2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRyan Hughes, MI and PA Bernie State Director, Accused of Accepting Hillary Super Pac Money
(snip)
f Ryan Hughes did receive payments from Hillary's Super Pac, as Mark Craig alleges, this is more than just an ethical lapse in judgment. It would be even more evidence of Hillary operatives infiltrating Bernie's campaign to sabotage it.
Mr. Craig certainly believes that Ryan Hughes did everything possible to destroy the grassroots activist movement for Bernie in Michigan, including opposing long standing groups that had formed to support Bernie back in 2015, and which were already coordinating with each other regarding each group's activities and events (e.g., rallies and canvassing activities) among themselves. Among the many things Mark shared with me about Ryan Hughes performance include the following:
1. Hughes refused requests by volunteers to politicize the Flint water crisis. Even though the Hillary campaign was doing so for months prior to the election, Hughes told volunteers not to make the water crisis a point of emphasis until until only shortly before the date of the primary.
2. Told volunteers they could no longer do door to door grassroots canvassing. Instead, volunteers in Flint were directed to canvas only those residential addressed that included likely Sanders' voters. When volunteers went to those addresses they usually found abandoned homes, or people who were registered Republicans.
3. Ignored volunteers request to canvas in African American neighborhoods.
4. Kicked out all of the volunteers who were willing to work for free to staff the Flint office. Hughes replaced them with paid staff, many of whom had no Michigan ties.
Mark set up the Flint office, negotiating the lease and obtained internet service prior to Hughes arrival in Flint. He also and paid for equipping the office out of his own pocket. Mark was never repaid by the campaign for these expenditures, even though he had relied on Hughes promise he would be reimbursed.
- See more at: http://caucus99percent.com/content/ryan-hughes-mi-and-pa-bernie-state-director-accused-accepting-hillary-super-pac-money#sthash.rCnMVXjd.dpuf
We had a similar situation in Central Florida in 2000, where the State Dem election coordinator did everything he could to sabotage Gore.
blm
(112,920 posts)Field directors are common - why are people unfamiliar with how campaigns are run being believed for their conclusions that prove they haven't a clue what they're talking about?
This stuff from Niko Hughes is utter nonsense from someone who only recently engaged in the process, and assumed getting on a stage or in front of a rally could log more votes than doing the job he SHOULD have been doing - educating college voters with new voting IDs rules - nearly 5% of student voters were turned away from voting because of it. Niko can't handle the fact that he and college Dems had that duty, and he blamed everyone else.
Thanks to Aisha Dew and others he smeared with attacks, Sanders closed the gap considerably in the last week of voting, especially on election day. HRC was expected to win by almost 30% and Aisha and the campaign here closed it to 13%, and gaining more delegates than expected.
When it comes to how political organizing actually works and requires actually doing the WHOLE job, Niko House doesn't know his @ss from a hole in the ground.
His enormous yet fragile ego and his ignorance are behind these stupid video attacks on hardworking Democrats who SHOW UP and do their jobs for the candidates.
"This stuff from Niko Hughes is utter nonsense from someone who only recently engaged in the process,"
This scenario actually can give you a great deal of clarity when looking at something.
Regardless of your claims Niko isn't stupid and this story is getting covered outside of him anyway.
blm
(112,920 posts)actually involved. He wanted it to be about him
in front of a crowd
.instead of doing the mundane, every day, heavy lifting, non glamorous work that is required.
He also has other personal factors going on which forced Bernie's REAL grassroots organizer here to keep House at arm's length.
So - describe how Bernie's field director in Michigan sabotaged him from winning that state again?
And how NC's chair sabotaged that campaign to reduce a 30% HRC lead to 13% gaining delegates for Sanders that were not expected the week before the primary vote?
When do FACTS matter to you?
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)"Niko House doesn't know his @ss from a hole in the ground. "
Regardless this op isn't saying it's a fact. It says accused.
Facts always matter to me. That's why it's important to root them out.
blm
(112,920 posts)who have been working long hours for Bernie are pure propaganda from someone who doesn't know how to DO THE JOB HE CLAIMED HE WANTED with the campaign.
