Sanders' campaign in dissension

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Some of Bernie Sanders' most ferocious supporters sound the alarm that the campaign is bogged down by disorganization, clashes of personalities and poor communication between state operations and the national headquarters.

After two setbacks this week – the acrimonious reshuffle of its staff in New Hampshire on Sunday and the loss of Working Families Party's approval by Elizabeth Warren a day later – Sanders alumni and former associates are worried the fact that recent disappointments are not punctuated stumbles, but rather emblematic of more important issues in his bid for the White House. The concerns are particularly serious in New Hampshire.

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"Not to be challenged by the WFP process is that the campaign can not surpass Warren with WFP progressives," said Rafael Shimunov, a former national director of creation for WFP and a volunteer for 2016. at Sanders. "That led me to wonder where the Bernie campaign could have done better, because I want to make sure that the strongest candidate unmasks Biden and defeats Trump."

Concerns arise when the campaign enters a critical and more urgent phase. After Labor Day, more and more voters are connecting to the election and are starting to make up their minds. Sanders' expectations are staggering, especially in New Hampshire, where he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 22 percentage points.

But Warren jumped in the national polls to connect Sanders to second place, and Joe Biden was more difficult to reverse than his opponent in first place.

"In 2016, Bernie was the David who beat Goliath in New Hampshire. Expectations are unparalleled this time, "said Andrew Feldman, a Democratic strategist closely linked to worker groups. "It would be a mistake to try to replicate the type of campaign that Sanders led in New Hampshire in 2016 because the dynamics of this race is completely different. For Sanders to succeed, a professional operation is essential. "

Jeff Weaver, one of Sanders' senior advisers, told POLITICO that many working Families Party members supported Sanders and that his ground game in New Hampshire and the First States was strong. According to his campaign, Sanders has 14 times more voters identified in the Granite State than he had at that time in 2016 and double the number of employees there. the ground, from 26 to 50 employees. He also said that national and US campaign staff are in daily contact and that he regularly resorts to a "call from the states" in which he asks his colleagues across the country to be honest about the problems they meet.

If some of Sanders' allies in New Hampshire are nervous, said Weaver, it's only because they mistakenly compare the 2020 campaign to his first White House bid, while "… he had taken the lead in the state in August and that he was extremely organized. Clinton.

"The last time our field program was so superior, I think it could influence people's opinions," Weaver said. Now, "some of our competitors have good programs on the ground – Elizabeth Warren is one." He added, "Some people are trying to position themselves end-to-end in Bernie's lineup, but as the campaign progresses, people who want a bold and progressive vision for the country will be coming back to Bernie Sanders. "

Sanders has recently received good news in New Hampshire, including a poll conducted last week by Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald, which puts him in first place with 29%, Biden second with 21% and Warren third rank with 17%. But this was quickly overtaken by the bad press about the reorganization of the staff.

Senior Sanders told Joe Caiazzo, his state director in New Hampshire, that he would be reassigned on Thursday. At about the same time, the Sanders team also separated from Kurt Ehrenberg, a respected Liberal activist in the state. Although the campaign had plenty of time to prepare for the deployment of staff changes, the news was announced on Sunday shortly after Sanders' assistants announced to its executive committee that Caiazzo would be sent to the Massachusetts board of directors. .

At that time, the members of the committee made their concerns public. POLITICO met with about a dozen current and former Sanders advisers and allies, some of whom refused to discuss internal dynamics for fear of reprisal. Since Sunday, campaign staff members have called members of their management committee, asking them not to speak to the media since information on the internal reshuffle was released, according to three people who received the calls.

Weaver stated that Caiazzo had been reassigned to Warren's original state due to his many years of experience, particularly as Sanders' political director in 2016, and that the campaign "only yielded Massachusetts to no one. " He said Caiazzo had "done a great job" for New Hampshire, and that this change was part of a series of changes aimed at developing campaign operations in the Super Tuesday states. The Sanders team also recently announced the hiring of senior executives in Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota.

"This is another example of a sloppy campaign," said a person familiar with the situation. Instead of talking about "doing aggressive things here and building Super Tuesday states … they are responding to a bad press about why they are moving their New Hampshire state director."

Sanders' allies have expressed several concerns about New Hampshire in recent weeks. Caiazzo warned about staff productivity in the state, a source said. A former Sanders adviser said the campaign was "both physically and mentally based in Washington, DC" and therefore too out of touch with state operations on the ground. Members of the Sanders New Hampshire Steering Committee have expressed concern that Warren and others will enjoy a better ground game.

Caiazzo and Ehrenberg also faced each other: "Frankly, there was personality friction," Weaver said.

At the same time, some Sanders supporters are worried that he did not get WFP approval. The defeat particularly hurt him because they believe he has the most progressive work plan of any presidential candidate in history: his proposal calls for European-style collective bargaining in all sectors. Sanders also stepped up its efforts to gain more institutional support than in 2016 and its national policy director, Analilia Mejia, was formerly executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance.

Many Sanders supporters blame WFP leaders for making the wrong choice and for not disclosing the individual count of members online. But some, like Shimunov, said they did not ask questions and said the campaign had agreed to abide by the rules in advance.

Sanders' team refused to give details of what she had done to try to get approval.

Some Sanders allies have stated that his challenges are deeper than any personal or communication problems. Warren, like Sanders, is a leftist populist – and although the two candidates have rather different bases a few months ago, some signs are starting to change.

For example, according to the latest Morning Consult poll, Biden and Warren are now tied for second choice Sanders fans. Similarly, Sanders and Biden are tied with the # 2 choice of Warren fans.

At the same time, Biden's bid proved more sustainable than many Sanders allies expected. Unlike Clinton in 2016, Biden's campaign proved more agile in reading the first electorate and sometimes adopted more liberal proposals in response, they said.

Biden's team also borrowed part of the Sanders movement building message, along with the former vice president by saying recently that he would rally the voters of Kentucky to bring the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to the rear.

"I do not think Bernie is doing badly, but not as good as some would," said Sanders' ally about his campaign in New Hampshire. "Sometimes staff changes are not related to staff failure. … But if change energizes people, whether or not it's necessary, it's probably a good thing. "

Even some Sanders rivals have stated that it would not be wise to neglect it. Despite worries about his ground game in New Hampshire, his army of volunteers remains formidable: Boston Globe / Suffolk University Poll released in August revealed that 35% of the state's primary Democratic voters who had heard directly about an election campaign had been contacted by the Sanders team, more than any other candidate.

"Frankly, I think he'll be doing well here, but I'm a little upset about it – everyone seems to be in a hurry to get rid of it," said a New Hampshire Democrat, a veteran of New Hampshire. many primaries to the presidency. "John McCain and John Kerry were both considered" dead men walking "at this stage as well and came back to win the New Hampshire primary."