Saturday, December 19, 2015
The détente came hours after the Sanders campaign sued the DNC in federal court, alleging breach of contract for suspending access to its voter file. In its complaint, the Sanders campaign argued that the DNC's "unwarranted, unilateral suspension" was causing the candidate "irreparable injury" and threatened to "cripple" his campaign.
The Sanders campaign had been barred from accessing information it has collected on voters, supporters and donors since Thursday afternoon, when the DNC discovered that Sanders staffers had accessed proprietary data belonging to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The DNC initially said it would not restore access until the Sanders campaign provided a full explanation of its activities. The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, accused the DNC of taking its data "hostage" and attempting to "sabotage" it.
Without access to its lists, which the Sanders team called “the lifeblood of any campaign,” its canvassing and fundraising efforts were hobbled just six weeks before the Iowa caucuses. In its lawsuit, the Sanders campaign valued the losses it was suffering at more than $600,000 per day.
In a statement released early Saturday, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said it had reversed course because the Sanders campaign had provided the information it had requested.
"Based on this information, we are restoring the Sanders campaign’s access to the voter file, but will continue to investigate to ensure that the data that was inappropriately accessed has been deleted and is no longer in possession of the Sanders campaign," Wasserman Schultz said. "The Sanders campaign has agreed to fully cooperate with the continuing DNC investigation of this breach."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Democratic National Committee , Hillary Clinton , data breach , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Friday, December 18, 2015
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) campaign launched a withering assault on the Democratic National Committee Friday afternoon, accusing the party organization of “sabotage,” taking valuable voter data “hostage” and “actively attempting to undermine” its efforts.
Speaking at a press conference outside Sanders’ Washington, D.C., office, campaign manager Jeff Weaver threatened to take the DNC to court later Friday if it did not restore access to the voter data, which he called “the lifeblood of any campaign.”
“Individual leaders of the DNC can support Hillary Clinton in any way they want,” Weaver said. “But they are not going to sabotage our campaign — one of the strongest grassroots campaigns in modern history.”
Weaver’s blistering words followed the DNC’s decision Thursday to suspend the Sanders campaign from using the party’s voter database, which is maintained by vendor NGP VAN. The system allows individual Democratic campaigns to layer proprietary information — such as the identities of supporters, donors and volunteers — on top of communal data without allowing other campaigns to see it.
But as the Washington Post first reported late Thursday, the Sanders campaign managed to access information belonging to the Clinton campaign Wednesday. The data became available for a brief period that day as NGP VAN performed a software upgrade.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , NGP VAN , Democratic National Committee , Hillary Clinton , Recommended Reading , Image , Video , Web Only
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Later in the day, the Burlington-based progressive group Democracy for America did the same.
Both organizations made their decisions at the behest of members. While most labor unions leave it to their executive boards to dole out presidential endorsements, CWA president Chris Shelton said at a Washington, D.C., press conference Thursday morning that his union pledged from the start to abide by the results of a survey of its members.
"They voted decisively for Bernie Sanders," Shelton said. "This is absolutely a democratically come-to decision."
Similarly, DFA conducted a weeklong online poll that generated more than 271,000 votes. To win the organization's endorsement, a candidate had to win at least a two-thirds majority. In the end, Sanders took 87.9 percent, compared with 10.3 percent for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and 1.1 percent for former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Communications Workers of America , Democracy for America , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
"We are enormously proud that we have received more individual contributions at this point in the campaign than any candidate who is not an incumbent president," Sanders said in a written statement. "As the campaign continues to succeed, we expect those numbers to grow exponentially."
Sanders' campaign said it had raised more than $3 million since Monday, when it launched a public push to cross the 2-million-contribution threshold. The campaign did not say how much money it's collected since the end of September, when it announced it had raised more than $41 million since the Vermont senator joined the race. Candidates will next report totals to the Federal Election Commission at the end of the year.
According to the Sanders campaign, only incumbent President Barack Obama had collected as many contributions at an equivalent period, during his 2012 reelection campaign. Many of Sanders' more than 800,000 individual donors have given several times, according to spokesman Michael Briggs. Only 261 of them have donated the maximum allowable contribution of $2,700, Briggs said, meaning many can continue giving. Rival Hillary Clinton reported in October that 17,575 donors had maxed-out to her campaign.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , fundraising , 2 million donors , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
"It’s no shock to me that big networks, which are controlled by a handful of large corporations, have barely discussed our campaign and the important issues we are bringing up," Sanders said Saturday in an email to supporters. "They’re just too busy covering [Republican presidential candidate] Donald Trump."
But even as Sanders rails against what his campaign refers to as a "Bernie blackout" in the national press, several reporters in his home state of Vermont complain they've had little to no access to the candidate since he launched his campaign last April.
