Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in Baltimore last month. Sanders has accused the Democratic National Committee of stacking the deck against him on committees that will oversee proceedings at the party convention in Philadelphia this summer. Photo by Molly Riley/UPI |
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WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he is not being granted fair representation on committees that will decide proceedings at the Democratic National Convention.
Sanders released a letter last week, calling on Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to revisit the DNC's list of standing committee members. Sanders said of the 45 names his campaign submitted for consideration, three were named to DNC standing committees, and none were put on the important Rules Committee, which decides how the convention will play out.
"In order to reflect the views and aspirations of the millions who support both my candidacy and Secretary [Hillary] Clinton's, I believe that the composition of the standing committees must reflect the relative support that has been received by both campaigns," Sanders wrote.
Sanders and the DNC have clashed before in the 2016 campaign. Sanders only recently withdrew a lawsuit against the DNC over its suspension of his campaign's access to voter identification logs. The DNC said a Sanders staff member inappropriately accessed proprietary data belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign that was housed on a shared server.
Politico reported Sanders and Wasserman Schultz, who has endorsed Clinton, spoke about the issue and the matter was not resolved.
Wasserman Schultz told Politico the DNC has been up front and honest with both campaigns and promised an open process to draft the party's platform in Philadelphia this summer.
"I'm not at all concerned that we are going to have a divisive fight at our convention. At our convention we are headed toward unity," she said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. "Both of our candidates have clearly stated that they will support the other one if they were to win the nomination and I would expect that we would go through a platform drafting process that the entire party rallies around. Both of our candidates are going to substantially participate in the drafting of our platform."
