How The Hell Did Biden Win In Maine?-- A Guest Post By Laurie Dobson

Tuesday exit polling had very quickly predicted a Bernie win in Maine-- where he also won in 2016. (In fact, he beat Hillary 64.3% to 35.5%.) But... by the time all the votes were counted:

• Status Quo Joe- 34.1%
• Bernie- 32.9%
• Elizabeth- 15.7%
• Bloomberg- 12.0%
• Tulsi- 0.9%

How did that happen? We asked former Senate candidate (2008) Laurie Dobson. This is what she wrote:

My island town of Cranberry Isles, Maine ran out of ballots last night on Super Tuesday, March, 3, 2020. We had to call the Secretary of State to try to get more. Not everyone could stay and wait, while they sent us a photocopied ballot that we could copy, so we could have enough ballots for other people that were coming to vote.

Why did we run out? We should have had enough ballots. In our town on our island we had 26 Democrats and 22 Undeclared. Why were we only given 9 ballots? The last time we spoke to the State officials was at 5:30 PM. From 6 to 8 PM on election night, I could not get through at their election number (207) 624-7650 or (888) 868-3763. If I had come after 6 they were not answering the phones and I could not have gotten copies for myself and others to vote.

My vote matters to me. It aggravated me that there were 42 ballots available for Republicans but only nine for us Democrats. Islesford the island next to us had a few more voters registered and they got 12 Democratic ballots and had one left by 5:30, when I came to our election pulling location in the ladies aid building.

I wondered why our town clerk did not prepare for our having enough ballots. it turns out that she had called the day before the election and complained that they did not have enough and was told that she would have enough. She was not sent any more ballots but on Election Day she was told that she could photocopy a ballot sent by the Secretary of State who would give permission to get the ballots.

I was told by our election workers that there were other problems in other towns. Somebody heard that Deering High School in Portland ran out of ballots and that this was a widespread problem in Maine.

On my Facebook page I asked if anyone else had this problem in their towns I learned that across the board there were towns that ran out of ballots. Everyone was aghast, with angry emojis being the popular response. I counted large and small towns and wondered how many voters were affected.

When I learned that Bernie Sanders was not ahead in Maine, a state which was highly enthused by his campaign last election, I became suspicious. He was ahead by a large degree in the expected results.

As I write this the election result is still undecided in Maine, too close to call.

As a caucus captain and Bernie candidate for State Rep in 2016, I saw that Bernie was not supported by the by the Democratic Party State officials, and this played out in prejudicial practices towards my campaign and also during the town caucuses. I took a video of a man who was angry that his registration was not brought by the town clerk to the voting place all registrations from A to G somehow did not arrive and those people had to take provisional ballots and were not assured that their votes would count.

When I followed Bernie across New Hampshire in the week prior to his primary there, I saw the treatment of him by the media particularly MSNBC. Because there were so many oppositional reports about him by these media persons, I expected to see some practices continuing against Bernie in Maine in 2020.

When I arrived at the voting place and was told there was no ballot for me to vote on that evening it confirmed my worst suspicions. Since we changed over to a primary from a caucus this year, just like Minnesota, another state Bernie was expected to win, officials were not used to running a primary; the last one was in 2000.

I did expect that officials would be prepared for a high turnout since that's what everyone's been hearing now for weeks. Ryder Kessler who I spoke with today, is the Voter Protection Director of the Maine Democratic Party. He said it was a “very active election day with 64% turn out. It did not go as smoothly as you'd prefer.”

I explained to him that I had been in touch with the Maine Bureau of Corporations Elections and Commissions, and had spoken to Anne Boucher, the ‘Customer Service Representative Specialist’. She told me that this problem with smoothness apparently happened in all 500 municipalities in Maine. It did not just happen with our town or a few other towns. Ballots ran out all across Maine, from large towns such as Portland, to small town such as Waite, Maine (an apt moniker), and included Camden, Freeport, Union, Scarborough, Saco, and our five- island town.

Anne told me that “anytime there is a problem, you could email to the drop box or stay on hold to get someone who could send photocopies of ballots. Some people were on hold 20 minutes,” she said, and she said that our town should have called them.

