For state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst, it will be his second time nominating a Clinton at a Democratic National Convention.
For state Democratic State Committee member Patricia Marcus, it will be a chance to nominate the woman she’d promised herself eight years ago that she’d support to become the nation’s first woman president.
And state Rep. Paul Mark, the first public official in Massachusetts to endorse Bernie Sanders, attending his first Democratic National Convention may mean casting a voice vote for Hillary Clinton.
All three are preparing for next week’s Philadelphia convention as the Republicans wrap up its party convention this week in Cleveland, where no Franklin County delegates are attending.
For Rosenberg, selected at the state party convention as one of six Party Leaders and Elected Official delegates for Hillary Clinton, who won 51 percent of the state primary vote, his role will be to represent the state, rather than representing his Hampshire-Franklin-Worcester district, which polled overwhelmingly for Sanders.
Despite the fact that Sanders hasn’t conceded the nomination to Clinton — although he did endorse her last week, to the chagrin of some of his supporters — Rosenberg says he expects “some pretty strong unity at the convention. … Now it’s a matter of everybody being on board, not where you were six months ago.”
In Franklin County, 70 percent of primary voters favored Sanders.
“I think one of the highlights of this convention is actually going to be the party platform discussion, because unlike most of these conventions where it’s really cut and dry, given the role that Bernie Sanders played in primary, he moved the party in a more progressive direction, so that means that the party platform will be more reflective of the core values that we’re engaged in and support here in Massachusetts through our own party platform,” Rosenberg says. “I’m very excited to think the national party platform is going to look a lot more like the Massachusetts party platform than it’s looked in a long time.”
Rosenberg is one of 46 pledged Clinton delegates, compared to 45 delegates pledged to support Sanders on the first ballot unless the Vermont senator — who’s scheduled to address the convention Monday — releases his delegates.
“He really energized the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” Rosenberg says of socialist Sanders. “Some people may push to get more than the platform committee put in of the agenda that Sen. Sanders was promoting, but a lot got in, so that’s exciting.”
Rosenberg, who for the 1996 Chicago convention had to fly in from Russia, where he made prior arrangements to visit, and then return to Russia afterward, says he “wouldn’t be surprised” if there were a rules debate at next week’s convention, led by delegates new to the process who were upset by the way Sanders’ primary votes translated into his delegate count.
Mark, who co-chairs the Sanders campaign in Massachusetts, was elected as an at-large delegate representing youth, since he was still 36 when he was chosen by the Democratic State Committee.
The only Sanders delegate from either Berkshire, Franklin or Hampshire counties — even though each of those regions favored Sanders — Mark is an at-large delegate representing the state as a whole. (Peter Corbett of Shutesbury was selected as an alternate Sanders delegate from the 2nd Congregational District.)
“Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary, and I’m going to follow his lead,” he says. “Bernie Sanders wants the Democratic ticket to win, he wants to make sure Donald Trump is not our president, and I strongly support that. When the convention wraps up and we have a nominee, I’m going to support the Democratic nominee. Obviously, I wish I was going there to nominate my candidate, but I’ll be happy with what we end up doing.”
Mark, who introduced Sanders at a rally at the University of Massachusetts in January that drew 3,400 supporters as the kind of candidate he’s been waiting for “my whole life,” says he felt very strongly about the issues that Sanders was able to bring to the campaign, but says it’s time to move forward.
“It’s not about one candidate for one office,” says Mark, who also volunteered at the 2004 national convention in Boston. “It’s about getting people elected that feel the same way, that have the same values. Its about electing people to Congress, it’s about electing people to state legislatures, it’s about electing governors, it’s about more than just one person. I’m not the kind of person where because my candidate came up short in the nomination process, that’s it, I’m going to take my ball and go back home. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
Despite Sanders’ “self-imposed handicap” of limiting campaign donations, Mark says, “It’s now apparent that a candidate who talks that way on these issues can get serious traction, and against a candidate who’s been running for office basically since 1992, where her husband was president as well. … So for him to get as far as he did is excellent. But now it’s important that the values he’s been pushing, and that we’ve been pushing, continue.”
“And if the next president is Donald Trump, everything that’s been worked on in the last eight years and the last eight months is dead.”
Mark, who says he’s excited to be part of the first nomination of a woman for president, says he’s “expecting and hoping” that “if there’s floor fights, it’s going to be on policy issues, including an anti-TransPacific Partnership plank that was left off the recommended party platform.
“I know there are delegates talking that they want to get that in on the floor of the convention, and that’s something I would strongly support,” said Mark, adding that he would also “love to see somebody progressive (as Clinton’s vice presidential nominee) who balances out her ticket, and really presents a strong winning team to the American people.”
He hopes that are if there are protests, they’re peaceful and “respectful of each others’ opinions, and that people are going to come together in a common mission.”
Corbett says that even as an alternate, he’s looking for the convention as an opportunity to talk with delegates about his concerns that Clinton is too vulnerable a candidate, and his belief that Sanders would make a far stronger Democratic nominee.
“My fear is that we’ll nominate Hillary, and she’ll lose,” said Corbett, who says he will ultimately support the nominee. But he added, “I think the Democratic Party is now going through a very massive group-think around her being the next candidate. The writing on the wall is there’s a number of ways that may not be a wise choice.”
Marcus, who attended the 2004 convention as a member of the Rules Committee, said that she expects some Sanders supporters to remain “resistant” but that the Massachusetts delegation is “pretty reconciled and peaceful. I know a lot of the Sanders delegates, recognized that if he wasn’t going to be the nominee, he would be supporting Hillary. (In Massachusetts) we probably have lot more unity than there may be in some other states.”
Marcus believes “It was helpful having (Sanders) pushing for some of things (Clinton) cares really deeply about, but would have been criticized and damaged for being too outspoken about, because she’s Hillary and there’s lot sexism in politics, and women are candidates are expected to take a different form than he did. … They’re not very far apart on issues. It’s more nuanced than anything. There are some things they probably disagree on, but really not the substance of the platform,” which serves more as “a guide for what we really want” more than a plan.
Once the Democrats leave Philadelphia, all agree, the challenge will be getting out the vote for their candidate, especially since some Sanders supporters have said they would only vote for him.
“It’s always a challenge to get the next generation to vote, and it’s always a challenge to get those who have been disaffected to want to re-engage,” said Rosenberg. “One of the great things that happened with the Bernie Sanders campaign was that a whole lot of people sitting on sidelines decided to jump into the pool this time. The challenge is to keep them in the game so they can get an outcome closer to what they want than if they stayed home. The choice is stark between (Republican nominee Donald) Trump and Clinton.”