All Hell Breaks Loose at Nevada Democratic Convention
The state Democratic Convention in Nevada devolved into chaos at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Sun reports at least one fist-fight broke out between angry supporters of both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. At one point an attendee passed out which resulted in a call for medical attention, “We need a medic in the front, a medic in the front.”, a woman requested from the convention podium.
The Las Vegas Sun also reports that the Democratic convention in Clark County last month was rocky due to the deep rift between the supporters of the two candidates. Nevada Democrats will send 43 delegates to the national convention in Philadelphia later this summer. During Nevada's February caucus Hillary Clinton won 13 of Nevada's pledged delegates while Senator Bernie Sanders came out of the state contest with ten. There are also Super-Delegates who are appointed. Right now, more of the Super-Delegates are supporting Clinton. Megan Messerly, a political reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, says that a dozen final delegates are up for grabs in Nevada. “There are these what are known as 'at-large' delegates, there are seven of those, and then five of these so-called party leader and elected official delegates, and so it’s the delegates at the state convention that get to select those, so those percentages aren’t set in stone.”
The already tense situation at the state convention wasn't helped by an apparent effort on the part of the new state Chair, Roberta Lange, to manipulate the Nevada 'at-large' delegate count. According to video taken at the convention, over 200 more Bernie representatives had show up, but Chair refused to acknowledge the higher Bernie count in order to appoint the 'at-large' delegates to former Sec/State Clinton. The new Chair appointed and sent to Nevada by Debbie Wasserman-Shultz ( Hillary's 2008 campaign manager and current chair-woman of the DNC ) was also caught on video refusing to follow set state rules, refusing to follow points of order, and attempted to ram-rod through a DNC Establishment approved agenda and new set of state party rules.
Chants of "RECOUNT" met efforts on the part of state party officials to quiet the protest over not counting the higher number of Bernie supporters as well as the new state Chair's ignoring of the state parties own points of order. A fight erupted when one of the attendants had their credentials grabbed by a state official.
