bernie’s people.”
The messages aren’t often pleasant. “Has your vote been bought?” one asked. “Keep in mind you’re currently pledged to a criminal,” said another. “Do you not respect democracy?” asked a third.
Bagley’s story can be repeated throughout California and the nation, as Sanders supporters, few if any of them officially connected to the campaign, push hard to persuade the officially unpledged superdelegates to pull back from supporting Clinton — or shame them or even threaten them.
For Sanders backers and other progressives, the fight is as much philosophical as political.
Superdelegates — more formally known as unpledged delegates — are Democratic Party leaders who can vote for any candidate at the national convention, regardless of whom their state’s voters backed. Nationally, there are more than 700 superdelegates, or about 15 percent of those who will pick the party nominee in Philadelphia.
Progressive groups like MoveOn.org and Demand Progress argue that the superdelegate system allows Democratic Party leaders to put their collective thumb on the election scale, pushing the nomination toward their favored candidate.
“Superdelegates should not be allowed to overrule the will of the voters,” David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, said in an email last week. “Too much is at stake in our country to have our voices overruled by a minority of party elites.”
Defending the process
Party leaders brush aside the complaints, arguing that providing automatic convention seats for Democratic senators, members of Congress, governors and national committee members clears the way for more grassroots delegates to go to the convention.
“All the superdelegates have been elected in some way and have the consent of the governed,” said Eric Walker, deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee. “It’s a way to make sure we have a diverse mix of voices and has produced incredibly diverse conventions.”
But there’s a political element as well. While the superdelegates are officially unpledged, that doesn’t mean they’re neutral. Of the 555 who have expressed a preference for a candidate, 516 are backing Clinton, with only 39 supporting Sanders.
That makes a huge difference in the race toward the 2,383 delegates needed to ensure the Democratic nomination. Counting only pledged delegates won in the monthslong grind of state primary elections, Clinton has a 1,428to-1,153 delegate lead over Sanders.
With the superdelegates added, though, Clinton has a much more daunting 752-delegate margin, and her 1,944 total leaves her just 439 delegates short of a guaranteed firstballot nomination. Her lead over Sanders is likely to grow after the results of Tuesday’s primaries in five states are tallied.
For Sanders backers, the overwhelming support for Clinton among party leaders is just another sign of how worried the Democratic elite is about the surprisingly strong response voters — especially young voters — have had to the 74-year-old Vermont senator’s call for a revolution that will profoundly change the country’s political and economic systems.
Supporters’ reasons
But there’s a much simpler explanation, said Bob Mulholland, a DNC member and superdelegate from Chico and longtime adviser to the California Democratic Party.
“Many of California’s superdelegates are party activists in their 50s, 60s and 70s who have a long history with both Hillary and Bill Clinton,” said Mulholland, a Clinton supporter. “The Clintons are family.”
By contrast, Sanders was first elected to Congress in 1990 as an independent who identified himself as a socialist. While he has caucused with the Democrats during his time in office and registered as a Democrat last year, he’s still identified on the Senate website as “I-Vermont.”
Clinton has used that history to boost her standing with lifelong Democrats and party leaders.
Sanders is “a relatively new Democrat, and in fact, I’m not even sure he is one,” Clinton said in an interview with Politico this month.
Over the years, the Clintons have raised millions for party causes and candidates, showing up at fundraisers and rallies and backing efforts to elect Democrats across the country, efforts not forgotten by the party faithful who become superdelegates, Mulholland said.
For many California superdelegates, that history is too strong to be broken by any outside attacks.
“If Hillary walked into the room, she wouldn’t know who I am,” said Bagley, the Salinas superdelegate. “I’m not anything fancy ... but I’ve got a choice of who I get to support.”
Sanders has disavowed efforts to harass superdelegates backing Clinton, including one supporter’s online Superdelegate Hit List, a website providing names, addresses and phone numbers for Clinton’s superdelegates.
Superdelegates are barely on the Sanders campaign’s radar right now.
“Our campaign is focused on winning pledged delegates,” said Vivek Kembaiyan, a campaign spokesman. “California is fertile ground for Bernie Sanders because it is leading the way on many of the progressive policies that are a core part of his platform.
“Our focus is building on Bernie’s strong support in the state so he leads in pledged delegates after the California primary” on June 7.
Superdelegates in play
But if Sanders is still short of a majority after the final primary, Clinton’s superdelegates can become fair game.
Asked in an MSNBC interview last week whether the Sanders campaign would be willing to spend the weeks before the July convention trying to flip Clinton’s superdelegates, Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said, “At this point, yes, absolutely.”
He argued that Sanders has a better chance of being elected in November than Clinton, and that Democratic superdelegates, eager for victory, would recognize that and move to the senator.
That’s not going to happen, said Mulholland.
“They’ve already reached out and tried that and just made (superdelegates) mad,” he said. “Sanders’ people will fail miserably if they try to put out a welcome mat.”