Sunday, July 5, 2015
Eleven-hundred miles west of Warren, Vt., Sanders and nearly three dozen supporters marched past low-slung, brick buildings in Creston, Iowa — a railroad depot with a population of 7,887 — and waved to the Union County residents crowding its sidewalks.
"In many ways it's similar," Sanders said when asked how the parade compared to those of his home state. "Very nice people. Yep."
"It's different. I mean, everybody knows him there," she said. "But there's a lot more folks that know him now."
Indeed. As Sanders marched by in a blue dress shirt, chinos, sneakers and a New England College cap, several spectators murmured, "Is that Bernie?" Others weren't as enthused.
"Hey! Socialism doesn't work, buddy!" one man yelled from a camping chair set up on a well-manicured lawn. "Give it up!"
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Iowa , Council Bluffs , Denison , Creston , Waukee , Storm Lake , campaign trail , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 3, 2015
"I don't actually have a question, Mr. Sanders. I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," the Morningside College student said. "I'm [from a] third-generation union family. My 1-year-old son's on WIC. My two autistic siblings are on Medicare. And for the first time in my life, I honestly feel a candidate is worthy of my admiration and truly and politically who I am. I just want to thank you for that."
As the audience of more than 400 clapped its approval, Sanders sought to bring his supporters back to Earth.
"When you say that, it is very moving to me, but I have to repeat something. I want to make this clear: Guys, we are in this together. OK? I can't do it alone," he said, invoking the specter of capitalist forces he said were working against him. "These guys are just too powerful. But we can beat them when we stand together."
As Sanders works his way across the Midwest this week, evidence is mounting that a sizable portion of the Democratic electorate is standing with the 73-year-old presidential candidate. After 10,000 people showed up to a rally Wednesday night in Madison, Wis., Quinnipiac University released a poll showing that he'd more than doubled his support in Iowa since May, and trails Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by just 19 percentage points — 52 to 33 percent.
And as he traveled from a 600-person gathering in Rochester, Minn., Thursday morning to the campus of Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge that afternoon, Sanders' campaign announced he had raised more $15 million in his first two months as a candidate.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Iowa , Sioux City , Fort Dodge , town meeting , campaign trail , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 2, 2015
But Sanders himself wasn't eager to discuss his fundraising haul. Speaking at a town hall meeting in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the candidate upbraided the media for focusing on "gossip," not policy.
"Will the media allow a serious discussion about the issues? Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. I'm not sure that they will," he told an audience of more than 150 people at Iowa Central Community College Thursday afternoon.
"We need a massive jobs program. We need to raise the minimum wage," he continued. "Do you think those will be the issues that the media will talk about? Or will they be polls? And we're doing pretty good in the polls. That's good. But that's not the major issue facing America. How much money we raise — we're doing OK in that — but that's not the important issue."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , fundraising , Iowa , Fort Dodge , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
“In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of people here,” he said.
On the day his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, broke an early-campaign fundraising record, Sanders broke one of his own.
“Tonight we have made a little history. You may know that there are some 25 candidates running for president of the United States,” he said. “But tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for president of the United States than any other candidate has had.”
Those people were definitely feeling the Bern.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Madison , Wisconsin , Scott Walker , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Sanders' evidence? His 1996 vote against the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman" and allowed states to refuse to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, husband of Sanders' rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.
"Back in 1996, that was a tough vote," Sanders told his audience, according to The Hill. "Not too many people voted against it, but I did."
That was hardly the first time Sanders went to bat for LGBTQ community, according to records of his tenure as mayor of Burlington, which are housed at the University of Vermont Library's Special Collections.
When gay rights organizers planned Burlington's first-ever pride parade in June 1983 — two years after Sanders was elected mayor of the Queen City — they called on the Board of Aldermen to designate June 25 Lesbian and Gay Pride Day.
"This human rights issue is of great importance to our community," the Organizing Committee of the Lesbian and Gay Pride Celebration wrote in a June 6 letter to the board.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , gay rights , 1983 pride march , Burlington , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Monday, June 29, 2015
"We are going to win New Hampshire. We're going to win Iowa, and I think we're going to win the Democratic nomination, and I think we're going to win the presidency," Sanders told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning on "This Week."
