T. Elections- U. S.

S. 360 Elections- 2016 Coverage
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T. Tampa Bay For Bernie 2016, The Sanders Campaign And The Primary Elections

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Elections- 2016

Tampa Bay For Bernie 2016, The Sanders Campaign And The Primary Elections

Mark Skogman     Senior Reporter     Spectrum 360 Media

http://www.spectrum360media.com

’16 Jun. 10 Fri.  E. D. T.  23:44     St. Petersburg, Florida

On the evening of Tue. 07 June, ’16, Tampa Bay For Bernie 2016 conducted a primary election watch party at the Amsterdam bar on Central Avenue in the Edge District of St. Petersburg, Florida.  About 55 enthusiastic people attended the evening event as primary elections wrapped up in 6 states: New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana and California.

Lead organizers Michael Fox and Amos Miers held forth advocating and organizing for the U. S. Presidential candidate they have supported since early in this process in 2015, U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders.  Yes, yes….. still Sanders!  Of course!  Persevere to the end of the primary elections!  #stillsanders  Organizing and discussing and debating the current state of the primary elections and the issues of importance this election year continued throughout the nite interspersed with noting election return results via C. N. N. on the Amsterdam’s flat screen television.  The ethos of the evening and the event had the air of the last week of school before graduation.  It was a wind up and a look forward to the big event….. the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25 to July 28, 2016.

In terms of election returns, the results were predictable overall and typical of the last several weeks of the primary election phase of this election year in the Democrat Party.  When there have been multiple states voting on any given day, the election results and wins have been split between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton with Clinton incrementally increasing her delegate count lead.  That pattern was consistent on this last day of multiple primary elections.  Clinton won the states of California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.  Sanders won the states of North Dakota and Montana.  NBC News called the California election for Hillary Clinton at 5:55AM on Wensday morning,as I watched the final, final, final call for the previous day’s elections.

This was preceeded by the declaration of Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democrat nominee for U. S. President by the Associated Press on the day before (yes, the day before) these elections.  Information circulated that this determination was arrived at by a “secret survey” of Democrat “super” delegates.  A mite early, ain’t ya?  This was perceived as rediculously premature by most, if not all Sanders supporters and as a statement of the obvious by most, if not all Clinton supporters.  It had certain similarities and parallels to election year 2008 with people citing various aspects of that consequential election year as either justification or criticism.  Certainly, the candidate speeches by Sanders and Clinton on election nite just reinforced the positions of their supporters and did not resolve this current situation with the primary elections.  A controversy remains: the “super” delegates, their votes and the “super” delegate concept itself.  Aaaand….. if you count the “super” delegates in the current delegate counts for each candidate.  But that will inevitably be resolved over time with the major party conventions and the general elections cycle.  One argument for the concept of “super” delegates in a major political party in the U. S. has only two words: Donald Trump!  Regardless of the “super” delegate controversy, Senator Sanders and President Obama met on Thursday, 09 June, 2016 at the White House.  Then, the situation changed again and Hillary Clinton was endorsed by President Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Is this the organic shift to general election mode?

Two Bernie Sanders volunteers received special recognition for their outstanding volunteer work for the Sanders campaign, Sharon Janis and Denise Lombardi.  These two women made multiple thousands of telephone calls for their candidate with Denise Lombardi also recognized for traveling to Iowa and South Carolina working for the Sanders campaign.  Denise Lombardi was indeed in Iowa with the Sanders campaign and I saw her hard work in person as I covered the Sanders campaign up close and personal on the ground as Iowa went first in the primary elections.  “Great work, volunteers” was the consensus.  Many other volunteers who worked for the campaign were noted with appreciation.  The Sanders campaign was noted in the media for being extraordinary and accomplishing a lot during this historic primary election process.

