Strange bedfellows have emerged in the 2016 presidential race, as the New Hampshire Republican Party has launched an online petition urging superdelegates in the Democratic Party to vote for Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign at the Democratic National Convention.
“Bernie Sanders embarrassed establishment favorite Hillary Clinton by overwhelmingly defeating her 60%-38% [in the New Hampshire Democratic primary]. However, despite his commanding victory, Sanders leaves New Hampshire with the same number of delegates as Clinton. How is this possible? Because Democrats have set up an undemocratic system that allows party elites called ‘super delegates’ to single handedly cancel out the votes of thousands of grassroots activists,” explained the petition.
[RELATED: DNC Chair: Superdelegates Exist to Protect Party Leaders from Grassroots Competition]
The petition called out certain specific superdelegates by name and said, “Given the results of the primary, the vote of one New Hampshire super delegate is equal to the votes of about 10,000 grassroots activists. This means that Governor Hassan, Senator Shaheen, the senator’s husband William Shaheen and Congresswoman Kuster are going to cancel out the votes of 40,000 of Granite State Democrats. This is an outrage and an obvious attempt to rig the nomination process for Hillary Clinton despite her dismal primary showing.”
WMUR-TV identified the six New Hampshire superdelegates supporting Clinton as Democratic National Committeeman William Shaheen, DNC member at-large Joanne Dowdell, Gov. Maggie Hassan, Democratic National Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster. Two other superdelegates, state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark and N.H. Democratic Party chair Raymond Buckley, have yet to choose a candidate, though Buckley, who is vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is prohibited from backing a candidate until after the party has chosen a nominee.
The N.H. GOP’s petition clarified, “New Hampshire Republicans are committed to upholding the integrity of our elections. Even though we vehemently disagree with Senator Sanders on his radical socialist agenda, we stand with his supporters who want their voices to be heard.”
“It’s time for Governor Hassan, Senator Shaheen and Congresswoman Kuster to listen to their constituents and pledge to cast their votes at the DNC Convention for New Hampshire’s primary winner— Bernie Sanders. Any attempt to cancel out the voters of tens of thousands of grassroots activists of either party threatens the integrity of the nominating process and creates the perception of dirty politics and favoritism,” the petition urged.
Ben Swann recently examined the Sanders-Clinton superdelegate controversy in a below-embedded CBS 46 Atlanta Reality Check video.
Reality Check: After Being Trounced By Sanders in NH, Clinton…Hillary Clinton was trounced in the New Hampshire Primary and yet thanks to the way the DNC rules work, she actually won the most delegates. Is the primary system a huge scam?
Posted by Ben Swann on Thursday, February 11, 2016
According to Bloomberg Politics, Hillary Clinton leads in the Democratic race for delegates with 394 supporting her candidacy versus Sanders who has secured the support of 44. 4,325 delegates are still up for grabs. Sanders or Clinton must obtain the backing of 2,382 delegates in order to clinch the nomination.
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