Longer Title: Ryan Hughes, MI and PA Bernie State Director, Accused of Accepting Hillary Super Pac Money
I have been holding onto this information, but since Niko House has posted a video regarding this allegation, I’ve decided to lay out for you what I know.
Ryan Hughes was the Sanders campaign’s state director for Michigan, and is now the state director for Bernie’s Pennsylvania campaign, as well. Mark Craig, the founder of a grassroots volunteer group in Michigan that supports Bernie Sanders, Flint4Bernie.org, had many dealings with Ryan Hughes after Hughes came to Michigan. Mark Craig also said he was one of the principle organizers for Bernie’s March 2nd rally and speech to thousands of people at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University. His grassroots organization was started in 2015, long before Ryan Hughes showed up as the paid director for Bernie’s campaign in Michigan.
Mr. Craig stated to me that knows a a senior employee who works for Priorities USA Action (“Priorities USA”), a Hillary Super Pac. In late February, after Craig casually mentioned to her that Ryan Hughes was running the Sanders’ campaign, that person told him Hughes was receiving direct payments from Priorities USA, all while Ryan Hughes worked as the Sanders’ campaign’s state director for Michigan, along with several other paid Sanders’ Michigan staffers.
Some context:
Priotities USA Action is a Super Pac, to which unlimited contributions may be made, that supports one candidate in this election cycle: Hillary Clinton. As noted in my post yesterday about Mayor Weaver of Flint MI endorsement of Hillary, the top donors to Priorities USA Action include many of Hillary’s wealthiest and most prominent supporters, including billionaires such as the J.B Pritzker and his wife, George Soros, James Simon (hedge fund manager worth over $15 Billion), Steven Spielberg, and many other wealthy individuals in the finance and entertainment industries.
If Ryan Hughes did receive payments from Hillary’s Super Pac, as Mark Craig alleges, this is more than just an ethical lapse in judgment. It would be even more evidence of Hillary operatives infiltrating Bernie’s campaign to sabotage it.
Mr. Craig certainly believes that Ryan Hughes did everything possible to destroy grassroots activism for Bernie in Michigan, including working against long standing groups that had formed to support Bernie back in 2015, and which were already coordinating with each other regarding each group’s activities and events (e.g., rallies and canvassing activities) among themselves. Among the many things Mark shared with me about Ryan Hughes performance are the following:
1. Refusing to requests by volunteers to politicize the Flint water crisis. Even though the Hillary campaign was doing so for months prior to the election, Hughes told volunteers not to make the water crisis a point of emphasis until only shortly before the date of the primary.
2. Telling volunteers they could no longer do door to door grassroots canvassing. Instead, volunteers in Flint were directed to canvas only those residential addressed that included likely Sanders’ voters. When volunteers went to those addresses they usually found abandoned homes, or people who were registered Republicans.
3. Ignored volunteers request to canvas in African American neighborhoods.
4. Kicked out all of the volunteers who were willing to work for free to staff the Flint office. Hughes replaced them with paid staff, many of whom had no Michigan ties.
Mark set up the Flint office, negotiating the lease and obtained internet service prior to Hughes arrival in Flint. He also paid for equipping the office out of his own pocket. Mark was never repaid by the campaign for these expenditures, even though he had relied on Hughes promise he would be reimbursed.
Obviously, many of the criticisms of Ryan Hughes could be attributed to incompetence, or simply an unwillingness to use a volunteer based model for the campaign. However, the charge that Hughes took money from Priorities USA, the largest independent Super Pac supporting Hillary, lends credence to the view that Hughes was actively working to hurt Bernie’s chances in Michigan. And in fact, Bernie won the Michigan primary largely on the strength of the vote in those counties where Hughes had no paid field staff on site and was forced to rely solely on volunteers, whom often disregarded his directives. Bernie lost the vote in those counties in the vicinity of Flint where Hughes’ was located, and where he had the most direct oversight over the actions of Bernie volunteers.
I hope to have more news for you soon, regarding the names of other Michigan staffers who may also have been receiving payments from Hillary’s Super Pac. Meanwhile, here is Niko House’s latest video about Ryan Hughes:
Bernie won the Michigan primary. It was seen as a great upset and an over-performance by Sanders’ campaign over polling which was done in the State close to the primary date. To infer that Hughes is working to get Hillary elected in the wake of that performance is odd.
Bernie barely won, and lost in the counties around Flint, where Hughes had the greatest influence. I am only reporting what Mr. Craig has alleged. If Mr. Hughes wishes to rebut the accusation, he can.