I defended our town clerk and said that she had tried to call the day before without result. Anne checked and saw that we had received 25 absentee Republican ballots and 10 absentee Democratic ballots, although she did not tell me how many regular ones we got, but that must have been a total of about 21 between our two islands, which was not enough to cover our registered voters.

She said people were faxing them and could not get through, but said we could have used a drop box to give the information (but admitted that they were so busy they could not get to it although they were able to get to the fax machine) and they worked 15 and a half hours non-stop, without a break.

“It was crazy,” she said. “It wasn’t just your town, it was 500 municipalities.” All of them? I asked her. “every single one was…just about…mmn hmmn. A lot of (people) were unenrolled and didn’t have enough to cover them. A lot wanted to enroll last minute on election day or even before that. That was the problem,” she said. “We sent like 60% of what we had (for registered voters) and it still wasn’t enough. It was a problem in large towns and small towns.

She went on to say that “people have had 30 days to vote and could have voted absentee but they chose not to. There was ample time to vote; that’s why we have it, for that reason.”

She defended absentee voting further by saying that “you don’t need a reason to vote absentee until the last three days prior to the election. People have a choice.”

I said that it was all over the news that it would be a big election. Why would people think that they had to vote absentee? How would anyone know that?

She said that they did not know it would be a large election. “Nobody knew, and we had no idea. We can’t predict the future. Nobody should have been without ballots. Most towns knew to call, email or copy. That way, they have it just in case.”

I still wasn’t accepting the idea that it was the voters, or town’s faults that they did not get enough ballots, since in our case, our clerk tried to get them and was not able to. It is the Secretary of State who has to allow more ballots and they just assured us that we could copy them if it came to that. In other words, when you run out, we will send you more.

I was thinking that this was absurd. It would be like a drug store saying they are out of a vital needed medicine, but hold on, we will send it to you, eventually.

She said that they had no control over the possibility that they “might send too much (ballots)-- no idea, no control over that scenario.”

I was trying to make the case for better too much than too little, because people were not always able to stick around. After 6 pm, until they closed at 8pm, they were not even answering the phone, the calls were being dropped. People were not able to get any new (approved) ballots if they ran out.

It seemed to me that the problem stemmed from the Deputy Sec. of State, Julie Flynn, did not provide enough ballots to the towns to account for overflow and thought it could be handled on a town by town basis. Too little, too late and too many people disenfranchised in the process. Why couldn’t they see that this was a terrible way to run an important Presidential Primary election? It could come down to a few hundred votes and it could come down to the votes people were unable to cast, because it was inconvenient for the Secretary of State’s office to ensure an adequate amount.

I tried to go into some of this reasoning and she said to send an email and they would forward it to Julie Flynn. The dropbox # is cec.officials@maine.gov. She said, “put your concern and Julie will handle it.”

Sure, I thought to myself. The same way she (mis)handled my ballots when I ran for US Senate as an Independent back in 2008. (That’s another story.) I did feel bad that she said it was so bad they didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom, but I tried not to picture the scene.

I was unhappy. I called the Democratic Party Voter Hotline, and I must admit, I vented a bit on the answering machine. They called back. It was a DC number and a legal intern, Buddy Norton, wanted to learn my location and who I talked to.

Buddy said he would report the issue in Maine thru a software program. When I told him that I had the number of The “Voter Protection Director” at the Maine Dem Party (I had just found his number by calling Julie Browne, the Executive Director of the Maine Senate Democrats, he admitted that he was the person I could speak to.

So coming full circle, now, back to Ryder Kessler, at the Maine Dems, and telling him what I had learned about the voters losing ballots to vote on all across Maine and not just in our town (and we were able to eventually get some, as did some other towns), he was “very sorry to hear about it.”

Ryder agreed that it was “a massive problem, all across the state. We want to do better and push back so it won’t happen again. We are watchdogs for the process.” He said that the Sec. of State decided that 60% was the threshold of what everyone voted in recent years and said that 60% is more than enough of active voters in each municipality. It’s a subset under registered. That’s how it works. The number of registered is higher than the number of active. He said he guessed that 8 registered voters represented 60% of those who voted in recent elections in our town, on our island of Great Cranberry.