"It's a little disappointing for a person who has been so accessible in the past to be frozen out like this," says Vermont Public Radio news director John Dillon. "You understand it from a pragmatic point of view. He's more concerned with Iowa than he is with Irasburg. But he's still our senator."
According to Dillon, Sanders agreed to two interviews with VPR last summer in Washington, D.C., as the station prepared an hourlong documentary on the candidate. But the senator has declined to appear on VPR's daily public affairs show, Vermont Edition, since March — even though its producers have promised to "clear the schedule" if he made himself available, Dillon says. The station also routinely asks to speak with Sanders about his votes in the U.S. Senate.
"He never calls back," Dillon says. "Whereas, before he was a candidate, he would always want to get in those stories. Sometimes he would call us before we would even call him — and that's not the case now."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Vermont media , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 7, 2015
“I am appalled that some are espousing the hate-filled view that a country as great as ours should have a religious litmus test," Leahy said in a written statement, citing what he called a 235-year history of religious freedom in the U.S. "I am stunned that some, appealing to fear and intolerance, want to end this legacy and are launching direct assaults on these American values."
Echoing the sentiment was Leahy's junior colleague, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Demagogues throughout our history have attempted to divide us based on race, gender, sexual orientation or country of origin," Sanders said in a written statement. "Now, Trump and others want us to hate all Muslims. The United States is a great nation when we stand together. We are a weak nation when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us.”
Tags: Senator , Donald Trump , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sanders, 74, was to be treated at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and was expected to return to his Senate duties Tuesday, Briggs said. The procedure was planned and was not expected to interfere with the senator's presidential campaign, according to the spokesman.
Sanders' office offered no further details.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2015
"I have personally satisfied my concerns about the process and I am comfortable with continuing with the process," he said. "I think it is safe and well-run and we should continue."
Like fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lisman and more than 30 governors across the country, Scott questioned the security of the program after the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, allegedly perpetrated by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
But as WPTZ's Stewart Ledbetter first reported Tuesday, Scott had a change of heart after taking part in a U.S. Department of State conference call last Friday and meeting with Vermont Department of Public Safety officials Tuesday in Waterbury. The meeting included DPS Commissioner Keith Flynn and Deputy Commissioner Joe Flynn.
"I learned a lot from [DPS officials] about where some of the security risks really are," he said, pointing to student visas and the Canadian border as areas of concern. "I came away being much more comfortable than I was and having a better understanding of what that process is. I've also reached out to the [Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program], hoping to meet with them as well."
Tags: Phil Scott , refugee resettlement , Syria , Matt Dunne , Vermont Democratic Party , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
The Vermont independent won a 5-0 ruling Tuesday from the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission, after a local lawyer challenged Sanders' eligibility to run as a Democrat.
Sanders, the longest-serving independent in Congress, has chosen to run for the Democratic nomination for president. In filing his petition to be on the ballot in New Hampshire, Sanders had to affirm that he is a Democrat. The commission’s ruling concurs.
Sanders has caucused with the Democrats during his time as a senator and had previously as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sanders’ campaign cheered the news. "The commission's ruling today ensures Bernie's name will be on the New Hampshire ballot, and puts this issue to bed for good," state campaign director Julia Barnes said in a press release. "For our part, we'll keep our attention where it always has been: on making calls, knocking doors and spreading the Senator's message about a political revolution that finally takes on the billionaire class to put working families first."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , New Hampshire , Democratic primary , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Monday, November 23, 2015
More than 40 contestants had called our hotline and recorded an imitation of Brooklyn-born Sanders' speaking (and shouting) voice. They touched on crucial themes — underwear, billionaires and damn emails — from the Vermont senator's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Many were quite impressive. Others weren't, but we respect the effort. Our panel selected five finalists, and we posted their audio takes online for you to vote.
The winner is Sam Pelletier of Maine, who delivered with his bit on ordering cheesy bread for Sanders volunteers. Congratulations, Sam, and we hope you can make it to Burlington to use your prize: tickets to see Bernie imitator and comedian James Adomian at the Vermont Comedy Club!
In second place: a rant on global warming and underwear by Tony O'Rourke of Williston, who noted in his message that he's "one of those dirty Republicans."
In third place is Joel Levin of New York City, who railed against the Republicans who are double-dipping and triple-dipping their chips. (You'll notice there's a food theme to many of these imitations.)
The fourth-place winner, David Houston, had this suggestion for Ben & Jerry's:
Fifth place went to Joel Najman, whose voice you may recognize from his show on Vermont Public Radio.
And although this one didn't make the final round, it made us laugh.
Thanks to everyone who entered. And now, do we need to have a talk about how much time you've been spending in front of your bathroom mirror perfecting your Bernie impression?
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Audio , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only