An organizer can affect numbers on the margins, but countywide numbers are driven by demographics. That’s a weak point in this argument.
Well, they were told not to canvas Black neighborhoods. Pretty telling to me.
Yeah, that’s telling.
My point is different.
I organized canvassing in black neighborhoods during Kerry’s campaign. We kicked ass. We registered and turned out thousands of voters. But we did not change countrywide results. That wasn’t possible, whether we did a good or bad job.
Same for me in central florida.
Are you saying “countywide” or “countrywide” Hard to believe bad local management is overcome by demographics–why bother, then?
countywide.
I was primarily responsible for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
These were the results in MontCo.
Kerry 222,048 56%
Bush 175,741 44%
Gore 177,990 53.54%
Bush 145,623 43.81%
As you can see, we got some better results even though Gore won statewide 51-46 and Kerry only won 51-49.
We kicked ass.
But we couldn’t do much more than boost Gore a percentage point or two, and who knows how much of that was just people not having Nader to vote for or Kerry running a better campaign than Gore?
As you can see, the Republican percentage stayed constant.
There was no way I was going to be able to sabotage Kerry and hand the county to Bush.
Wouldn’t the breaks be more fluid in an intra-party contest that the general? We did see that in individual states. AA outside the South did not vote the same. Esp, when introducing the candidate and his program to voters unfamiliar with either. I would be comparing the breakdown differences produced inside and outside his area of influence, no? Which demographic produced the change in outcome? What might explain it?
Like I said, the victory in Genesee County (Flint) was very narrow. Bernie had been leading all evening, and then towards the end lost by little more than 3,000 votes. He also lost neighboring Saginaw county by under 3,000 votes.
Yeah. I just wonder if all segments were reduced rather uniformly or if specific ones under-performed, or if Hillary over-performed with typical Sander’s type.
The fact that he held a steady lead in Genesee county until near the end of the counting suggests to me that there were a few precincts where he did much worse than the rest, and these happened to have been among the last ones counted.
Pretty telling of what? Good political strategy? Bernie has had enormous problems attracting African-American voters. It would make sense that a primary campaign would focus on GOTV for likely voters.
The likely voter lists they had were bad. Abandoned houses and Republicans?
No, that’s not what the original comment was about. It was supposedly “telling” that Murphy told canvassers to skip African-American voters — who overwhelmingly support Hillary.
And as someone who canvassed for years, I can tell you that voting lists are unreliable.
I have also canvassed for years and the provided lists were pretty darn reliable. There are always a few people that have moved, so the list is not totally accurate. There is a place on the listing to note this inaccuracy. Funny story: While canvassing for Pres. Obama in Evansville, Indiana, the very first house I approached was occupied by a recent buyer. The guy was a rabid Republican and literally chased me down the street! I made a note for the Obama campaign. Luckily, no more of those incidents that day. Obama got Indiana that year.
Voting lists are less reliable in neighborhoods with a preponderance of residents who have lower incomes, due to their relative lack of residence stability. Many precincts in and around Flint certainly fit that description.
Where I canvassed was not the suburbs, I’ll tell you that; but the people there were trying to do their best.
Experiences re. validity rate of registered voter addresses vary widely; they depend on tons of factors, most of which are not within control of the campaigns. County Registrars of Voters are among those who play huge roles in the accuracy of canvass lists.
I canvassed in Stockton, California, in 2010 and 2011. The City was in the process of a literal, not metaphorical, bankruptcy filing, and the real estate and job crashes had scattered neighborhood residents into the winds. Doesn’t have anything to do with campaign corruption; we were definitely doing our best. I gather many neighborhoods in the Flint area have continued to go through wrenching dislocations like this.
The lists I have received from various campaigns were pretty darn reliable. I have canvassed in 3 different states and I know what I experienced. Also, since you brought up low-income, I can tell you that I know some low-income people and they can’t afford to move. It takes money for deposits, etc. and they stay put. When a community gets hit by a big earthquake or hurricane near election time, I will remember your advice and not canvass that area, because there will definitely be “wrenching dislocations.”
Low-income people are often made to move because they can’t afford the rent and other bills when those expenses go up but their work compensation doesn’t. Where do they go? I know some who are rooming with family or friends, sometimes in garages, often out of the neighborhood. Some are forced to ditch the region or state altogether. Some low-income people have become homeless.
Bad voter lists in Flint seems an extremely sketchy way to supplement the claim against Hughes here. And it is entirely plausible that senior Sanders campaign directors and coordinators ordered Hughes to run his regional campaign in all the ways Craig and the volunteers complained about here. And Craig has an axe to grind, with his nonpayment claim.