Why are you so centered on believing him and his charges over the people who have been working the hardest for Sanders and getting RESULTS?
Look at your personal bias in this and how you seem to favor spurious charges over the FACTS contained in the outcomes.
Zira
(1,054 posts)blm
(112,920 posts)who were hired for their ability to perform the heavy work needed.
I only hope some of you start doing REAL campaign work for a few years, the boring, mundane, every day kind of campaign work, including election years for ALL other offices, and see how quick you are to believe horscr@p stories like the ones Niko House is spreading.
Zira
(1,054 posts)Maybe you should check into what you are talking about.
And that the people cancelling the rallys ending up getting pictured being on Hillary's team and supporting her says it all.
blm
(112,920 posts)in the Sanders campaign.
Not cool and fun enough for some of you, apparently.
Try doing it for 4 years and see what you think.
Zira
(1,054 posts)And aren't BLM for the Hillary campaign? (The ones who speak on Democracy Now sure seem to be)
Btw, I'm pro BLM but am not voting for their gal Hillary, because I'm pro BLM. What they stand for anyway.
Are you IN the Bernie Campaign and know first hand or are you going off how you feel? Come on. If you want to act like you're in there, identify yourself. Because right now you are saying stuff with nothing behind it. I'm not going to just *trust* you.
blm
(112,920 posts)I've been her for 15 years. blm is short for bushlovesmoonies.
I'm not dissing your profession as you want to think - I am saying it is apparent from the replies that some of you haven't worked campaigns on a regular basis. Sorry, but the lack of familiarity with common situations campaign workers face year in and year out, is glaring.
And I will repeat - if this matter is so important to you, contact Bernie's team, and the grassroots rganizers here, and the Young Dem groups. Let them tell you about Niko House and why they couldn't trust or rely on HIM.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)It's the pictures, tweets and Facebook posts in support of the other side is what most troubles me.
blm
(112,920 posts)Aisha is still cheering Sanders on, but, eventually she will fully shift to general election.
Hughes hasn't because he was so successful in Michigan he was tapped for another state, yet, here is Niko House smearing him, too.
Further - wouldn't YOU have a ton pf photos showing you with various Democrats and Dem officials if YOU were elected chair of your county's Dem party? Or working as a political consultant?
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)But I remember quite a few people here called Ashley Williams a Bernie plant because she was pictured with Cornel West. Do you remember that? It cuts both ways
blm
(112,920 posts)These attacks are on people I know, and some who I do NOT know are furthering these lies and smears here at DU, which has been a home base for me for almost 15 years.
What would YOU do?
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)On this as you are there and seem to know the common denominators in this.
All I have are questions and I'm resigned to the fact that it will take time to know what really happened.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)If you look at the previous threads with his videos. I do express skepticism. That doesn't mean I'm gonna discount it either.
I also have no problem admitting my biases here. That doesn't mean I don't have an open mind. So what facts am I missing?
blm
(112,920 posts)the campaign was expecting.
That Devine and Weaver would send Hughes to other states should tell you the confidence they have in him - yet Niko House is telling a whole other story for his growing internet audience.
Question him and his attacks on Sanders team that are all rooted in his egotistical view of his own role - a role that saw 5% of student voters turned away in NC, because HE wanted to be at rallies instead of doing the legwork necessary to help students become informed of and deal with the changes the NCGA made on voter requirements.
Dem Women groups were helping voters, especially older voters with those requirements day in and day out for over a year.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)I'm not inclined to exonerate him of that charge based on the rationalization you've provided. As to that, one possible explanation is that infiltration works best by gaining trust. Michigan did little to change the trajectory of the race, but if Hughes is an agent for Hillary andif that win is his doing, then it could be seen as a measure to gain trust in order to do more damage at a later date - say in a place like PA.
Ratfuckery is often a refined and subtle art, and every instance like this should be thoroughly investigated. Hughes deserves close scrutiny and oversight.
blm
(112,920 posts)They, and Sanders seem pleased with his efforts.
Sorry that I trust them and their experience selecting field directors more than you do.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)And never get the credit they deserve.
