A pair of Democratic National Committee officials denied Bernie Sanders’ request that two party officials he regards as “attack surrogates” for Hillary Clinton be stripped of their posts at the national convention.
“We are compelled to dismiss it,” Jim Roosevelt and Lorraine Miller, who co-chair the rules and bylaws committee, wrote in a Saturday letter to Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
Sanders wanted Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Mass. Rep. Barney Frank booted from their positions as co-chairs of the Standing Rules Committee and Standing Platform Committee. The letter states that Sanders’ reasons for ousting them do not meet the necessary criteria under the committee rules for taking such a step.
Sanders alleged that Frank and Malloy are Clinton partisans who would treat him unfairly at the convention. “Their criticisms of Senator Sanders have gone beyond dispassionate ideological disagreement and exposed a deeper professional, political and personal hostility toward the senator and his campaign,” his lawyer wrote in a Friday letter.
Frank’s would have been especially notable, because of his historic popularity with the social liberal base of the Democratic party and his role as the architect of a Wall Street reform bill that passed after the 2008 fiscal crisis — an issue that still animates Sanders’ campaign.
By denying Sanders’ request, the DNC risks a tumultuous fight over the convention rules and the party platform this year. “If this committee is unable to provide its advice or assistance … the campaign will seek resolution of these issues by presenting its objections in motions as the first items of business at the initial meetings of the Standing Platform and Rules Committees and, to the extent necessary, will request the drafting and adoption of minority reports from both standing Committees for presentation to the floor of the full convention,” Sanders’ attorney wrote in the original letter.
