Did the Working Families Party disclose their vote totals for the 2016 Primary endorsement?

[OilemFirchen]

Last edited Fri Sep 20, 2019, 04:50 PM - Edit history (1)

No.

In the fall of 2015, the Working Families Party conducted a combined membership-drive and open poll among its enrolled members on whom to endorse for President in 2016; the result being Bernie Sanders. Official numbers were not disclosed but party spokesman and co-founder Dan Cantor said the results were "overwhelmingly" in favor of Sanders, with some sources stating it was an 87 to 12 to 1 percent vote with Sanders over Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Families_Party#2010s

Did the WFP conduct their 2020 Primary voting in the same manner as they did for 2016?

No.

The party pledged that it would put its political muscle into helping Mr. Sanders win Democratic primaries, in a rigorous test of its impact beyond state and local politics. The decision to back him came after the party conducted an Internet poll, soliciting input from liberals nationwide.

Dan Cantor, one of the party’s founders, said in an interview that Mr. Sanders would help it “build the political revolution that will make possible the nation we want to see.”

But the endorsement of Mr. Sanders also proved divisive within the Working Families Party leadership, which includes a number of influential union leaders who support Mrs. Clinton. Mike McGuire, the political director of the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and a Clinton supporter, said in an interview that he believed party officials had “rigged the system to make sure it went for Bernie.”

https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/08/working-families-party-endorses-bernie-sanders-for-president/

Prior to 2015, did the WFP show a bias toward a candidate?

No.

In 2015, the WFP endorsed Bernie Sanders in his campaign for U.S. President, its first national endorsement...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Families_Party

Did the WFP change their vote-weighting for the 2020 Democratic Primary?

Probably.

For the 2016 Primary, the WFP weighted their vote 60% for leadership, 40% membership. For 2020, the weighting was 50/50.

Citation needed.

[HeartlandProgressive]

1. interesting information

transparency is always better

[Act_of_Reparation]

2. I could be completely off the mark here, but...

...I don't get why this issue is so salty.

I mean, let's for the sake of argument assume WFP deliberately altered vote weights to give the endorsement to Warren. That's messed up, I guess, but WFP is a minor political party with a whopping two representatives holding office in the New York state legislature. How many people know who they are? How much weight does this endorsement really carry? Is it worth getting this upset over (not you, personally, but in general)?

[OilemFirchen]

3. I don't think it means squat.

Likewise Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress.

But the Sanders campaign itself make WFP a significant endorser by taking to social and mass media to renounce them.

[ritapria]

4. Thank you for the Post

Excellent Research

[OilemFirchen]

5. You're welcome.

[Hortensis]

6. Short answer, NO, everything that doesn't go Sanders' way isn't corrupt.

The very long and repetitive pattern of claiming it is, however, is a huge clue to who these people are.

NO -- to groups whose behaviors prove their contempt for and rejection of representative government. Anxious time strengthen them, and if Sanders went away they'd find a new leader. I actually thought they would before now since they started looking in 2016. Only better times will defeat the danger they pose. Our intelligence services say Russian intelligence is working on uniting those on the left with others unwilling to lose power to elections.

[relayerbob]

7. Why is it ...

Every time someone doesn't agree with Sanders, or that he loses a vote, it's "rigged"? They chose a BETTER progressive to support. What's wrong with that? I'm really tired of this "make others look bad, so we can look good" crap. I used to support, but now ....

[TCJ70]

8. All they have to do to clear it up is put the data out there. It would cost them nothing...n/t

[OilemFirchen]

9. Why should they?

Because someone didn't get their way EVERY TIME?

How juvenile.

[TCJ70]

11. Depends on how seriously they take the "controversy".

Generally organizations don't like controversies about themselves. They have the numbers, put them out there. I'm just saying the easiest way to end it is to get all the information out there.

I don't have any skin in the game. Sanders isn't my vote this time around. If he lost, he lost.

[PhoenixDem]

10. Call me silly but

I think disclosures and transparency are only important if BS loses something.

[comradebillyboy]

14. Our Revolution is proof of that. Talk about lack of transparency...nt

[beastie boy]

12. Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the last line in your post imply that

in 2016 the WFP vote was weighed more in favor of the leadership than in 2018?

The Bernie campaign didn't complain then, but they complain now. What changed?

I will leave everyone in suspense on this one.

As for me, I think we are all speculating about the data that cannot be assessed with any reasonable degree of accuracy at this time, but the longer this fairly ordinary event stays in the news, the more detrimental it becomes to Bernie.

[TCJ70]

13. Has anyone in the campaign complained? n/t

[beastie boy]

15. I stand corrected. Feel free to substitute "Bernie's campaign" with "Bernie supporters on DU"

[OilemFirchen]

16. That's correct.

I read about the 2016 weighting in a contemporaneous news report, but, sadly, I can't find it. Thus the needed citation.

The 2020 weighting has been heavily reported recently.

[ehrnst]

17. Their endorsement of Warren must have really, really stung. Sanders has called them

“the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/16/20868862/working-families-party-endorsement-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren

I can see why he might be angry with them.

[NurseJackie]

19. It's always ugly when any candidate feels that they're somehow entitled to something.

[Cha]

18. KR!