Two other highlights for the evening were two progressive political candidates appearing at the watch party via Skype with organizer Fox acting as liason and Skype “wrangler”.  The first candidate to Skype in was Tim Canova, candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives in FL Congressional District 23 running as a Democrat in a primary election against Debbie Wasserman- Shultz.  The second Skyper (is that a word?) was Alan Grayson, current U. S. Representative in FL Congressional District 09 and candidate for U. S. Senate in Florida, running against Patrick Murphy in the Democrat primary for Senator.  Both candidates received a very positive response with people present pledging campaign support on the spot with campaign contributions and volunteer sign- ups.

This all happened with the caveat that this candidate support work starts when the primary elections for U. S. President end.  Mm, hm.  In practical terms, this means wait until the primary election in Washington D. C. is conducted on Tuesday, 14 June.  That, dear politicos, is just 4 days away.  Primary elections, your end is nigh.  Then game on for Canova and Grayson.

And so the end of the Amsterdam is nigh as well.  The Amsterdam was a venue for multiple Sanders campaign events in 2015 and 2016 and that endeared this room to the attendees.  With it’s strange and interesting art and also functioning as an art gallery as well, it was visually and well as politically interesting.  The excellent selection of craft beers and ciders was of course the raison d’etre for the business along with da music that was featured.  But the Amsterdam is closing this coming Saturday, June 11, 2016.  Go have one last drink before the doors close and the recently sold building turns into something else in it’s next incarnation….. or not?

Copyright © 2016  Mark Skogman  All rights reserved.     http://www.spectrum360media.com

For information on the Associated Press controversy:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-hillary-clinton-not-won-democratic-primary-article-1.2664569
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Election- 2016: The Primary Elections In Kentucky And Oregon- The Returns

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 Mark Skogman     Senior Reporter     Spectrum 360 Media

 ’16 May 18 Wen.  E. D. T.  06:05

The primary election cycle has reached the states of Kentucky and Oregon today and voters have been going to the polls in these two states.  The Kentucky primary is Democrat only because the Republican primary election in Kentucky was conducted on Saturday, 05 March.  Oregon is a vote by mail state and both states voting today are closed primary states, meaning that a voter is required to be a registered member of a political party to vote in that party’s primary election.

All evening, as polls closed and reported election results in Kentucky, the lead in the Democrat primary election for President was too close to call with the lead being traded back and forth between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Sixty delegates are at stake in this election.

At 9:24PM  E. D. T., MSNBC decided to call the election and announced that Hillary Clinton is the apparent winner in the Kentucky primary election.  Of course, the apparent winner is not a definitive determination of an actual winner but this result is not likely to change.  There were actually 4 U. S. Presidential candidates on the ballot in Kentucky with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders getting the vast majority of the votes.

As of 10:00PM E. D. T., the state of Kentucky is reporting that Hillary Clinton received 46.74% of the vote with 212,319 votes and Bernie Sanders received 46.34% of the vote with 210,505 votes.  Uncommitted votes were at 24,099 and this amounted to 5.31% of the votes cast.  The difference in the vote between the major candidates in this election amounted to just 1814 votes.  Close?  Yes.

Later on, at 11:26PM  E. D. T., the state of Oregon was called by MSNBC for Bernie Sanders.  At that time the results indicated that Bernie Sanders got 196,553 votes and 51.87% of the vote with Hillary Clinton garnering 175,503 votes and 46.31% of the votes.  There are 77 delegates in play in Oregon.

The net results of all this process….. the advertising, the canvassing, the telephoning, the voting….. is that Bernie Sanders with the “political revolution” and Hillary Clinton with the “establishment” split the decisions.  The delegate count stands at Hillary Clinton with 2291 and Bernie Sanders with 1529.  Again….. this is how you care to count them and whether you include the super delegates in the equation…… or not!  This is a matter of contention in itself in an atmosphere of increasing conflict between the candidates, their voters and the Democratic Party.  This was especially evident after the events in Nevada at the Nevada Democratic Party State Convention just last weekend.

And so it goes…..  After today, there are nine states and the District of Columbia left to vote in the primary election process.

