Subject: FW: LV RJ - Nevada State Democratic Party’s headquarters in Las Vegas closed after weekend chaos
From: "Garcia, Walter" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 13:50:49 -0700

Per our meeting just now, flagging this article. Highlighted section below makes clear that NV State Party Chairwoman has been getting death threats.

LV RJ - Nevada State Democratic Party’s headquarters in Las Vegas closed after weekend chaos
BEN BOTKIN
May 16, 2016

The Nevada State Democratic Party’s headquarters in Las Vegas were closed on Monday amid security concerns following a tumultuous state convention over the weekend.

The move to keep the headquarters closed on Monday came after supporters of Bernie Sanders on Sunday had protested there, defacing walls and sidewalk with chalk to voice their displeasure with the party’s handling of the convention the day before.

The Saturday convention became unruly, as Sanders supporters clashed with party leadership, including state party chairwoman Roberta Lange in disputes over procedural matters and the seating of delegates. Earlier in the convention, they had booed U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a supporter of Hillary Clinton who gave a speech.

At the state convention, the party picked delegates for Sanders and Clinton to attend the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia in July. Clinton edged out Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, in the state’s February caucuses. However, Sanders supporters packed the county conventions in April, and Clinton’s delegate lead over Sanders temporarily dropped from 20-15 to 18-17.

At the state convention, Clinton regained her 20-15 delegate lead. In all, the state party will send 43 delegates. Besides the 35 delegates, there are eight superdelegates, who are elected officials and party leaders who are unbound and free to vote for whomever they wish at the national convention.

Party officials have defended their handling of the convention. For example, Sanders supporters complained that 64 of their people weren’t allowed to be seated at the state convention. But the party has said those people didn’t meet requirements such as registering to vote by May 1, and hadn’t responded to prior requests to fix unidentifiable or missing information such as names and addresses. Eight Clinton supporters were denied for similar reasons.

Despite the party’s attempts to defend itself, the unrest has continued. Lange’s cellphone number was posted on social media, and she’s received death threats and thousands of texts, emails and calls.

It’s unclear how long the disruption to the state party’s headquarters operation will last. The situation is under evaluation, according to the party.

The chaos on Saturday ensued after calls from Sanders and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for all to work together respectfully and constructively at the convention.

On Friday, a group of Sanders supporters were in a Clark County courtroom, where they lost a lawsuit filed against the State Democratic Party. The lawsuit, dismissed by the judge, had alleged that the state party improperly changed the deadlines for people to apply for party leadership positions before the convention in a way that excluded them.

In that case, the state party has said a Sanders supporter improperly circulated a draft with an inaccurate date.

Sanders’ campaign didn’t responded to requests for comment on Sunday or Monday.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/politics/local/nevada-state-democratic-party-s-headquarters-las-vegas-closed-after-weekend-chaos

Molly Forgey
Press Assistant
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Democratic Policy and Communications Center
[Description: cid:[email-masked]]<http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/>

________________________________

To unsubscribe from the REID-NV-BREAKING list, click the following link:
&*TICKET_URL(REID-NV-BREAKING,SIGNOFF);<http://&*TICKET_URL(REID-NV-BREAKING,SIGNOFF);>

--
Stewart Boss
Press Secretary
Nevada State Democratic Party
(704) 733-0313
@stew_boss<https://twitter.com/stew_boss>