If Hughes’ canvassers and precinct supervisors were getting poor results in his portion of the field, an inferred claim which is not substantiated in the post, it would have been up to those senior staffers in the Sanders campaign to diagnose that and either improve Hughes’ performance or fire him.
Have you been following the Sanders campaign? That’s obviously not his strategy. It’s pretty telling that he’d be trying to maximize the vote among minorities.
“And in fact, Bernie won the Michigan primary largely on the strength of the vote in those counties where Hughes had no paid field staff on site and was forced to rely solely on volunteers, whom often disregarded his directives.”
You write:
Yes, it was. But if a job was done on the Sanders campaign…if he would have won a true, landslide victory w/out all of the chicanery? Then it’s “Mission Accomplished!!!” for the thief hustlers, and another nail in the coffin of the Sanders campaign.
Nixon said it first. Others follow?
Watch.
It’s wonderful that this claim is likely unprovable. It works perfectly for demagogues.
This fits perfectly with the Cokie Roberts doctrine, though, as many things do with the Clintons: “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it’s out there.”
What claim?
Not odd at all. Plausible — because if there was one state where vote suppression was needed, it was MI. Of course that’s far from what the polls were saying, but she probably had more worrying internal polls.
It just didn’t work well enough. But the only places she won in MI were Flint, where she squeaked by, and Detroit, where she killed him, and might well have won anyway.
On the other hand, it may have little to do with the particular state, it may have happenedg in a lot of places. That would certainly be consistent with Niko’s allegations as to what’s happening right now.
I forgot that she won a few other counties, but not many.
Lovely. Thank you, Booman. The dirt is coming to light.
AG
Thank you Arthur.
Another good one, Steven.
I did it again!!! I write this stuff during the rest periods when I practice. Sometimes I miss some things. Sorry. Thank you, Steven.
AG
No worries.
But we have to forgive the Hillary Clinton campaign actively sabotaging the Sanders campaign through Nixon-style ratfuckery. Because the GOP is so goddamned awful that we have to overlook all of the campaign’s ratfuckery.
When they told us to ‘Vote for the crook – it’s important!’ they studiously failed to mention that this would now be permanent SOP.
Well, they were right in that instance. lol Poor Louisiana
I am not forgiving her for it. Issues with connections between sanders paid field operatives and Hillary or the DNC are not limited to this one instance. Google “Aisha Dew” Bernie North Carolina and/or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hillary or Barber. You will pull up a lot of stories about her work while she was state director for Bernie’s NC campaign.
Also google “Did Hillbots Infiltrate and Sabotage the Sanders Campaign from Within?”
The second video there is about Aisha Dew.
I watched that happening real time.
Her e-mail was captured and she is unavailable now, I believe. I think Kos took the thread down(?)
also she’s inevitable anf sanders supporters are rude
And these allegations are true because . . . Hillary is evil? What’s Sanders gonna do in the general when the Republicans make Devil Hillary look like an angel?
The allegations are from Mark Craig. I am reporting them after speaking to him. I found him a credible source. You can go to the Flint4Bernie website to contact him yourself if you wish.
So you’ve got a YouTube video and a second hand source that claims that a guy working for Hillary’s Super PAC just casually mentioned to a guy working for Bernie’s campaign that the MI director of Bernie’s campaign is being paid by Hillary’s Super PAC. And it turns out that the state this guy was responsible just happened to be Bernie’s biggest and most surprising victory. And then Bernie’s campaign promoted him and put him in charge of PA, too. And the YouTube guy has the names of other moles, but he’s not ready to release them because…?
That doesn’t sound implausible to you? That doesn’t seem like very thin (or non-existent) sourcing for an incendiary claim?
Steven, I’m betting you’re going to wind up walking this one back. This is a spectacularly irresponsible post. You’ve got no evidence and the conspiracy makes no sense.
I’ll wait for more confirmation before saying “holy crap!”, but boy, this would really stink. I’ve, said it before, the Clinton campaign would surely win (if narrowly) by just focusing on a positive message and laying off the dirty bullshit, but they can’t seem to help themselves. If anything is their undoing, it will be this kind of crap:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/3/2/81556/03872
I hope to get more confirmation. I posted this primarily because Niko House posted his video and I wanted people to know that there was a a source for the allegation. That said, I found Mr. Mark Craig a credible person when I spoke to him. He is a long time resident of Flint and has been active there in its political scene for years. His contact info can be found at the grassroots organization he founded, Flint4Bernie.org. He was very upset at the way the campaign under Hughes treated volunteers and in general with their performance under Hughe’s guidance.