I'm used to dealing with egos and while Niko can seem a bit cocky. He names names, tactics and sources of the funds. If flat out lies he's opened himself up to some liabilities.
I'm willing to wait and see
blm
(112,920 posts)Tad and many others. It's their JOB to work for Dem campaigns and for Dem issues. It's a year round job for some.
Some of you should try and contact the ORIGINAL Bernie Sanders grassroots organizer here in NC - perhaps you'll believe him, and Young Dems, and many others who encountered Niko House and his enormous, and incredibly fragile ego along the way.
You don't have to believe me even as your posts include believing the attacks being made by him against people I KNOW and WORKED with on campaigns here in NC since 2004.
To me Niko is proving to be another Ty Turner.
mainer
(12,013 posts)while ostensibly working for Sanders? If true, then the case is made. Doesn't matter how political organizing "actually works."
blm
(112,920 posts)This Niko House smeared Bernie's chair here in NC for having the temerity to have been the Mecklenburg County Dem Chair here in 2012-13 and during the 2012 Dem convention here in Charlotte.
Of COURSE she was going to have a presence with the evil 'establishment' working their @sses off for Obama's re-election.
Of COURSE she is going to be seen as someone who knows everybody
.that is how things get done, and how she succeeded in bridging an enormous gap in 2 months time, and WHY the Sanders campaign tapped her to be his chair in the first place - he hired someone who COULD DO THE JOB HE WANTED. The same reason he hired Weaver, Devine, and every field director going from region to region.
You may have personally invested yourself in the hope these horsesh!t charges are true, but, I have learned far too much about Mr. House and how he tried to push around Bernie's grassroots organizers here to try and make himself appear more important. He wants to run for office himself. To me he's another Ty Turner.
Zira
(1,054 posts)Is the one said to have been pro Hillary up to the day she joined the Bernie campaign, and the one seen in the picture being on Hillary's campaign team?
Why should we believe a word you are saying?
That Niko guy has something you don't - his own name that he is standing up to.
You are anonymous and can say anything. I have seen no facts from you.
blm
(112,920 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 26, 2016, 05:50 PM - Edit history (2)
I've been here for 15 years. I don't care that you decide I am not to be trusted. You've been here 2 weeks and are the arbiter of who should be trusted here and who should NOT? LOLOL
It is apparent to me that you have not spent years working for campaigns. Judge me all you want. Water off a duck's @ss. I am quite certain that I have gotten far more Dem voters to the polls over the years than Mr House has. In fact, I'd bet my house on it.
You are welcome to believe what you WANT to believe, Zira.
questionseverything
(9,631 posts)just the fact that he would tell volunteers NOT to canvass is enough for me to know he was dirty
blm
(112,920 posts)from organizations like Priorities USA over the years?
You people are proving to me that you don't work campaigns often enough to know how statewide campaigns and field organizing works.
Thankfully, Sanders and his team do, or else he wouldn't be racking up the victories and increasing his delegate numbers the way he is.
Interesting that so many of you want to smear Sanders' team for their successes because of the word of someone who was kept at arm's length for the latter part of the campaign because of HIS OWN ACTIONS.
questionseverything
(9,631 posts)we have 2 volunteers now willing to publicly tell their story so i am willing to listen to the evidence they are presenting
if these bernie "workers" are taking hc superpac money during or just before or just after their bernie work then it is OBVIOUSLY corruption in my eyes
blm
(112,920 posts)Got it.
PS - regarding the canvassing, sometimes canvasses are cancelled. They were cancelled many times during the 2012 and 2014 elections, and that decision was usually made to accommodate another priority. Sometimes you shift priorities when the head of the campaign tells you to, and apparently, in regard to NC and especially Michigan, their tactic worked.
SheenaR
(2,052 posts)just conspiracy theorists....