In the last Presidential Primary that we had, 25 to 30% was the turnout. We thought maybe there would be more, but, yes, he admitted. They ran out everywhere. Higher than expected.

Kessler believed the issue to be that a lot of people requested absentee and when their candidate dropped out, they tore up their ballot and then came in, to the polling location to get another, therefore, two printed ballots were used up. This sounded contrived to me, but he was stretching for an explanation. After all, his boss, the Democratic Party, could have just helped to elect the wrong candidate.

(Update: 6pm March 4, 2020): I was just told that our combined island vote in Cranberry Isles was Bernie with 22 people (38.6%) over Biden 14 people (24.6%.) Warren got 11(19.3.) Bloomberg got 3(5.3%), Steyer got 6(10.5%) and Buttegieg got 1(1.8%). The statewide total, according to today’s Bangor Daily News, is Biden at 34.3% and Sanders at 32.9%. However, when you consider all the people that were either turned away or did not go because of the lack of ballots at 500 places across the state, it seems understandable that the election was a muck up as bad as Iowa. We can assume that older and more moderate voters who are not looking for a change candidate would be likely to vote earlier in daylight hours, not coming back from work, not picking up kids, not making dinner.

We lost one young voter, because she had duties and couldn’t stick around while the Sec. of State decided to send more ballots at her convenience. How many have we thoroughly disillusioned to the process of voting? More than we can afford, in Maine. If this was the case in Minnesota, or elsewhere, is anyone else even noticing?

Ryder said that they must be much better prepared and have overinclusion. They tried hard, he said, and were talking to clerks and wardens past 8pm and doing a lot of triaging. Larger towns got addressed first, with faster prioritizing.

But why should it even come to this? I wanted to know who bore the responsibility. He said it was split- towns and clerks have discretion over the towns, and the Sec. of State prints, distributes and allows the photocopying of ballots. The Primary is run by the State Party, not election officials, however, he said. That means that there is no clear blame that can be laid on anyone, since the Legislature elects the Sec. of State, who is a constitutional official and not the employee of the State Party.

“If you want to empower local clerks, then the Sec. of State is the one to be lobbying to and sharing your concerns with,” Kessler said. Meanwhile they will work on having more ballots and overcome the shortages. They will try to deal with issues in order to advocate on the state level.

This really did not satisfy me. Why isn’t the solution to have enough ballots at the start of the election? Is this just crooked partisan politics at work, trying to keep people from a representative and inclusive vote? I am thinking of all those frustrated people looking forward all day to voting and having to go home without an “I Voted Today” sticker.

“Our State looks like it got a black eye,” I told him. You can’t really influence or dictate to the Sec. of State, you can just share your concerns with these decision makers. Or share your opinion. Or something else you can comfort yourself with as they steal your right to vote from you.

Kessler kept trying. “My position is to fight for every eligible voter to get a ballot and push for better solutions and better outcomes.” That’s what his Party, the Democratic Party, has taught him to say and he is so earnest, I want to believe him… and he isn’t done.

He wants me to know that he “did not witness any bad faith actors, that everyone was operating in good faith for it to go as smoothly as possible.” I had to let it go. This is not my first election rodeo and I keep saying that it will be my last, every time I witness these monstrosities.

Hope dies last, they say. It’s especially so when it comes to voting, the one thing we all continue to agree, that makes us feel like first class citizens. I think it is time to crack some heads, personally. This gets old.

I Guess Bloomberg Could Become Emperor Of Samoa Now-- Like Marlon Brando In Apocalypse Now

Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race this morning, after spending half a billion dollars to... win a couple of delegates from American Samoa. Obviously, he endorsed Status Quo Joe, loving his unofficial campaign slogan, "Nothing will fundamentally change." Want to throw up? "I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden." Yesterday, Gabriel Sherman reported that even Bloomberg's gigantically overpaid top staffers were telling him to get out of the race once it came from on-high that beet red South Carolina-- which is incredibly not representative of the Democratic Party-- had decided that poor senile Status Quo Joe is the establishment pick to try to stop Bernie.

They wanted Bloomberg, who has already spent at least a half billion dollars on his ridiculous ego trip, to drop out of the race and join all the rest of the anti-working class candidates and politicians in endorsing Biden before Super Tuesday.