Copyright © 2016  Mark A. Skogman     http://www.spectrum360media.com

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Elections 2016: The Primary Election In Indiana- The Returns

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Elections 2016: The Primary Election In Indiana- The Returns

Mark Skogman     Senior Reporter     Spectrum 360 Media

’16 May 03 Tue. E. D. T. 23:26

http://www.spectrum360media.com

It is still only May in the 2016 Election cycle. Today, Tuesday, 03 May 2016, the Primary Election in the state of Indiana was conducted.

The early returns as of this evening indicated that in the Democrat Party, the election between the two remaining U. S. Presidential candidates was effectively tied at 50% for both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. That made the election way too close to call at that time. There were more returns to come and the later returns finally indicated the presumptive actual winner of this election. Bernie Sanders won the election with 139,438 votes. Hillary Clinton lost the election with 126,377 votes. This is as of 9:34PM on Tues. 03 May 2016 with information from the State of Indiana official website.

At about 9:14PM, MSNBC announced that their projection was that Bernie Sanders won the election with 243,663 votes and 53% of the vote and Hillary Clinton lost the election with 214,447 votes and 47% of the vote. 92 delegates are at stake in the Democrat election. This information was not confirmed by the state of Indiana official website. Of course, the state website information is based on actual returns as reported by polling locations and not exit polls that are used by television news organizations.

The early returns as of this evening indicate that in the Republican Party, the election between the three remaining U. S. Presidential candidates has been won by Donald Trump. The current returns indicate that Donald Trump has won Indiana with 304,213 votes. Rafael “Ted” Cruz got 213,578 votes and John Kasich received 40,873 votes. This is also as of 9:34PM on Tues. 03 May 2016 with information from the State of Indiana official website.

Then a major development occurred that was not an election return. Rafael “Ted” Cruz announced that he is “suspending” his campaign effective immediately. This now leaves two U. S. Presidential candidates in the Republican Party: Donald Trump and John Kasich. Trump is now being referred to by news reporters, pundits, Republicans and Democrats as the “presumptive nominee” of the Republican Party.

The wild and woolly year that is Election Year 2016 goes on…..

Copyright (C) 2016 Mark A. Skogman All rights reserved. Check http://www.spectrum360media.com for all the media produced by Spectrum 360 Media.

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The MSNBC Interview: Pinellas County D. E. C. Chairwoman Susan McGrath and Pinellas County R. E. C. Chairman Nick DeCegile

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Link: MSNBC: The Interview by Thomas Roberts with Susan McGrath and Nick DeCegile

The MSNBC Interview: Pinellas County D. E. C. Chairwoman Susan McGrath and Pinellas County R. E. C. Chairman Nick Decegile

Mark Skogman     Senior Reporter     Spectrum 360 Media

’16 Mar. 12 Sat. E. S. T. 04:14

At 2:39PM on Wednesday, 08 March, 2016, Susan McGrath appeared on the afternoon coverage of the 2016 Primary election on The Place For Politics on MSNBC. Susan McGrath is the Chair of the Pinellas County Democratic Executive Committee that operates the Democratic Party in Pinellas County in the state of Florida. Also appearing in the same interview was Nick DiCegile. Nick DeCegile is Chair of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee that operates the Republican Party in Pinellas County. The interview was conducted by MSNBC host Thomas Roberts. The Chairs represented their parties and discussed the election for the 4 minute, 17 second interview.

One poll that was discussed is the Florida Decides Statewide Poll that indicates Donald Trump ahead of Hillary Clinton by 1% in a general election match up with Trump getting 45% of the vote and Clinton getting 44% of the vote with 12% undecided conducted between March 04- 06, ’16. The polls discussed completely omitted any polling results indicating the status of Bernie Sanders in the primary election. This was odd considering that the polling results displayed in the interview graphics indicated results for all four of the remaining Republican presidential candidates.

This type of coverage by MSNBC just reinforces the perception by Sanders supporters of a bias in the major media corporations against the Sanders campaign and is fairly obvious evidence of that bias. In the entire interview there was only one mention of Bernie Sanders by name and that was by Thomas Roberts, the MSNBC interviewer. John Kasich was also not mentioned although a poll result for Governor Kasich was displayed in the Republican candidate poll results. To be fair, this interview was not an in depth discussion of each individual candidate but there was the predictable focus on Donald Trump.