Onlooker
(5,636 posts)Throughout the US, Republicans are doing what they can to disenfranchise students and people of color. They are launching a very effective game, an example of which they just revealed in Arizona. Clearly, the highly ethical Sanders is appealing, but maybe you have to fight fire with fire. Hillary certainly seems to know how to do that, which may be the only way to beat Trump and the corrupt Republican election machine.
druidity33
(6,435 posts)Onlooker
(5,636 posts)The system is so corrupt, you have to play that game. I know how corrupt it is on the Republican side, and frankly even in Democratic areas in many ways. Voter ID laws, voter registration laws, election hours, voter offices, polling places, polling place locations, not to mention the possibility of Diebold or others actually outright cheating. If that's the case, then we really better settle for Hillary, because there's no way Bernie will win. The primaries are already proving that.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)1984 is here!
blm
(112,920 posts)spreading LOTS of rumors his hurt ego created inside his head.
He's attacking a professional field director for Bernie who WON the state of Michigan for him against huge odds.
House did the same to Bernie's chair here in NC, though her work resulted in closing a 30% gap to 13% and gaining delegates the campaign did not expect.
All in it together
(275 posts)Call off the tricks.
blm
(112,920 posts).
kristopher
(29,798 posts)IF that is how you want to conduct the discussion you can see where it leads, right?
senz
(11,945 posts)blm
(112,920 posts)people you know and have worked with from public attacks that you know to be false?
Really?
senz
(11,945 posts)If your motivation is loyalty to a corrupt candidate who will do anything to achieve ultimate power, bad (serious bad) on you.
Only you know.
blm
(112,920 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 26, 2016, 08:00 PM - Edit history (2)
shifts and turnarounds and cancelled events and hurriedly ADDED events.
I see what those see who are familiar with the every day events around campaign work and campaign headquarters.
I am not friends with Aisha in a close, personal way. I worked with her in 2012 and 2013, and she and I are at numerous events in NC for the party.
I know she was HIRED because Weaver and Devine trusted her to do what they needed in NC. Your post shows that your inclination is to believe Niko House because you FEEL that there HAS to be truth to what he's saying because it makes the HRC campaign appear even worse than you thought already.
I was one of HRC's most aggressive critics here from 2003 through 2011. I only shifted away from that aggression to focus on GOTV activism. Here in NC we need every single Dem vote we can get in this neanderthal GOP run state. You should try walking in the shoes of a GOTV worker in a state gerrymandered pure red. You'd have more understanding of the political priorities for some of us.
I've heard about DUers who strongly opposed Hill in 2008 but came round virulently to her side for 2016. It would be interesting to know that happened to turn them around. She's not any nicer now than she was then.
I do have experience volunteering on Democratic campaigns at the local and state level but have never insinuated myself into the higher echelons as I'm more interested in helping out than playing politics to attain personal power. fwiw
blm
(112,920 posts)I don't give a cr@p if you believe me - contact Bernie's grassroots organizer here in NC and Young Dems and others who encountered Niko and his unstable ego.
The way he's attacking them he could easily smear Tad Devine for the same associations. If Weaver and Devine didn't like the way Hughes performed in Michigan then they wouldn't have sent him to another state.
What I see is the hyperbolic over-reaching efforts to attack Bernie's team and its heavy lifters because an unstable egoist sez so.
Of COURSE you wouldn't defend someone YOU know from crazy charges from san unstable egoist, would you, kristopher?
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)senz
(11,945 posts)it's probably ... a duck.
blm
(112,920 posts)But, don't take my word for it - contact all those REAL Sanders organizers in NC who witnessed Niko House quacking.
Vinca
(50,170 posts)ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)another reason I will not vote for her.
senz
(11,945 posts)She went into this campaign with everything carefully, meticulously stacked in her favor. She and Bill arranged a cakewalk to the presidency. She of course never expected the invisible "socialist" senator from Vermont to get fed up enough to step into the ring with nothing but a penchant for truth and a lifetime of principle. One can only imagine her shock and anger that anything could possibly upset the surefire thing.
I hadn't put it into words before; it is part of what makes her candidacy so grotesque to behold. There's nothing natural, normal, "organic" about it. It's artificial right down to the astroturf.
That's why it reminds me somewhat of The Manchurian Candidate. And why it makes me tremendously worried.
autorank
(29,456 posts)... didn't she work for that $100,000 she made in cattle futures?