The independent candidate for the Democratic nomination appeared on the broadcast from Concord, N.H., during a two-day, seven-stop swing through the Granite State. And judging by the turnout at Sanders' events — WMUR-TV pegged attendance at a Nashua town hall meeting at 500 — Sanders isn't the only one who thinks he has a chance.
A pair of stories in the national media indicate Clinton, the former secretary of state, is taking Sanders seriously. On Sunday, the Washington Post headlined a piece, "In Bernie Sanders, an unlikely — but real — threat to Hillary Clinton." In a Saturday story on the top-ranked Dems, CNN said Clinton "must weather the summer of Sanders."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Bernie Bits , New Hampshire , George Stephanopoulos , Hillary Clinton , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Friday, June 26, 2015
Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) unfroze Vermont’s gubernatorial race Friday by announcing he will run instead for a sixth term in Congress in 2016.
The 68-year-old Norwich resident had been contemplating a run for the state’s top political job since Gov. Peter Shumlin, a fellow Democrat, announced June 8 that he would not seek reelection next year. Acknowledging the congressman’s seniority and political prowess, other potential Democratic candidates had been awaiting Welch’s decision to make their own.
After discussing the matter with his wife, Public Service Board member Margaret Cheney, and close friends, Welch said he had decided to stay put.
“Congress is, these days, not highly regarded by the American people. But strange as it may seem, I really continue to love my job,” Welch said Friday morning during a conference call with reporters. “I am very, very energized about continuing my work here in Congress, very grateful to Vermonters who have shown their trust in me, and I want to continue to work on their behalf.”
Tags: Peter Welch , Peter Shumlin , Vermont politics , Shap Smith , Matt Dunne , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 25, 2015
That's because the court's 6-3 vote preserves Vermont's option to abandon its troubled health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect, in favor of the federal exchange or a federal-state hybrid. For a year and a half, Scott has urged Gov. Peter Shumlin to make such a move, but the Democratic governor has warned that a different outcome in the King case could have jeopardized the federal subsidies that make other systems viable.
“For 18 months, officials have dismissed repeated calls to explore alternatives to our dysfunctional exchange, saying to do so would put Vermonters at risk of losing their subsidies," Scott said in a statement Thursday after the court released its decision. "Now that the fear of losing subsidies is no longer a valid argument, we must find the best path to affordable, accessible health insurance for every Vermonter.”
Like other states that operate their own exchanges, Vermont was never at risk of losing the federal subsidies that make its health plans more affordable for those with low and moderate incomes. But the three dozen states that use the federal exchange and the three that use a hybrid — Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon — were in such danger.
Scott and other Vermont lawmakers have urged Shumlin to consider a hybrid exchange, among other options.
Tags: King v. Burwell , Vermont Health Connect , Phil Scott , Shap Smith , Peter Shumlin , Lawrence Miller , Image , Web Only
A new poll commissioned by Bloomberg Politics shows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drawing support in his presidential campaign from a quarter of likely voters in the Iowa caucuses. His 24 percent showing is a significant jump from a similar poll a month ago, in which 16 percent of Iowans selected Sanders as their first choice.
"The polls reflect what we're seeing on the ground," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver tells Seven Days. "The more people hear Bernie Sanders' message, the more people will come to him. We are contesting these states aggressively and the results are showing."
They’re showing in more ways than one.
A super PAC affiliated with former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday released what appears to be the first negative advertisement aimed at Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Citing the Vermonter’s mixed record on firearms legislation, the ad’s narrator says, “Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns.” A separate 15-second ad released Thursday by the super PAC, Generation Forward, touts O’Malley’s support for gun control.
The Bloomberg poll, conducted by Selzer & Company, indicates that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains in a dominant position in the Hawkeye State, though her support has softened slightly. She drew 50 percent in this month's survey, compared to 57 percent last month. O'Malley and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee barely registered.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Bloomberg Poll , Iowa , Martin O'Malley , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Inside and outside the Beltway, musical and political connoisseurs have enjoyed listening to him croon such favorites as "This Land Is Your Land." Now Vermont's junior senator is making a run for the Democratic presidential nomination — and drawing big crowds on the campaign trail.
A related feast for the senses has surfaced on a YouTube video discovered Wednesday by BuzzFeed. It captures Sanders and company recording "Freedom" in 1987. Seven Days founder and co-owner Pamela Polston is among the backup singers lending her pipes to the effort. (Skip ahead to 1:10 and check her out on the right.)
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Pamela Polston , "Freedom" , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only