Wisconsin’s Democratic Party chair Martha Laning says the email leak controversy involving the Democratic National Committee won’t hurt party unity this November. But her vice chair, David Bowen — the lone Wisconsin superdelegate who announced his support earlier this year for presidential canddiate Bernie Sanders — says it certainly won’t help either.
Emails released over the weekend by Wikileaks revealed a DNC under Debbie Wasserman Schultz that was working to undermine Sanders and help his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Wasserman Schultz has since announced she will resign from the DNC and decided not to gavel in the convention.
Bowen, a state representative from Milwaukee, said the evidence that party officials were tipping the scales in favor of Clinton confirms what Sanders supporters were suspecting for months.
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“Sanders supporters were told that that wasn’t happening,” he said. “Finally, the writing was on the wall, but it’s coming at a cost because it’s distracting us from the number one goal at the convention, and that’s to unify.”
But speaking to reporters at the national convention in Philadelphia on Monday, Laning said the email issue was being taken care of and wouldn’t stand in the way of bringing the party together.
“The Sanders supporters are seeing Bernie supporting Hillary by coming out and endorsing her, and I believe that’s going to bring people together, just like it did in 2008,” she said.
Sanders will speak to the full convention Monday night and to the Wisconsin delegation Tuesday morning.
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