Iowa Sanders delegates angry over roll call exclusion

PHILADELPHIA - Breakfast started with an apology, but Democratic Party leaders' attempts to make peace with Bernie Sanders supporters who were excluded from the traditional convention roll call fell short of healing divisions in the Iowa delegation that were on full display Wednesday morning.

R.T. Rybak, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, offered a 'formal apology” for the content of leaked emails written by committee staffers 'who didn't follow the strict, strict mandate to stay neutral.”

'We betrayed your trust,” Rybak said at the Iowa delegation's daily breakfast meeting. 'We're sorry.”

Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine appreciated the apology, 'which is what I've been waiting two days to hear.” Like others supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mueller wanted the party and party leaders to acknowledge those emails that seemed to indicate they intended to sabotage Sanders' campaign for the presidential nomination.

Rybak's apology, and conciliatory words from 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack and others, weren't enough to make up for the feeling that Sanders backers are being excluded.

When Iowa cast its votes during the roll call of states Tuesday, the 30 votes for Clinton and 21 for Sanders were announced by four Clinton delegates. That angered Sanders delegates, who pointed out that the elected delegates were nearly evenly split, 23-21.

'You wouldn't let us stand next to you last night on the convention floor,” said Jennifer Gernhart, a delegate from Fort Dodge. 'It was our victory too. We're all the same party.”

The votes were announced by Andy McGuire, the state party and delegation chairwoman, Vice Chairman Danny Homan, Loebsack, and Sruthi Palaniappan - who was chosen by the Clinton delegates.

Ben Foecke, Iowa Democratic Party executive director, defended the selection, saying that it's typical for states to give that duty to party leaders.

But it made Gernhart wonder, 'are we part of the party or not?”

'You can nod your head in agreement now, but why couldn't we be a part of the action last night?” she asked.

Jessica Fears, a state Central Committee member from Ames, didn't expect Sanders to win, 'but it's going to be hard to go home and say, ‘let's work together to elect Patty Judge and Kim Weaver,' when we've been excluded from a part of the process.” She's hosting a fundraiser for Weaver, she added.

Sanders delegates and other Iowans who supported his campaign have to put aside some of their differences with the party's Clinton backers, Fears said.

'If we want the ideals we voted for, if we want this progressive platform enacted, we're going to have to go back and work together,” she said.

Attempts by Rybak and Loebsack to empathize with the Sanders delegates seemed to fall flat. Rybak talked about how late Sens. Paul Wellstone and George McGovern, as well as Howard Dean, all learned from losses in their political careers.

'We each own our own part of the revolution,” Rybak said.

Loebsack recalled that it was 'kind of tough” to be on the losing end of the Bill Bradley-Al Gore nomination contest in 2000.

'Be a good loser” is not the message Sanders supporters want to hear, Mueller said. 'The more the Bernie people hear ‘We voted for McGovern, we understand you position, be a good loser' the more we hear you want us to just shut up.”

Unity starts with hearing the voices of Sanders supporters, 'not silencing the people who still don't believe in Hillary,” she said. 'Listen first.”

At one point, McGuire interrupted the comments to say she wants the Sanders delegates to be a part of the process and that there will be more discussion of differences.

'Absolutely we want you to be part of the party,” she said.