In Wilmington, Bernie Sanders takes on financial sector
The Bernie Sanders campaign – which has made reform of “rigged” banking and finance systems a central plank – planted its flag Saturday in Wilmington, a financial-services hub and the home of crucial voters in the Delaware Democratic primary.
“If we think about half a loaf, we will get crumbs. If we think about small ideas, we will get small results,” Sanders said at a rally that drew more than 3,000 people, many of them high school and college students, to the Chase Center on the Riverfront. "The truth is, we have a rigged economy. That is an economy which is based in unsustainable principles. That is an economy that is not moral. Not the economy we need to be the great nation we should be.”
The still-in-flux race for the Democratic nomination has made Delaware, which generally gets limited attention during the candidate selection process, a critical state in amassing delegates. In February 2008, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama held a campaign rally in Wilmington's Rodney Square, which drew an estimated 10,000 people and is cited as a catalyst for his victory over Hillary Clinton.
That was an anomaly for a state whose delegate votes in primaries – and electoral votes in November – are almost never deciding factors.
In the state-by-state caucuses and primaries so far, Clinton, formerly a senator and a secretary of state, has accumulated 1,428 pledged delegates. Sanders, a Vermont senator, can claim 1,153 bound delegates. Democrats require 2,383 delegate votes at their convention this year to anoint a nominee.
But Democratic superdelegates – party leaders who can cast votes at the convention any way they like – favor Clinton over Sanders 13 to 1, at least among the hundreds who have told activists and reporters whom they're backing. Five of Delaware's superdelegates, including Gov. Jack Markell and its whole congressional delegation, support Clinton. If any of the remaining ones hope Sanders becomes the nominee, they haven't said so openly.
Vice President Joe Biden is a superdelegate – and a registered Delaware voter. He has not publicly said who he is supporting.
In a short interview, Sanders said he spoke to Biden last week about the vice president’s superdelegate role. “It is a very positive relationship. He has said some very kind things about our campaign,” Sanders said. “We will see. I think at this point, he and the president are both uncommitted.”
The winner of Delaware's Democratic primary Tuesday likely won’t win all 21 pledged delegates. As in most states, the Delaware Democratic Party awards the delegates to candidates by a proportional calculus.
In the days before the April 26 primary, Delawareans have been witnessing a relatively frenetic campaign. The Clinton campaign late Friday announced she will hold a rally at the World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St, at 11:15 a.m. Monday.
And on Friday, New York businessman Donald Trump gathered supporters for a rally in Harrington, hoping to clinch a win here in the GOP primary against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Both Clinton and Sanders set rallies where most of Delaware's Democratic voters are. Six of every 10 Delaware Democrats has a New Castle County address. In addition, only in New Castle County do registered voters not affiliated with either party (97,000 of them) outnumber Republicans (mustering 93,000), and both campaigns likely see that sea of independent voters as persuadable between now and November.
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Several in the crowd Saturday said Delaware’s business-friendly and bank-attracting financial laws fuel the inequality Sanders decries. Some 47,000 people, nearly a tenth of the state’s workforce, are employed in finance here.
“I’m going to vote for Bernie Sanders, and he’s probably going to put me out of a job if he’s elected because I work for Big Money,” said John R., a man in his 30s with a job at a financial services company. He declined to give his last name because he said the corporate culture wouldn’t welcome his political views.
“I have enough foresight to say that even if he does put me out of a job, it’ll be better for our country,” he said. “Whether or not he can do it, we’ll see.”
Sanders, in his speech, walked the crowd through a series of what he called tough truths: that billionaires can buy elections, that the economy is a rigged game, that the criminal justice system is broken.
Some of the loudest cheers came when he outlined proposals to make public colleges tuition-free and to reform the nation’s federal drug possession laws, including decriminalizing marijuana use.
“I will propose as president to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not jails,” Sanders said. “There are kids right here in Wilmington, in the fourth grade or in the sixth grade, whose parents never went to college. It’s not in their purview. They’re not thinking about that and therefore they’re not doing their schoolwork and studying the way they should.” Making college free to attend, he said, would correct that.
In an interview backstage with The News Journal, he said he disagreed with laws like those in Delaware that allow companies to incorporate without disclosing their investors and officers.
“I'm not a great fan of secrecy. We need transparency,” Sanders said. “I have legislation that would end the tax loophole by which corporations stash their money in the Cayman Islands without paying anything in a given year, profitable corporations that don't pay a nickel in taxes. That is absurd."
Would Delaware’s dependence on the financial sector for thousands of jobs hurt his chances on Tuesday?
Sanders supporter and Wilmington resident Jane McGowan recalled working for Vice President Biden's early campaigns for U.S. Senate. She sees shades of Biden in Sanders.“Among some people it will, but I don't think among most people,” he said. “I think we have a shot to win. We have a message that is resonating with people. Most people in Delaware know something is wrong when they work longer hours for lower wages and almost all the income and wealth go to the top one percent.”
"They are easygoing and have a big heart, and he [Sanders] is down to earth," McGowan said as she waited in a large, black-walled convention hall for the rally to begin.
Rep. Kim Williams, D-Newport, introduced Sanders at the rally, as did actress Rosario Dawson, who decried the pressure some Democrats are putting on Sanders to bow out of the race.
“We are really fending for ourselves right now. We are literally under attack for not supporting the other candidate right now,” Dawson said. “As a campaign strategy right now, we are being bullied.”
Jason Hoy, a math teacher from Marlton, New Jersey, was grading papers in the packed Chase Center atrium early Saturday morning. He said he drove to Wilmington to support a candidate he feels is focusing on the right issues, particularly his own student loan debt.
"Every candidate has their priorities. He is talking about the problems of everyday people like tuition and the cost of healthcare," Hoy said. "It is just interesting to be around people who are passionate about this process."
Sanders supporters said they want to see Delaware put down a marker for their man.
"Hillary Clinton is out for her upper-class, Goldman Sachs buddies. Not the people. Bernie is for the people," said New Castle resident Chris Mockerman.
Sanders, indeed, spent some time marking out issues where he said he cleaved from Clinton on policies like the Iraq war and Wall Street reform.
“There’s always money for war. There’s always money for tax breaks for billionaires. But somehow there’s never enough money to rebuild the inner cities or pay attention to the people who are hurting the most. Well, you know what? We’re going to change that dynamic,” Sanders said.
Sanders made repeated direct pleas for Delawarean votes.
“We have already won 16 states in this nomination process and with your help on Tuesday we’re going to win here in Delaware,” Sanders said. “Let Delaware show it is prepared to go forward in a political revolution.”
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter. Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright. Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.