Yeah, she’d be great if she didn’t pull this kind of crap. But the fact is, she does pull this kind of crap all the time. Doesn’t that suggest that perhaps she’s NOT so great?
Pigs gotta roll in mud.
Before running with this and Mr. House’s allegations about interference in NC, it would be helpful to review the resume and affiliations of Ryan Hughes and Bernie’s NC director.
That’s what was done wrt to the allegations against Bernie’s IT guy stealing data from the DNC website to dismiss a HRC dirty tricks through an embed in Sanders’ operation. Dismissed because it seemed highly implausible that so many people that are trustworthy would have been duped by the IT guy for a number of years.
If Mr. House has good evidence or even reasonable suspicions of HRC campaign dirty tricks, he needs to provide it in a much more coherent presentation and not a video recorded in a car. Write it down and get help editing it into a rational and logical format before offering it for public consumption. Not questioning his impressions or gut sense in this matter. That’s often how subversive activities are detected. However, it’s also often how people end up in flights of fancy.
I do not control Mr. Hose, obviously. I publish only when I have a source for the claim being made.
House
You’re missing the point. He’s a laughable source: a YouTube video shot in a car with no — zero, nada, zilch — actual evidence.
Even if everything he says is true (and I’m betting most of it is not) there’s no way you should have run this.
Judith Miller thanks you for your support.
Huh?
Ahmad Chalabi wore a 3-piece suit and name-dropped impressive senior officials. That is credible source for WMDs, no?
For responsible journalists.
No, it’s not, which is why that was a scandal. And I’m not following your point.
Classic ad hominem: “He’s a laughable source: a YouTube video shot in a car…”
I will wait for more to either confirm or not.
I don’t think you understand what an ad hominem is. No journalist in the world would say this guy is a valid source. Not one. He has literally no evidence, and his conspiracy theory is ludicrous on its face: the guy who was in charge of the campaign in Bernie’s most successful state is actually a mole.
This is insane.
You might have problems with defining irony, too.
Plus…he’s black.
And young.
With tattoos!!!
Definitely a likely suspect for something!!!
AG
P.S. What he is saying rings true to me…truer than any statement I have ever heard HRC make, for sure.
Now…it is entirely possible that this Hughes guy is just another stupid, worthless bureaucrat…like almost everyone else involved in mainstream centrist PermaGov politics…rather than a double agent. That would make the ongoing fuckup plausibly deniable by the other stupid, worthless bureaucrats on up the DNC ladder right to the top like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, people who immediately recognize youthful, honest energy for what it is…an enemy of their own mediocrity… and actively work to get it the fuck out of the way of their clomp, clomp, clomping, totally zombified bureaucratic political machine.
Nothing would surprise me less.
These people are criminally mediocre, and they all have the reverse Midas touch.
EVERYTHING they touch eventually turns to shit.
If it isn’t shit out front.
Bet on it.
AG
It’s nice that that rings true to you. Does the fact that he has no evidence bother you at all?
Truth no need no evidence, it feels good in me guts.
Bet on it.
Wtfu.
Not to be critical, but providing information on Ryan and Aisha Dew is sort of standard when presenting allegations. For Bernie’s IT guy that quickly led to testimonials from others that he is a stand-up guy.
As for Mr. House, posting his videos without comment on the poor quality of his presentation does no service to readers and precludes any chance that he gets constructive feedback from any source.
I would think Mr. House made the allegations on videos because he felt he needed to get them out ASAP and to as wide an audience as possible. That being the case, what sort of “evidence” could he be expected to present?
He made allegations, and on the North Carolina ones, some relate to Facebook postings, etc. The point is that the allegations he made, whether relating to MI, NC, or other states, are easily checked out, especially by so many people — and they will be, by many, many people, in very short order.
After that, either Mr, House, or the people he’s accusing, will experience serious credibility problems. But so far, I think he’s doing fine.
It sounds more likely to me that Ryan Hughes is just another grifter: more skilled at tapping fat campaign coffers than actual political organizing.
Doesn’t Sanders vet his people? If this is true, seems like a failure of the leadership of his campaign
heh — a campaign operation that gets up and running within a few months is supposed to vet job applicants better than the FBI (Robert Hanssen) and CIA (Aldrich Ames).
If it’s true, Bernie should hire more moles. Michigan was his biggest victory — some polls had HRC up by 20 points.
