Calls for party unity are standard fare at political conventions, but those pleas have special urgency at the Hawaii Democratic Party convention in Waikiki this weekend.
State Democrats hope to somehow graft thousands of left-leaning, adamant Bernie Sanders supporters to a party hierarchy that is far more supportive of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
If the effort is successful, the Democrats may enjoy a potent injection of youth and energy into the party that already dominates state politics.
If the effort fails, things could get messy. The Sanders voters, including thousands who are new to the Democratic Party, swamped the party’s presidential preference polling on March 26, lifting Sanders to a decisive win with 70 percent of the vote.
Since then, a significant body of Sanders supporters has remained active, and observers agreed they seem to dominate the 847 delegates who had registered for the convention at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel on Saturday. Hundreds of delegates erupted in an impressive roar and standing ovation, cheering “Bernie! Bernie!” after a video message aired Saturday of Sanders congratulating his Hawaii supporters.
Clinton, who was supported by party elders such as former Govs. John Waihee, George Ariyoshi and Ben Cayetano, garnered just 30 percent of the votes in a contest that may signal the Hawaii party is under strong pressure to move in a new, more progressive direction.
Bart Dame, authorized representative for the Sanders campaign in Hawaii, told the crowd that some saw the March 26 polling as a “spontaneous outburst for democracy, and it’s a glorious thing,” adding, “It is glorious to have so many thousands of people be excited by a candidate who finally speaks to their heart.”
Many Clinton supporters have been welcoming, “but there are other people who are going to try to slam the door in the face of our new people,” Dame said. “It’s been in very small micro-aggressions against our people across the state. That has got to stop.”
One example Dame cited was a proposal to require that people must sign up for presidential preference polling at least two weeks in advance, a proposal that prompted booing from the crowd at the Sheraton. The convention is scheduled to consider that proposal today.
“Had that had been in effect this time around, there would have been many thousands fewer people participating, and frankly, that is the intent,” Dame said. “We have to fight voter suppression, whether it comes from nominal Democrats or whether it comes from Republicans.”
Strength in diversity
Gov. David Ige and former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa offered more calming and conciliatory messages to the delegates.
Hanabusa, who is planning a campaign this year to try to return to the U.S. House, said she is proud of the Hawaii activists who delivered the state to Sanders. She urged them to help unite the party after the national convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28.
“You saw the rise of Donald Trump. You should be afraid for our country and for each and every one of us,” Hanabusa said. “And you should know that that’s where the party has got to focus.”
Hanabusa said the differences and disagreements within the party make it stronger. In a nod to the Sanders campaign, Hana- busa told the crowd that the Democrats work with the union movement because “we are the party that fights for the working class.”
Ige told the delegates that “we derive our strength from our diversity,” adding, “We embrace diversity and the knowledge that there is more that unites us than divides us.”
He added, “We know that when the shouting ends and the smoke clears, we stand together, so let this convention be an exciting marketplace for ideas that enrich the growth of our partnership, and the community and the people, because we are Democrats first and foremost.”
Natalie Strauss, 21, said Ige’s comments were reassuring. This is her first party convention “and I think for a lot of us, especially the students, we were really apprehensive and confused about how it was going to go, and we weren’t sure how everything worked,” she said.
Strauss, who just graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was vice chairwoman of Students for Bernie Sanders. That involved phone banking, organizing rallies and sign waving, and she also helped to open the only Sanders campaign office on Hawaii island in donated space in Hilo.
Strauss agreed with Ige that the Sanders supporters “have more similarities than differences” with the rest of the party. “I think that most of all we just want to help the common man,” she said.
Sanders’ influence
Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center, said the influx of Sanders supporters “absolutely” will have an effect on the party, and will test the strength of the Democrats’ “Old Guard.”
The performance by the Sanders supporters in the presidential preference poll was “remarkable,” Moore said. “If they can follow on that success, then we will really have a strong, progressive part of that caucus.”
“Bernie’s dramatic victory and whatever they can pull off at the convention will demonstrate … how much they’ve managed to consolidate and turn out the progressive part of the Democratic Party, which has been, I think, beleaguered for a while,” Moore said.
Dame said he is confident that Sanders supporters will profoundly influence the direction the party takes in the years ahead. He predicted that party newcomers initially may zero in on issues of “agricultural justice,” a term that generally refers to more strict regulation of pesticides and the movement to restrict, label or ban genetically modified organisms.
Those have already proven to be divisive issues in recent years within the Hawaii political establishment, particularly on the neighbor islands. Some worry that strict new regulation of agricultural industries could put farmers out of business and wipe out jobs.
Dame estimated that 95 percent of the Sanders delegates have never been party delegates before, and predicted they will remain engaged in the years ahead, “fighting to make this party more democratic” and more inclusive.
Key election
Two indications of the latest tilt of the party will be who is elected as the new party leader today at the convention, and whether any additional Hawaii superdelegates can be persuaded to support Sanders, he said.
So far, five superdelegates announced they will support Clinton, including U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz; U.S. Rep. Mark Takai; Democratic National Committeeman Russell Okata; and Democratic National Committeewoman Jadine Nielsen.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is also a superdelegate, is a strong Sanders supporter. Superdelegates who have not yet announced who they will support include Ige and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui. The party chairperson and vice chairperson who will be selected today will also become superdelegates.
Dame and other Sanders supporters argue Sanders should receive seven superdelegates, which would be the same percentage of delegates as he won in the popular vote in Hawaii in March. However, party rules do not require that.
Sanders won 17 of the 25 Hawaii delegates that are apportioned according to the results of the March 26 presidential preference polling, while Clinton won eight.
Ige on Saturday still refused to say who he plans to support as a superdelegate, saying he has been talking with both Clinton and Sanders supporters.
“We’ll see how the process unfolds, and I’m going to cast my vote as a superdelegate in the best interest of the people of Hawaii,” he said. “I think that it’s very important for me to be uncommitted at this point, and I think as the process goes forward, we’ll see how things go.”
