At least, that is what we are being told by news media.
Doing such a thing is inexcusable.
As for reports of violence within the caucus. The most I have seen was a chair lifted, and then dropped down again, not thrown. Much of it is hearsay, and no videos shown. I can imagine people shouting and getting mad, though in regards to actual violence, I did not see much of.
What is seen however is the process looking unfair and illegitimate, which is not being addressed other than saying, "No, it was fair". Unfortunately, there are people that I know who were actually there.
So, let me add something here from a friend of mine who I trust which is experience from someone who was there in Nevada.
"The Nevada Democratic Committee, despite their commitment to remain neutral, was incapable of fairness or competency. They came up with temporary rules and summarily voted them in, despite a clear divide in the room over this motion. These new rules suspended existing National Democrat Party Rules and basically gave supreme power to the party chair, Roberta Lange, who abused it at every step, pushing through her preferred motions and ignoring any other amendments or motions from the floor. We began calling this "Roberta's Rules of Order."
When half the room began to contest the early morning motions and attempt to make counter motions from the floor, they turned down the lights and turned up the music, eventually showing a video about President Obama, all in an attempt to silence the voices of dissent. The rapid fire motions of the chair and subsequent disregard for any oppositional voices set the stage for a very contentious day.
Senator Barbara Boxer was slated to speak on behalf of Secretary Clinton as was Senator Nina Turner for Senator Sanders. Senator Boxer was not treated respectfully, nor did she handle herself with dignity as she touted Secretary Clinton's record, several dozen Sanders delegates booed her. In lieu of gracefully handling this like the pro-politician she is, she devolved into hurling insults at all the Sanders supporters in the room, 90% of whom were undeserving of her ire.
She called us childish, rude and unpatriotic. It was a perfect example of how when pushed, taking the low road of condescension and defensiveness leads to insulting an entire class of people, instead of deftly addressing the handful of delegates who were acting like assholes.
Senator Turner took the high road and started her speech by telling everyone to be more respectful and come together around the common goals we all share for a better country. She was incredibly inspiring and positive.
About 8 hours into the convention, the chair disappeared and was missing for over four hours. During this time, in lieu of pushing through the agenda and voting for all party positions and national delegates, the party kept delaying the process and hinting that we were running out of the time allotted for renting the casino's convention hall, yet they didn't respond by attempting to actually work through the remaining agenda items.
At first it seemed like incompetency, but it became clear that it was a calculated maneuver, after such a long day, most of the Clinton delegates had left, and the party didn't want Sanders delegates, most of whom had stayed, to influence platform votes or call for a standing recount.
On the issue of the recount: The National Democratic Party rules allow for a motion to perform a standing recount. We were already divided up in the room by Presidential preference, so this would have been an easy task. It was especially justified since after the realignment period, the delegate count was reported to be 1695 for Clinton and 1662 for Sanders. This slight delegate difference would result in a net difference of up to 4 national delegates in Clinton's favor (at-large and PLEOs). Every National Delegate counts.
About the official delegate count: there was a minority report, by a member of the committee tasked with verifying the delegate math, which the committee leaders tried to block from being presented publicly. It was quite a heated argument onstage between the chair and the committee member. When the floor delegates protested to allow her to speak, a sympathetic committee member used their standing to allow the report to be read. This minority report revealed that over 60 sanders delegates had been denied their delegate badges due to an "inability to find their information and confirm their eligibility." It stated in no uncertain terms that these delegates were not given the opportunity to prove their identity/eligibility and were summarily barred from the convention.
With the delegate math split so tight and due to the party chairs trying to block this information from the public, it became very clear that they wanted to keep the numbers in Clinton's favor. I'm not prone to conspiracy theories. this was straight up disenfranchisement of the barred delegates and a blatant move to tilt the national delegates to the party chair's preferred candidate. (not to mention that the convention was scheduled on the same day as UNLV's graduation, prohibiting an expected 150ish elected sanders delegates from attending.)