That’s one of many reasons why this story makes no sense.
I don’t know if the allegations are true or false but at the moment it all seems pretty weak to me. I have no idea who the dude in the tank top is or why he made his video while driving around in his car. He seems to think that if he gets his video to Bernie, that will be enough to do something (without, I guess, tangible evidence). Putting aside what a strange conversation Mr. Craig supposedly had with someone at Priorities USA, I also find it odd that this Mr. Craig has not made waves sooner, if in fact it’s true. It’s not like there are any ongoing primaries or anything…
Ummm … he just found out about it — and also had to verify it beforee going public.
Who is he? Google “Niko House: Pres N. Carolina College Students for Bernie” — where you will not only find out who he is, but you will hear quite a bit about what happened to the Sanders campaign in NC.
I have a very finely-tuned crap detector, and as far as I am concerned, Mr. House is very credible.
Nuts, that wasn’t the site I meant. Better google
“Did Hillbots Infiltrate and Sabotage the Sanders Campaign from Within?”
His FB page…https:/www.facebook.com/nikoforthepeople
If you say so. Still waiting for real evidence, of which there is 0. Presenting such on the dash cam video would have made him look less like the village crank.
My take is that Niko is a good guy and was very committed to getting out the vote for Sanders. However, it appears that this was the first time he was politically engaged; so, he’s inexperienced and most likely naive. Combine that with feeling down about how poorly Sanders did in NC and particularly among AAs (although it was better than the other southern states and VA), and he could be over-reading what seemed like less than full support from Sanders’ NC director. I’ve run into a few like that in my time and it had nothing to do with trying to undermine a campaign.
yes, and he’s a student
Steven, have you looked at Niko House’s analysis of a similar ratfuck in the NC primary? far worse, and more “effective”. i read something about it but was hard to follow. will appreciate a good unravelling of that one [i.e. telling sanders ppl not to attend a moral mondays event, pretty bad]
Watch him.
Pretty convincing, seems to me.
A normal PermaGov hustle, the grassoots version thereof.
Ever wonder why HRC needs so much money?
She needs it to pay operatives. That’s why.
All kinds of operatives.
Bet on it.
The under-the-table, spooky-spook-spookiness operatives are the most expensive.
Bet on that as well. They gotta spread money around to do their work.
This is another “Wake the Fuck UP!!!” call, as far as I can see.
You still think our political system is on the up-and-up?
Wake the fuck up!!!
AG
Sure.
DiTourno.
Clinton troll.
Betcha.
Paid?
Maybe, but a troll one way or another. Never heard from the entity until a recent series of pro-HRC comments.
Feels like the old days at dKos.
AG
Yeah, Hillary is paying me to “infiltrate” the comments at Booman.
It really doesn’t bother you that this guy presents no evidence, does it? It feels right, so it is.
Remind me how that’s different from a Trump voter.
Remind me how that differs from most voters for any U.S. beauty contest candidate.
Trapped the maelstrom of competing lies, “feel” is often the most reliable guide.
Prove me otherwise.
I dare ya.
AG
ah, yes, Trump. the answer to any objections about Hillary. good going, hope you get o/t for that one
Here’s the deal: if you say “I have absolutely no evidence that the man who engineered Bernie’s biggest victory and was apparently promoted by Bernie’s campaign is in fact working for Hillary, but I believe it anyway,” you’re using the same standards of evidence and plausibility as a Trump voter.
This story makes no sense AND there’s no evidence.
Yeah it seems to come down to feelings indeed, and criticism of that feeling is unwanted, even if someone is completely reasonable.
I have a feeling that its poison, and that its whats driving people insane, like is clearly true on the right and i feel is starting to take hold on in general.
This whole thing may be true, or not or some of it. If someone points that out it might not be best to gang up and scream “burn the witch”
ah, yes. keep digging
His resume is suspect. He worked at an organization that received $2M in funds from the CGI. The CEO of the organization is thought to be Bill’s paramour. Previous to that, he worked for a Clinton political organization in DC.
yes. but commenters here pretty much know each other so we can flag the [probably paid] trolls so they’ll be ignored.
After I rated a couple of trolls, the other trolls jumped in and gave the rating a “4” so that the average was not low. Except the resulting number usually ended in a fraction, expressed as a decimal, which is eye-catching. Of course, one can see who the troll rater is. I then watched for these names as commenters. Sure enough they trolled.
my strategy is to flag them as trolls with a couple comments, or questions; actually questions work much better. usually I only troll rate them if they throw insults. didn’t quite work with Tom Benjamin, the Canadian who “doesn’t know much about USA politics” at first but now writes long comments of pretty detailed HRC talking points.
