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Porter, Winfield: Will “introduce” message to black voters.
Two Newhallville state legislators hopped on the Bernie Sanders presidential bandwagon Wednesday, defying the popular image of ironclad support for Hillary Clinton among black elected officials.
Sanders and Clinton are battling for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Well, compared to the all-out Republican brawl for the same nomination, they’re not exactly “battling,” but they are engaged in a hotly contested race.
The two Newhallvaille legislators — State Sen. Gary Winfield and State Rep. Robyn Porter — announced their support as part of a broader group of nine elected officials associated with the Working Families Party. The other seven who endorsed Sanders are State Representative Jack Hennessy from Bridgeport, Bridgeport Board of Education members Sauda Baraka and Dennis Bradley, State Representative Edwin Vargas from Hartford, State Representative Peter Tercyak from New Britain, and Hartford City Councilor members Larry Deutsch and Wildaliz Bermudez.
Winfield said he backed Sanders because of his longstanding championing of positions that Winfield himself has championed.
Winfield, for instance, credits public financing with enabling him to win office and has advocated nationally for clean elections. Sanders has sworn off Super PAC (political action committee) donations and made clean-elections central to his campaign message, Winfield noted in an interview. “If you look at the debates, Hillary will talk about a lot of issues. Bernie will say, ‘This is simple. We have to go back and deal with campaign finance to deal with those issues. People’s voices are enhanced when you have a clean election system.’”
Winfield also noted that Sanders participated in the March on Washington and heard Martin Luther King’s famous address there, which he considered a pivotal moment in his political career. Since then Sanders has established a strong civil rights record, said Winfield, who has been a leading advocate of criminal-justice reform and opponent of the death penalty at the state Capitol. Winfield cited Sanders’ environmental record as well.
Porter cited her longstanding affiliation with the Communications Workers of America to explain her support for Sanders.
The candidate zeroes in on income inequality, on raising capital gains taxes, on making college tuition free, on re-instituting the Glass Steagall Act’s firewalls between commercial lenders and investment banks, Porter said — all issues important to “working men and women.” Sanders also calls for a national $15 hourly minimum wage.
Like Winfield, Porter cited campaign finance reform as a main reason for her support.
“That’s one of the big problems I have with Hillary’s campaign. She has too much Super PAC money,” Porter said. “Money talks. [If Clinton] gets into office, she would would have a lot of favors owed.” Sanders, on the other hand, “is doing it grassroots,” Porter said.
Bringing The Message Home
Clinton enjoys a double-digit lead among black voters nationwide, according to polls. She also has attracted the support of black elected officials across the country, including New Haven Mayor Toni Harp. Click here to read about Harp’s endorsement along with 57 other black mayors of Clinton’s campaign.
Winfield attributed Clinton’s lead among black voters to her superior name recognition as not just a senator, but a secretary of state, as well as “the wife of one of the most beloved political figures in history in the black community.”
“People like myself have to do some work in making sure that Bernie Sanders is better known” in the black community, Winfield said. “We have to go out and talk to people and say, ‘This is a guy who has talked about climate change. He says his life changed from being at King’s speech.’”
Porter made a similar vow.
“A lot of people in the black community … don’t even know who he is, let alone what he stands for,” Porter said of Sanders. “My job is to educate people. He’s having those courageous conversations. He’s talking about racism in America and racial justice and how black youth are looked at as thugs just because of the color of their skin.”
Winfield called Sanders and Clinton both “great candidates.”
“If Bernie Sanders doesn’t make it all the way, that doesn’t mean you don’t have success,” he added. “If you can make speaking to our issues in an informed way [a central part of the campaign], that’s success as well.”
While I too "feel the Bern", there are points of reality to consider in making a choice of Bernie's candidacy at this point in time. New Haven residents would think that when choosing to support a grass root candidate like Bernie or Hillary, both the Mayor Winfield and Porter, all of whom call themselves "Working people's party" would first poll a segment of their constituency in order to receive a feel for the preference of their constituency. All three, between elections, have a habit of hiding from their constituents; however, during election season they lead the endorsement parade then request/persuade the people to follow their lead. That's just plain backwards.
While the difference in policy between the two leading candidates is minuscule, 'Winfield called Sanders and Clinton both "great candidates."
I believe that Bernie's policies, if elected, will NOT even remotely be considered by the Republican Party. He will NOT be able to legislate by executive order.
"Porter made a similar vow.
"A lot of people in the black community ... don't even know who he is, let alone what he stands for," Porter said of Sanders. "My job is to educate people. He's having those courageous conversations. He's talking about racism in America and racial justice and how black youth are looked at as thugs just because of the color of their skin.""
Sounds like a Palin-ism, a rabble that only Sarah Palin would concoct.