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ABC News Democratic Debate at St. Anselm College--Pre-Debate Saturday, December 19, 2015

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New Hampshire Republican State Committee	Dec. 19
National Nurses United	Dec. 18
Campaign for America's Future	Dec. 18

New Hampshire Republican State Committee

For Immediate Release: December 19, 2015

Contact: Michael Zona

NHGOP STATEMENT ON DEMOCRAT DEBATE

Concord – New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn today released the following statement regarding the New Hampshire Democrat presidential debate:

“Tonight’s Democrat presidential debate is taking place on the Saturday night before Christmas to minimize viewership in a clear attempt at preemptive damage control by Hillary Clinton’s Washington allies. The Democrat presidential debate schedule is shamelessly designed to hide Clinton’s failed policies from as many voters as possible and to block any challenge to her coronation as the Democrat nominee. The DNC’s efforts to prop up Clinton’s deeply flawed candidacy does a disservice to our nation’s democracy and the Granite State’s political tradition of accessibility. Supporters of Bernie Sanders are rightly outraged by recent events and Granite State Democrats know that despite their strong grassroots support for Sanders, the fix is in for Hillary Clinton. Any pretense of a contested Democrat primary is a poorly hidden sham.”

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National Nurses United
December 18, 2015

Nurses Blast DNC Attack on Sanders Campaign
Warn of Long-Term Consequences for Next November

National Nurses United today condemned what it called “the latest blatant effort by the Democratic National Committee to rig the primary process” in its decision to bar the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders access to a critical master list of Democratic voters.

Nurses will join a protest later today outside the Florida district office of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz that is expected to occur at 4:30 p.m. ET at 10100 Pines Blvd., in Pembroke Pines, Fl.

The decision by the DNC, said NNU Executive RoseAnn DeMoro, “continues an anti-democratic pattern by the DNC to derail the growing grassroots momentum of the Sanders campaign and the millions of Americans who support it.”

“What the DNC should clearly understand is they are playing a very dangerous game. Their cynical effort to stack this process could well turn off millions of voters who they will need to win an election next November,” DeMoro said.

Further, considering the breach that was the pretext for the DNC attack on the Sanders campaign was the mistakes of a vendor, and the Sanders campaign responded by self-reporting the breach and firing a staff member, “the DNC has sent an appalling message encouraging cover up and silence rather than transparency and self reporting.”

“The DNC should immediately reverse this blatantly partisan decision. We need a fair election, not a coronation,” DeMoro said.

Earlier this week, DeMoro authored a commentary in Huffington Post in which she warned of “people and institutions are working feverishly to convince us that real social change is not possible.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-ann-demoro/dont-let-them-gaslight-th_b_8808480.html

No matter what, DeMoro added today, “they will not stop the mobilization of Sanders’ supporters and the aspirations of millions for a fundamental break with Wall Street and the corporate interests who have for far too long dominated our political and economic system,” DeMoro continued.

Most immediately, NNU members will be out in the streets of Manchester, N.H. Saturday morning and participating in a rally later Saturday in advance of a Democratic Presidential debate scheduled for Saturday night (details below).

“The DNC decision to hold a debate on the Saturday night before Christmas, at a time when they know far fewer people will be watching is one of multiple indications that the DNC is determined to hold stack the deck for their preferred candidate and will do whatever they can to engineer the electoral process on her behalf,” DeMoro said.

Signs include:

- Limiting the number of debates, and scheduling the two most recent debates on Saturday nights to restrict the viewership – in sharp contrast to the Republican Party, which has held far more debates, and on weeknights to encourage viewership. As the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent wrote today, “it’s true that the Clinton camp did lobby the DNC early on for a lower-exposure debate schedule.”
- Pressuring Democratic elected officials and other super delegates to line up behind Clinton with early endorsements.
- The decision to block Sanders campaign from use of a master voter file list in an obvious attempt to weaken its ability to reach Democratic voters just a few weeks before voting begins in the early primary and caucus states.
- The timing on today’s DNC announcement, coming just hours after the reporting of two major new endorsements for Sanders, by the Communications Workers of America and Democracy for America, a major group of grassroots activists, as well as reporting that the Sanders campaign had recorded more than 2 million individual contributions.