Your definition of “troll” seems to be “anyone who thinks you maybe should have a shred of evidence before making an incendiary claim.”
I’ve noticed Benjamin. He is on my troll list. Lynn Dee and Charon are on it, too.
Burn the witches!
interesting, yes, actually I have wondered why her campaign needs so much money;
Yes, not posted here.
Not sure if Martin wanted me cluttering up his blog with that story, but I did post about the NC story in order at this site:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/my-investigation-so-far-claim-bernies-nc-campaign-was-sabotaged-h
rc-moles-now-w-new-niko
http://caucus99percent.com/content/major-development-aisha-dew-investigation-re-possible-sabotage-sa
nders-north-carolina
http://caucus99percent.com/content/more-emails-aisha-dew-blaming-rev-barber-and-my-plea-help-you
yes, good. as the Hillary troll points out, the video, though helpful for background on Niko House and the student org, is long. any chance you [and Marie, maybe if she wants] could write something succinct, step 1 step 2 step 3 about what the evidence is and what happened, for NC and MI? what is the evidence? what further evidence would be needed? and Tarheeldem’s point that it need not be HRC campaign per se, might be a superpac?
I have done my own separate investigation into these claims.
Niko is doing his own thing. He prefers the video approach. I prefer to write once I have something. I have shared some leads and info I received from people he did not know. It’s been more from me to him than from him to me.
He says he has information about other potential “moles” but is waiting to sit down with Sanders’ national staff to present it to them. So, I am not his partner in this. He is conducting his own investigation and communicating about it on his own fashion, which is to make the YouTube videos.
I didn’t suggest you’re working with him. it was just a thought. I’m convinced by what you wrote both on MI and NC and ordinarily I’m not one to suggest other ppl do something. just thinking Tarheel dem has a point [it could be superpacs] and Marie is much more sceptical about the evidence, hence kind of a brake on going overboard. I’m just thinking a very very concise lineup of the evidence will reach more people. it’s this kind of thing that really really bothers me about Hillary candidacy I talk with a lot of people. this kind of thing will really depress the already disaffected. not to mention potential presidency- then we really have become Mexico as I’ve been warning all along that’s where the oligarchs want to take us
The links to the caucus99percent blog I posted give the details of what I have been provided by various sources.
Heads up guys, there’s new information coming out. Apparently, this guy was actually a double agent. I heard from another credible source he was reporting false information to the Clinton campaign while working for Sanders. The purpose was to have the Clinton campaign waste resources and develop strategies that wouldn’t work during the election. My source says that’s why he’s running the PA operation–he knows how to win against the odds.
Which guy?
AG
Oh. Running the PA thing. Gotta be Hughes. Sorry.
AG
Skilled trolling here. I laughed.
Well, yes, there has been something procedurally fishy with the Democratic primary process in key states all along, from the same folks who turned in fishy losses in 2014. There have been massive games played with precinct locations and voting eligibility and staffing resources, despite Democratic promises of election protection efforts to ensure that people could vote.
But it is very difficult to imagine how short of finding the paycheck stubs one could provide evidence of the allegations. And then one would have to find evidence that Priorites USA is more than just tilting toward Clinton, that it is a Clinton operation.
An unwinding of the racist knot in a way that does not co-opt minorities is extremely difficult because of the backlash being driven by the GOP. Dealing with mobilizing voters and with race, ethnicity, and race at the same time is extremely difficult.
And Democratic operatives muddying these waters instead of trying to deal with US racism is guilty of severe malpractice in this year especially.
From the beginning, I have argued that the ground of battle for the Democratic candidates is in mobilizing the votes to deliver to candidates challenging the incumbent Repubicans in the House and the Senate.
It seems that the Democratic establishment is doing what it can to prevent that from happening. Most likely major funders are too, regardless of the views of the candidates to whom they throw their major support. SuperPACs have an interest in a candidate not win through any other financial framework. As the Koch brothers have shown and Steven Colbert has described, SuperPACs can mount their own independent campaigns, unrelated to that of any candidate.
Reading events along strict Sanders-Clinton fault lines is likely a mistake. There are a lot of vested interests with large bank accounts taking actions that are the equivalent of banked shots. Some have interests in a weakened Clinton winning. Some have interests in Sanders winning without a supporting Congress. Money loves gridlock in Congress unless there is railroading of its agenda going on.