One issue discussed in the interview was the difference in the perceived interest in, involvement with and predictability of the candidates, the major parties and the elections. It was noted that there is more focus on and interest in the Republican candidates. This was discussed with the implicit assumption that more interest is positive and less interest is negative. This is a sweeping generalization that most certainly does not automatically apply in this unprecedented and weird 2016 primary election.

Just because the Republican party presidential candidates are receiving more attention overall, almost completely because of the rather bizarre candidacy of Donald Trump does not mean that this attention is positive. Quite to the contrary. At the current time, this increased attention is based primarily on the attention to Donald Trump’s negative behavior. And his behavior and the conduct of his campaign is frequently terrible and a national embarrassment. This is increasingly causing national and now international serious concern at what is happening in this election cycle in the United States. To quote a phrase used by Trump himself….. “what the [h e double- tooth pick] is going on?” Sorry, this is a PG article.

A secondary source of the increased attention to the Republican presidential candidates is the imitative behavior by some of the other Republican presidential candidates of Trumpenstein’s unacceptable, immature and crude bad behavior. This is triggering a degradation of the standards of conduct by some of the other candidates, most notably Marco Rubio. His employment of this level of conduct in one of the recent Republican candidate debates is now widely perceived as failing and backfiring on him. His embrace of this tactic further degrades the process and was so bad that his own family expressed embarrassment at it and he repudiated his own engagement in this type of conduct.  The one candidate that is a positive exception to this mess is arguably the most qualified Republican candidate still conducting a campaign, Ohio governor John Kasich (pronounced K-sick)!

The situation in the Republican Party is now so bad that there is strong, open, direct conflict in the party with at least two factions in conflict, delineated directly by their relationship to the front- running candidate, Donald Trump. They are quite obviously the pro and anti Donald Trump groups. Some party members are now openly and strongly opposing Trump, their own front- runner, reminiscent of the “anyone but Romney” movement of the 2012 election cycle. Other Republicans are openly stating they will vote for a Democrat, refusing to vote for a person like Donald Trump for President. And they are admitting that this may cause the Republican candidate to lose and consider this to be a better alternative than having Trump as a Republican President. Wow! This is crazy. This is why the Republican candidates are attracting a lot of attention and this is not a positive development. Conservative columnist David Brooks has been critical of this scenario for months and has been lamenting the seriousness and negativity of this process in the Republican Party in 2016. It’s the train wreck you can’t stop watching even though the blood is spurting and the severed limbs are flying. Can Trumpenstein be over now, please? This is not funny anymore.

One last issue should be discussed to complete this article. Pinellas County R. E. C. Chair Nick DiCegile stated during this interview the following statement: “We are looking at a coronation of Hillary Clinton on the, on the left. Ah, and of course the super delegates and their very influential role in this process….. you can say it’s a, it’s a rigged system if you will. And again, it’s a coronation of, of Hillary Clinton on the left.” What? Nick DiCegile is either very uninformed or is deliberately ignoring or misrepresenting the facts regarding the Democratic Party presidential candidates. Either way, he is totally wrong. The election process is anything but a “coronation”. In fact, it is the exact opposite of that. There are strong, tough and persevering campaigns being conducted by Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party Primary elections, with a vigorous rivalry playing out in state after state across the country in the early primary election states. Were you in Iowa for the Iowa caucus? I was! Besides the party run caucus process being inherently less organized and more problem prone than a state run primary election, there was the obvious bias of the Democratic Party caucus for Hillary Clinton. Despite this, the Sanders campaign was competive with this so called “coronation”.  It was also interesting to note the dirty tricks of the “Christian” Cruz campaign originated “Voter Violation” form and the lie about the Carson campaign ending.  In February, the Sanders campaign raised $41.5 million with about $6 million of that amount raised in about 1 day! This was more than any other presidential candidate in either major party raised in February, 2016. With all these facts being obvious for weeks or months it is positively laughable to characterize the Democratic Party primary election process as a “coronation”. Next false statement please.