Some of Sherman's sources said that "campaign manager Kevin Sheekey and other top campaign officials argued to Bloomberg that the best chance of beating Donald Trump in November would be for Bloomberg to exit the race to bolster Biden’s candidacy as Biden battles with Bernie Sanders for the nomination. Campaign officials are privately frustrated that Bloomberg rejected their advice to drop out and pour their resources into helping Biden, sources said. 'The dynamic of the race clearly changed,' a Bloomberg adviser told me. Bloomberg disagreed that Biden’s resurgence in South Carolina fundamentally nullified Bloomberg’s candidacy. 'Mike is a data guy, and he’s looking at the numbers thinking, I’ll be damned if I walk away before a single vote is cast for me,' one source said, explaining Bloomberg’s thinking."

Sherman reports that "people close to Bloomberg fear that Bloomberg is playing the spoiler role tonight in delegate-rich states like California by siphoning votes from Biden. 'It’s clearer than ever after the weekend that it’s over and thus he will risk making Ross Perot and Ralph Nader look good if he stays in this,' a person close to the campaign told me. A Bloomberg adviser told me that Bloomberg would consider dropping out after Super Tuesday if there continues to be no path. 'He’s not going to stay in and say, Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

Let's keep this in mind now that Bloomberg has dropped out and endorsed Status Quo Joe:

The Comeback Codger

The big winner Tuesday night was Trump, as the same feeble and untenable Democratic establishment turned out its zombies to do exactly what they did in 2016-- hand the fascist leader a victory on a silver platter with a pointless status quo anti-change candidate. Biden, a nearly brain dead and completely flawed candidate who should be in a nursing home hot drinking hot cocoa was crowned champion of the anti-working class wing of the Democratic Party, by voters generally too stupid to know any better on the one hand, and voters as self-serving and greedy as any group of Republicans on the other hand. Sorry if that fits you. Go read Daily Kos or some other blog.

Tuesday morning before dawn, the Washington Post published a piece by Matt Viser noting that "A parade of establishment Democrats began coalescing around Joe Biden on Monday, an attempt to bolster the former vice president and stall Sen. Bernie Sanders’s ascent as voters in 14 states prepared to cast ballots Tuesday, the most consequential day of the presidential nominating contest." Viser didn't mention that Obama had spent hours on the phones pulling the strings that could help anoint ole Status Quo Joe... and guarantee a second catastrophic term for Trumpanzee.

Team Biden all got onto planes-- what heroism!-- and headed for Dallas to invigorate Biden's sputtering-to-life Texas campaign. Even L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti-- whose record on homelessness has made him 110% toxic in his own city-- showed up... joined Mayo Pete, Klobuchar and Beto! in Dallas.

Alex Slater, one of the dozens of DC lobbyists who made up the backbone of the Mayo Pete campaign, sent a letter out to everyone online who had ever contributed any money to a Democratic Party candidate. His letter, in part:

Some want to wait until after tonight's results or beyond before choosing who to support. I respect that-- it’s barely 24 hours since Pete conceded, and each candidate has legitimate merits. Also, who wants to be proven wrong twice? These are very legitimate positions. But listening to many of you I have personally come to the belief that the political moment deserves action and conviction.

That’s why I’m firmly following Pete’s lead in endorsing Vice President Joe Biden, joining to support his campaign and asking you to consider doing this same.

As I told the Wall Street Journal last night: “Biden is the clear choice to carry the Buttigieg legacy in this campaign.’  It feels inappropriate to pivot so fast, but the situation is urgent and the decision is clear. Mathematically, Joe Biden has by far the best shot at beating Bernie Sanders in this race. And politically, Joe Biden is the best equipped to take on Donald Trump in November.

In endorsing last night, Pete declared that he is joining a campaign that speaks to the soul of the nation. He’s right. Pete for America tried to model the principles of dignity, empathy and respect-- principles Vice President has been practicing his whole life. That’s part of the reason Joe Biden can mobilize a broad base of our party and reach out to moderates.

And on the issues.that affect Pete’s generation (and younger), the Vice President has an exceptional record on climate change, fair housing, gun violence and the passage of the affordable care act-- legally threatened once again today.

