Tom Cahill
March 6, 2016
Sanders Wins Nebraska Caucus, Clinton’s Absentees Keeps It Close On Delegates
March 5th, 2016
Bernie Sanders won the Nebraska Caucus on Saturday, defeating Hillary Clinton here 55% to 45% with 75% of locations reporting (this post will be updated as more come in). It was a much-needed win that should buoy Sanders’ supporters as the nominating race stretches on as a fight for delegates.
The state party did not immediately have the national delegate breakdown yet, which could determine just how much of a victory Sanders actually won. A 10-point lead for Sanders may not be enough to obtain a 4-2 delegate split in the two Congressional Districts that allocate 6 delegates each. But he will likely get a 3-2 split in Nebraska’s western district.
Nebraska could end up being a mixed bag for both candidates. Sanders notches another statewide win, furthering his argument that the nominating battle isn’t done yet and that Democrats are still excited about his message. Clinton keeps Sanders from taking too many more delegates than her in the state, maintaining her argument that she has an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, especially if Sanders can’t win his states by larger margins than this. It’s certainly a better result for Clinton than her 2008 showing here, when Barack Obama crushed her by 68% to 32%, taking 16 delegates to her 8.
At caucus sites around the state, enthusiastic Sanders supporters packed caucus locations and scored win after win over Clinton’s groups. But Clinton often kept her totals close enough in most districts and caucus locations to keep the count close. She did win big in a few areas, including the heavily African American districts in North Omaha. Anecdotal accounts and results from several sites, however, had Sanders winning the majority of Latino voters.
The difference in organizing strategy from the Clinton and Sanders campaigns played out in a very stark way on Saturday. The Clinton team focused heavily on the absentee ballot option in the Nebraska Caucus. At many caucus sites, the Sanders presence in the room was twice or three times the size of Clinton’s. Yet Clinton often pulled close, or even surpassed Sanders, once the absentee ballots were counted.
In Legislative District 3 in Sarpy County, Sanders outnumbered Clinton 306 to 142 in the room. But Clinton got 131 votes by absentee, while Sanders had only 16. That let her pull within 322 to 273 overall.
The same was seen at Legislative District 13 on the north side of Omaha. Sanders took the room 281 to 237, but Clinton won the absentees 275 to 39, giving her a large win for the district of 512 to 310.
Early on in the campaign, Sanders activists in the state reportedly viewed the absentees with suspicion, criticizing it as some sort of rigged Democratic rules meant to benefit Clinton (even though the Nebraska Caucus has always had absentees – it wasn’t newly created this year). That kept them from pushing absentees heavily, which could have still benefited many Sanders supporters who were less likely to turn out. A Sanders caucus-goer in Omaha said she didn’t even know it was an option.
The Clinton folks, on the other hand, realized it was a useful tool to get their supporters counted and used it to its full potential. 6,241 absentee ballots in all were returned (the state party declined to release statewide candidates results for the absentees).
That absentee strategy may have provided Clinton anywhere between a 5% and 20% boost when you compare Nebraska’s results to other caucus Midwest caucus states (excluding Iowa, which had its own special dynamic). Sanders won the Kansas Caucus today 68% to 32%, the Minnesota Caucus 62% to 38%, and the Colorado Caucus 59% to 40%. Much of the closer margin in Nebraska could likely be chalked up to those absentees.
Still, the Sanders folks preferred to focus more on what happens in the room, and there were signs they were much better organized there. There were many volunteers greeting arriving caucus-goers, they had plenty of signs, placards and stickers for their supporters, and they provided food and drinks. A Clinton precinct captain in Sarpy County complained they quickly ran out of all of their supplies. It helped that many of the Sanders caucus-goers appeared to bring their own Sanders shirts and signs from home.
For the most part the Nebraska Caucus appeared well-run around the Omaha and Lincoln area. Long lines plagued most of the sites, but they moved quickly and parking didn’t seem to be too much of an issue. In Sarpy County it took a full hour after the official start time before the caucus actually got underway, but only a handful of people left. There were some issues with some volunteers getting rather overzealous with the rules at one North Omaha site, where they tried to restrict the press to one small corner of the room. Frustrated, the half dozen reporters decided to leave and not cover their caucus.
Part of the appeal of caucuses is the in-person discussions it can create over the candidates among neighbors and friends. At most caucus sites in Nebraska, the Clinton and Sanders sides basically just yelled chants loudly at each other from opposite sides of the room. At one location in North Omaha, representatives from each side tried to go around to convince people to switch sides; no one did.
However, in Lancaster County, home to Lincoln, they divided up their caucus sites by precinct. That created groups of 20 to 40 people in each, leading to more-polite discussion when participants had to speak a few feet from each other.
Overall caucus-goers seemed to enjoy their experience. Several voters were overheard talking about how happy they were to be in a room full of Democrats in deep-red Nebraska. The Nebraska Democratic Party hailed it as a big success.
Sanders also won the Kansas Caucus on Saturday, but Clinton dominated the vote in Louisiana’s primary. At the end of the day, she may net more delegates out of today thanks to her wider margin of victory in the state she won.
Kansas’ 33 delegates are awarded proportionally, though if Sanders manages to hold Hillary Clinton to less than 14 percent of the overall vote, all of the delegates go to him by default.
On the Republican side, Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz won Kansas with 48 percent of the vote. Donald Trump came in second with 23 percent. Marco Rubio and John Kasich split the rest of the votes with 17 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Kansas is the third caucus state that Sanders has won in the 2016 contest. On Super Tuesday, Sanders also won the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses, tacking them to his wins in the New Hampshire, Vermont, and Oklahoma primaries. Bernie Sanders is also projected to win Nebraska’s Democratic caucus tonight, though Hillary Clinton is expected to win the Louisiana primary.
Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news.
by Pat Rynard
This is bull. I smell a rat.
Kasich "The Moderate" has just committed the U.S. to invading two more countries during a debate . What are all the other real dogs of war planning now?
There is talk of having young women sign for the draft out of high school. Can it be that Millennials will not be concerned about an approaching storm until it rains? - too late. Bernie Sanders was against the invasion of Iraq and will avoid war when he can and send troops to defend our nation as Commander in Chief when absolutely necessary. He feels that we cannot police the world and we need partnerships around the world do their part to defend their own nations with air support from the United States. Vote Bernie
https://www.facebook.com/dailykos/videos/10154050970739255/
VIDEO ON LINK
Worth reading in its entirety:
The Debate of Dicks
Donald Trump's was just the beginning.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42705/republican-debate-detroit/
"The prion disease has finally reached the higher centers of the Republican brain. They'll be eating bugs by the time the convention rolls around."
(I hadn't time to share Pierce's quotation laden review of the GOP debate.):
"And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done."
— Revelation, 16:17.
— Revelation, 16:17.
"Just so we're all on the same page as we begin to discuss what happened in Detroit last night, and to establish the proper mood for that discussion, here's a photo of some Klansmen on a Ferris wheel:
— WHEEEEEEE!!!!!
— WHEEEEEEE!!!!!
So, anyway…
I will grant you that there isn't enough laudanum in the world to erase entirely the memory of how He, Trump discussed the strength of Little Donald in a debate between what were alleged to be the Republican candidates for president. And I will grant you that representative democracy may never recover from the ensuing ass-biting competition between a big bag of feathers, a Tailgunner, a vulgar talking yam, and John Kasich, who hasn't yet noticed that he's the principal barker on a carnival midway."
(This rant includes plenty of quotations which - need I explain? - hoist these loonies up by their own petards.
— Who ELSE writes like this? G' Nite.)
— Who ELSE writes like this? G' Nite.)
*
"Luckily, though, a short time later, we had Tailgunner Ted Cruz to explain to us the history of American industry as explained by a Jack Chick tract.
— Apparently, Detroit went to waste and ruin as soon as Saul Alinsky was born"…
— Apparently, Detroit went to waste and ruin as soon as Saul Alinsky was born"…
She was NUTS before, who knew she was still alive?
Phyllis Schalfly praises Donald Trump and Ted Cruz's anti-immigrant rhetoric
Phyllis Schlafly Praises Jeff Sessions, Trump & Cruz, Warns GOP 'Kingmakers'
In her February newsletter, which came out just after Sen. Jeff Sessions’ endorsement of Donald Trump, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly reproduced a column she wrote earlier in the month gushing about a round of interviews Sessions had given in which he said 2016 “is the last chance for the American people to take back control of their government.” Sessions helped Trump craft his immigration platform and previously backed his call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
Here’s Schlafly:
“To win, Republicans need to demonstrate that they care about the average person who goes to work every day,” he added. Average Americans are tired of paying billions in welfare handouts to immigrants who are undermining U.S. wages. “People should have total confidence and a clear commitment on those issues. If they don’t, then they don’t have my vote,” he said…
Our immigration policy has been anti-American, decade after decade, and the voters need to know that 2016 might be our last chance to elect a president who can reduce this tide of illegals crossing our borders. The interests of working Americans must “be put first,” Sessions urged. “We need a president with the credibility to tell the world that the time of illegality is over. Do not come to this country unlawfully,” he said.
In the same column, Schlafly praised “outsider” candidates like Trump and Ted Cruz, and warned against “the Washington-based Republican Establishment” who she said are plotting to “take back control of the party from the outsiders and grassroots.” Among those she names as would-be “kingmakers” are House Speaker Paul Ryan – “who is openly contemptuous of Trump and has little use for Cruz” – and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who offended Schlafly by using her response to the State of the Union Address “to slam the ‘angriest voices’ in the presidential campaign and disavow the Republican front-runner’s popular call for a temporary pause in Muslim immigration.”
Schlafly vows that the Republican platform will be written by GOP delegates who are disappointed with the ineffectiveness of congressional Republicans and who “will have no use for Ryan’s open-borders ideology, which holds that anyone who can find a low-wage job should be allowed to settle in the United States.” Schlafly warns that a deadlocked convention could make someone like Ryan the nominee. “Such an outcome,” she writes, “could destroy the Republican Party and guarantee a Democratic victory by causing disheartened grassroots voters to stay home and tempting an aggrieved candidate to mount a third-party or independent presidential campaign.”
In January, Schlafly declared that Donald Trump was “the only hope” to defeat the GOP’s “Kingmakers.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/phyllis-schlafly-praises-jeff-sessions-trump-cruz-warns-gop-kingmakers#sthash.Chuu4hIf.dpuf
And yes the People of Michigan Vote on Tuesday, March 8 too.
It is a great idea to keep this image in mind when you wonderful people of Michigan go to Vote. We all know the Media Lies and there is a strong belief that Democratic Primaries could be Rigged.
A good idea to carry your mobile phones to take pics and Videos too. You do know they are useful and can be used if required to counter lies.
Arun Kaushal
The Democratic Party would be progressing towards its last
days should its Elders of the Democratic Establishment
actually con the American People out of their choice for
Democratic Presidential Candidate for maybe it has not sunk
in to their heads yet but they would end up with greater trouble
from the American People than they bargained for if they
continue to pretend they are unaware of the Will of the
American People.
Zachariah LawrencetoBernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash
Join us for a march and rally in support of Bernie Sanders
in Washington DC, late July. More details on the page.
We have a ride coordination page as well, if you think
you may have trouble getting to DC.https://www.facebook.com/events/1747212255512251
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