Are Democrats afraid of Sanders appeal in the state?
Last night’s Iowa caucus results were a decisive victory for Bernie Sanders. Yes, that’s right. Iowa was supposed to be Hillary Clinton’s territory, and there was no chance in hell that a Socialist Senator from Vermont with a Brooklyn accent could win in the heartland – except that he nearly did, losing by a fraction of a percentage. Had Martin O’Malley not been a factor in Iowa, Sanders might have won. Team Sanders should be celebrating, but instead, Sanders is wasting energy throwing down accusations of unfair play by the Clinton Camp. One in particular caught our eye.
The day before the caucus, Team Sanders was complaining that the Clinton campaign is “infiltrating the caucuses with out-of-state paid staffers”.
“[Sanders’ campaign manager] Weaver cited a letter that a Sanders supporter in Hawarden, Iowa, received from the Clinton campaign that named a man named Morgan Luther as the Clinton precinct captain, even though Luther is not a resident of the state of Iowa.”
The complaint is funny seeing as there were reports last night of swarms of Bernie supporters registering at the last minute as well as reports here in Colorado that caravans of at least 35 Sanders’ supporters were headed to help in Iowa. Here is what the Denver Post learned from one of Sanders’ supporters:
“In Iowa, she said, voters can register immediately before the caucus, so the Sanders volunteers will work to recruit new caucus-goers and convince others to turnout. She is excited by the number of young people traveling to Iowa from Colorado for the campaign. The group, she said, decided “we are not going to just sit here and cheer for Bernie, we have to do outreach to people.”
Perhaps Bernie’s complaint was that Clinton’s people were being paid to organize in Iowa? If that’s the case, we would expect nothing less from someone who describes himself as a socialist. Regardless, we have to admit that it warmed our heart a little to see Sanders serving as a fly in the ointment of Clinton’s “turn”, but really what did he expect when dealing with one of the most corrupt political families in political history?