Finally, and critically, Joe Biden has the best chance of carrying state and down-ballot races. And in the event of a Republican controlled Senate he’ll have a better chance of passing his agenda. Read Ross Douthat on that.

I realize many of you may not be ready. And/but/when you are, please consider getting involved.

First, join the finance team or host an event with me on March 12. I’ve been talking to the campaign since yesterday-- they report a surge in support and need people to host events with the Vice President or surrogates. Reply to this email if you're interested.

Second, you can MEET THE VICE PRESIDENT HIMSELF THIS FRIDAY in DC in an event for which I’ve jumped on the host committee.

Year after year, Americans rate lobbyists as the least trustworthy people in the country. Politicians are rated only marginally more trustworthy. Everyone knows both groups lie for a living. And the more successful they are at seeming to be telling the truth, the more influence they accrue and the more money they make. That whole class is now the face of the increasingly senile Status Quo Joe and his putrid campaign for the presidency.

Viser captured the moment: "Biden seemed taken aback by the swift change in fortunes. He told Buttigieg that he reminded him of his late son, Beau, the highest compliment he can offer. He told the crowd Klobuchar has a long political future ahead, and he told O’Rourke, whose candidacy was marked by liberal positions on gun control, 'You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me. You’re going to be the one who leads this effort.'"

It was the second straight day that moderates, previously paralyzed over whom to rally behind, rushed to join Biden’s campaign. Harry M. Reid, a former Senate majority leader from Nevada, endorsed Biden along with other Democrats including Susan E. Rice, a former national security adviser to President Barack Obama; political activist and actress Alyssa Milano; Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA); and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

There are still looming questions about Biden-- his propensity for gaffes, the moments when he searches for words or, on Monday, his struggle to come up with well-worn phrases in the Declaration of Independence before shouting, “You know . . . the thing!”-- but his campaign has found unmistakable new momentum that it is hoping to carry into the elections Tuesday.

Not everyone was playing to his benefit, however. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg both pledged Monday to stay in the race.

...Sanders remains perhaps the most formidable force in the race, finishing in the top two in all four early states and holding on to a polling advantage in numerous delegate-rich states that will vote Tuesday. He also has a significant financial edge and a grass-roots army that Biden so far has lacked, and he was defiant Monday in the face of the moderate consolidation.

“Look, we are taking on the establishment. And I fully understand-- no great surprise to me-- that establishment politicians are not going to endorse us,” Sanders told reporters in Salt Lake City, just minutes before the news broke that Klobuchar was ending her campaign and planning to support Biden.

“The establishment will rally around the establishment candidate,” he said. “That’s the simple reality.”

Shortly after Reid announced his endorsement of Biden, Faiz Shakir, who is Sanders’s campaign manager but also worked for Reid, wrote on Twitter: “Disappointing. I’ll forever have respect and love for Senator Reid. But I’m old enough to remember when he thought Biden’s ideas were worthy of being put in a fireplace.”

Now let's look at this chart released Monday night by Advanced Symbiotics after their Artificial Intelligence tool, Polly, recalculated the Super Tuesday results in 7 important Super Tuesday states after Klobuchar and Mayo had dropped out and urged their supporters to switch to Status Quo Joe.

Click on the image to make it legible

I explicitly challenged Polly over Minnesota, where she assumed that virtually all of Klobuchar's supporters would switch to Biden, giving him a win over Bernie. Polly was correct; I was wrong. I put too much faith in Minnesota voters.

In 2016 Bernie had beaten Hillary in Minnesota's caucuses 118,195 (61.6%) to 73,510 (38.4%). In fact, he beat her in all 8 congressional districts. He also had significantly more votes that Trump in every single congressional district, including in the red districts. The reddest district in the state, MN-06, has a PVI of R+12 was Bachmann's old district and is now occupied by the head of the NRCC, Tom Emmer. Bernie's win over Hillary was significant there-- 7,881 (62.4%) to 4,756 (37.6%)-- but Bernie also out-polled Trump, who came in 3rd with 4,005. (Marco Rubio came in first in the GOP primary and Bernie had almost 2,000 more votes than he had as well.) Yesterday, Klobuchar's supporters followed her suggestion and backed Biden.