DeMoro also noted the decision of the DNC, quietly reported earlier this year, to reopen its national convention to corporate sponsors, “part of an overall recognition of its long-term allegiance, like their Republican counterparts, to Wall Street and corporate America, ties that are threatened by the Sanders campaign and his big army of supporters.”

Details on Saturday’s NNU canvassing and rally in Manchester:

Morning Canvas – Nurses convene at 9:15 a.m., door to door campaigning to begin at 10 a.m., from Courtyard Marriott Manchester-Boston Regional Airport Hotel, 700 Huse Road, Manchester, Merrimack and Amoskeag Conference Room.

Evening Rally – 6 p.m., Saint Anselm College, Main Lawn. (The debate follows at 8 p.m. EST at the college).

Campaign for America's Future
December 18, 2015
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Isaiah Poole

CLINTON GETS LOW MARKS ON SECURITY ON UPDATED PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE SCORECARD

On Eve of Saturday Debate, Clinton Scores Well Overall, but CAF Director Says Clinton’s “Hawkishness Should Give Progressives Pause”

WASHINGTON – The Campaign for America’s Future has updated its Candidate Scorecard for the 2016 presidential race on the eve of Saturday’s third Democratic presidential debate; and the update highlights the differences on security policy between frontrunner Hillary Clinton and the progressive base she needs in order to ultimately win the presidency.

The Candidate Scorecard (at CandidateScorecard.net) evaluates Democratic candidates against the Populism 2015 Platform endorsed by leading national progressive grassroots groups (National People’s Action, USAction, Alliance for a Just Society, Working Families Party, Working America and the Campaign for America’s Future). Clinton’s rating on security issues (17 percent) has her trailing by a wide margin her opponents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (83 percent) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (67 percent).

The platform calls for using military intervention a last resort and for increasing our international focus on climate change, poverty and inequality, the conditions that foster instability, violence and terror. It also calls for curbing excessive Pentagon spending.

“Clinton’s consistent hawkishness may fit the temper of these troubled times, but it should give progressives pause,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. “If elected, she’ll face Republicans intent on obstructing her domestic initiatives. Inevitably, like most presidents, she’ll have far greater authority to act abroad. The last thing we need is a Democratic president fueling a new Cold War with Russia, confrontation with China in the South China Sea, and continued intervention in the Middle East and elsewhere.”

Borosage writes in a commentary published on Friday on OurFuture.org that the expected focus of Saturday’s debate on American security and the threat of the Islamic State plays to “Clinton’s area of greatest expertise and greatest vulnerability.” Her experienced is unmatched as a former Secretary of State, he writes. But as the article details key policies she advocated while in the Obama administration and now in the campaign, Borosage concludes, “Her problem is that her judgments have been consistently wrong.”

Sanders, on the other hand, “opposed the Iraq intervention and has been a consistent skeptic about U.S. support for regime change abroad. He has criticized the waste, fraud and abuse in Pentagon spending. In the wake of Paris and San Bernardino, as polls show Americans moving to support sending U.S. forces against ISIS. Sanders remains a clear and forceful opponent, understanding that while the U.S. military can destroy ISIS, terrorist groups will re-form in the chaos that is left behind.”

Overall, the Candidate Scorecard gives Sanders a 93 percent rating, O’Malley an 87 percent rating and Clinton a 79 percent rating.

“Most striking is how well all three candidates score,” Borosage said. “As the campaign has proceeded, Clinton has filled out a reform agenda that speaks to many parts of the populist agenda – from raising the minimum wage to rebuilding our infrastructure. The Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren wing of the party is driving the debate, not the Wall Street wing.”

The sharpest differences between Sanders and Clinton on economic issues “are significantly about boldness and strategy. Sanders consistently calls for bold change; Clinton consistently opts for detailed, complex, less wholesale reforms.”

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