Acrimony between the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders bubbled up Saturday in Nevada, with the Clinton camp attempting to oust an official in charge of picking the state’s delegates.
Clinton’s campaign wrote Democratic Party officials in Clark County Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, to demand removal of Democratic activist Christine Kramar from her post as credentials chairman for a convention that will choose delegates to the state convention, Nevada political journalist John Ralston reported. Those delegates are likely to also go to Philadelphia this summer to serve as the state’s Democratic National Convention delegates.
In the letter, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign claimed Kramar showed animus toward the Clinton campaign and also improperly shared Clinton campaign information with Sanders’ camp.
“Ms. Kramar has publicly engaged in a series of egregious, disruptive and biased behavior that irreparably undermines her credibility to administer a fair and successful convention,” Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias wrote.
Elias said that in a email, Kramar exposed Clinton “campaign information and data by unilaterally adding a representative of Senator Sanders’ campaign into a chain of email correspondence between [Hillary for America] the Clark County Democratic Party and the Nevada State Democratic Party. ”
He said “Kramar engaged in a series of unwarranted and inexcusable personal attacks against” Clinton campaign representatives.
Clinton won the state’s Feb. 20 caucus contest and emerged with 20 pledged delegates to Sanders 15.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, complained in a statement Saturday that the Clinton campaign is trying to “depose a neutral official.”
“There’s going to have to be a real examination about Nevada as one of the first four nominating contests at the convention this summer,” Weaver said. “Makes Arizona look well-run and honest!”