Bernie came in first in just 4 states-- California, Vermont, Utah and Colorado-- while Status Quo Joe came in first in 9-- Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and-- I lost my bet-- Minnesota. Maine is too close to call. And Maine will be splitting it's delegates pretty evenly between Biden and Bernie no matter what happens.

Nationally, Biden will have won more delegates by the time all the counting is done. This is what we have as of this morning:

• Alabama (52 delegates)-- 40 Biden, 7 Bernie, 1 Bloomberg
• Arkansas (31 delegates)-- 16 Biden, 8 Bernie, 4 Bloomberg
• California (415 delegates)-- 72 Bernie, 21 Biden, 8 Bloomberg, 7 Elizabeth
• Colorado (66 delegates)-- 20 Bernie, 9 Biden, 9 Bloomberg, 1 Elizabeth
• Maine (24 delegates)-- 8 Bernie, 8 Biden, 2 Elizabeth
• Massachusetts (91 delegates)-- 34 Biden, 26 Bernie, 17 Elizabeth
• Minnesota (75 delegates)-- 38 Biden, 26 Bernie, 10 Elizabeth
• North Carolina (110 delegates)
• Oklahoma (37 delegates)-- 21 Biden, 13 Bernie, 3 Bloomberg
• Tennessee (64 delegates)-- 28 Biden, 15 Bernie, 7 Bloomberg, 1 Elizabeth
• Texas (228 delegates)-- 56 Biden, 50 Bernie, 4 Bloomberg
• Utah (29 delegates)-- 9 Bernie, 2 Bloomberg, 1 Biden
• Vermont (16 delegates)-- 11 Bernie, 5 Biden
• Virginia (99 delegates)-- 66 Biden, 31 Bernie, 2 Elizabeth
• American Samoa (6 delegates)-- 4 Bloomberg, 1 Tulsi
• Americans Abroad (13 delegates)-- voting ends March 10

Important down-ballot races in California's jungle primary:

• CA-12- Progressive Democrat Shahid Buttar beat the Republican trying to challenge Pelosi and Buttar will be on the general election ballot against her. You can contribute to his campaign here.

• CA-16- Corporate whore and Blue Dog Jim Costa (37.46%) will face Republican Kevin Cookingham, (38.54%) having weathered an attack by a moderate Dem, Esmeralda Soria (18.37%) and progressive Kim Williams (5.63%).

• CA-22- Useless conservative Democrat Phil Arballo (23.7%) will lose to Devin Nunes (59.9%) in the general election, having beaten out progressives Bobby Bliatout (11.2%) and Dary Rezvani (2.8%).

• CA-25- Conservative Democrat Christy Smith (29.79%) will face GOP newcomer Mike Garcia (25.53%), with ex-Rep Steve Knight (20.13%) in 3rd and progressive champion Cenk Uygur (5.19%) in 4th. Trump coffee boy George Papadopoulos came in 9th with 1.93% of the vote.

• CA-50- Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar (34.39%) will face off against Republican ex-Rep Darrell Issa (24.86%) and not Republican Carl DeMaio (20.98%).

• CA-53- Establishment heiress Sara Jacobs and progressive Georgette Gómez will face off in the general election, both having beaten Republican Chris Stoddard, despite some last minute dirty tricks by Jacobs to boost Stoddard. You can contribute to Gómez here.

There was a big Republican race for the right to challenge conservative Democrat Doug Jones for his Senate seat. There will be a runoff between two extreme right Republicans, Tommy Tuberville and Jeff Sessions. Hopefully no one will ever hear Roy Moore's name again until her funeral.

• Tommy Tuberville- 235,461 (32%)
• Jeff Sessions- 227,492 (31%)
• Bradley Byrne- 195,450 (27%)
• Roy Moore- 50,988 (7%)

The Texas Senate race was close, but the two establishment candidates-- M.J. Hegar (22.57%) and Royce West (14.16%) will be facing off in a runoff, having beaten the progressive in the contest, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez (13.66%).

Among House Democratic candidates there was some good news and some bad news. The worst news was that Republican-backed New Dem (the fakest of the fake Democrats) Henry Cuellar narrowly beat progressive champion Jessica Cisneros 38,767 (51.84%) to 36,021 (48.16%). That last minute injection of Koch brothers money won the day for the DCCC's candidate.