An interesting moment came when a delegate on the floor rose to speak about the proposed party platform, which we were all to vote on. For the most part, the platform was well-written, proposing very progressive priorities for the state party around gender, ethnic, sexual, economic and other demographic diversity. However, there was a small proposed amendment regarding state election priorities and the future of super-delegates. This person who stood to speak on the motion revealed that she is in fact one of the state super-delegates and moved to amend the state party platform to push for eliminating future national super-delegates. the convention floor LOVED this proposal, even getting cheers from some of the Clinton delegates. This did not go over well with the committee and the proposed amendment was ignored.
In another attempt to stall for time, so that the party could avoid any unwanted motions from the floor, they brought up candidates for congressional district 3 to give speeches about their candidacy. The move backfired. it turned out that two of the candidates are "Bernie-crats" and at the end of their speeches, one of them motioned for a recount. This caught the committee off-guard and the floor delegates began sitting in their chairs to be counted.
Within minutes, the state chair, who had vanished for over four hours stormed up onstage and like a 5-year old in a tantrum motioned to allow the party (instead of the convention delegates) to select the national delegates and to close the convention. She didn't even wait for the overwhelming "nay" vote from the floor, slammed the gavel down and stormed off the stage. Her fellow committee leaders were shocked. They just stood there stunned like the rest of us, wondering what the hell had just happened. The floor was LIVID. The party chair had clearly been backstage planning this and had the police ready, who escorted the committee members out and told everyone to leave or be arrested. End of convention.
There was no chair throwing or violence as has been repeatedly stated in various media reports. (there was a single, near-empty water bottle thrown at the end.) and there was no altercation with police, other than stern warnings to go home or be arrested. In fact, the head of security for the Paris hotel was extremely calm and patient with the room full of shocked and angry delegates. In fact, one of the candidates for congressional district 3 got up again to urge everyone to leave peacefully, promising that everything possible would be done to address what had happened.
Protests were scheduled at state democratic headquarters. This will likely have serious repercussions for the future of the state party, not to mention the thousands of delegates, staff and volunteers who were stripped of their voice and robbed of all our hard work and dedication. Clinton delegates left quite frustrated (both with the convention process and with a few dozen very rowdy/rude sanders delegates). Sanders delegates (the large majority of whom were very peaceful and committed to a fair process) left EXTREMELY angry.
Although I've been keenly aware of the state party establishment's bias for Clinton, I didn't expect such a blatant abuse of power and left sorely disappointed.
The "Bernie or Bust" movement just got a huge boost from the very officials elected to grow and keep the party united. Throughout the day, I spoke with many delegates about the importance of this election, especially in a swing state like Nevada, and it became clear that many Nevadans for Bernie would strongly consider holding their noses for Clinton in the general. after today, that is much less likely.
Also, the NV State delegation to the national convention is left in limbo, as we never got around to electing the delegates. (I was actually one of several dozen candidates for district and at-large national delegate. would have been cool to attend the national convention in Philly.) It's a shame, as so many dedicated Clinton and Sanders supporters spent months working tirelessly for their respective candidates only to have their hard work and hopes of representing their candidate at the national convention smashed by the disgraceful actions of a few corrupt party officials.
Multiple reports have come out that party chair, Roberta Lange, has since received a large volume of angry and often violent text and voice messages from angry Bernie supporters who published her personal phone number on social media. some of them were threats of violence to her and her family. this is completely unacceptable and those who made them should be shamed of themselves and held to account.
These despicable actions by Bernie bros on the internet in no way, however, excuse her own despicable behavior to those of us peacefully engaging in the political process. There will be an opportunity to join with other Bernie-crats to influence the NV Democratic central committee and hopefully ensure the ouster of the party chair. She's not the only problem, but her shameful abuse of power demands that she be held accountable.
After all is said and done, I will keep volunteering for senator sanders and help get out the vote in other remaining states. I will also be helping the campaigns of some of the truly progressive congressional candidates in Nevada. as disgusted as I feel after this trampling on the democratic process, the political revolution has never been about just the white house. I made a short speech during the congressional district break out, where I urged everyone to channel their passions and keep it going for local and state races. that's where real change is going to begin..."
Holy Heck, that was much longer than I expected...
I apologize.
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