Much better news in TX-10, where progressive Mike Siegel came out on top against two pointless establishment Dems with no reason to be running other than self-gratification. Siegel will face Gandhi in a runoff. You can contribute to Mike's campaign here.

• Mike Siegel- 21,051 (45.17%)
• Pritesh Gandhi- 14,858 (31.88%)
• Shannon Hutcheson- 10,698 (22.95%)

TX-24 will see a runoff between Kim Olson (41.7%) and progressive Candace Valenzuela (30.2%).

TX-25 was a win-win situation for Dems with two great candidates, Julie Oliver and Heidi Sloan. Julie won with 70% of the vote and you can contribute to her campaign here.

Are You A Fake Democrat Who's Really A Republican At Heart? Bill Kristol Has Some Advise For You Today

Bernie! by Nancy Ohanian

Think of the most corrupting influences of-- and from within-- the Democratic Party. They've all started coming out of the closet as Biden endorsers. At first his endorsers were just the conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- villainous Blue Dogs and New Dems like Kurt Schrader (OR), Seth Moulton (MA), Elaine Luria (VA), Terri Sewell (AL), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Charlie Crist (FL), Tony Cárdenas (CA), Stephen Lynch (MA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), etc-- and devoted, notorious Wall Street puppets like Sean Patrick Maloney (NY), Tom Carper (DE), Colin Allred (TX), Gina Raimondo (RI), Chris Coons (DE), Alcee Hastings (FL), Erskine Bowles (NC)... But now the Democratic politicians most associated with sewer money are on board as well-- pure unadulterated garbage like Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL), Steve Israel (NY), Al Wynn (MD), Bob Brady (PA), Charlie Rangel (NY), Ed Rendell (PA), Ami Bera (CA), Penny Pritzker (IL), Andrew Cuomo (NY), Terry McAuliffe (VA), Max Baucus (MT), Tom Daschle (SD).

As if an endorsement from the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz weren't enough-- or shouldn't be enough-- to sink the recipient's campaign, now elite #NeverTrump Republicans are flooding onto Team Biden, like Virginia GOP ex-Senator John Warner and Illinois GOP ex-Rep Ray LaHood. Without getting into the MSNBC #NeverTrump brigade, let's jump right to arch neoconservative Bill Kristol, one of the fathers (like Biden) of the invasion of Iraq and one of the most vehement enemies of public healthcare in American politics. He must have been hard for him to not come out for Bloomberg... but he didn't. He endorsed Biden yesterday... not in Biden v Trump, but in Biden v Bernie... and by beginning his post about why with a quote from Ronald Reagan, who he and Biden would no doubt both agree was one of America's greatest presidents.

"You are a normal American," he began. "You don’t like demagogues of the right [as in Hitler or Señor Trumpanzee] or the left [as in FDR or Bernie]. You want competent, responsible governance somewhere in the vicinity of the broad center. You cherish American exceptionalism, and you know that means rejecting European-style demagoguery of the right and left that exploits people’s anxieties and seduces them with false promises. You dread a future featuring an authoritarian and illiberal party facing off against a socialist and illiberal party. And so you don’t want to face a choice-- you don’t want the country to face a choice-- between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in November."

A yes, the cri de coeur of the #NeverTrump Republicans-- and the Wall Street Democrats and the whole Republican wing of the Democratic Party: "you don’t want to face a choice between Trump and Bernie in November." How sick and demented is that? One is the paladin of the billionaire class and the other the champion of the American working class.

What are you to do? Well, if you’re a Democrat and live in one of the 14 states voting Tuesday, you can of course participate in your state’s Democratic primary contest. If you live in Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, or Virginia, you might be surprised to learn the Democratic contest is an open primary, and you can participate no matter your party registration or non-party registration. In some of the other remaining states, you can vote if you’re unaffiliated. So an awful lot of you can vote Tuesday. But for whom?

The American process of presidential selection is complex. The Democratic nominating process is complex. Super Tuesday, with 14 very different states operating under somewhat different rules, is complex. A multi-candidate field with proportional representation, but not exactly proportional representation-- because there are thresholds at both the state and CD level-- makes everything more complex. And so a voter, trying to cast a meaningful vote that will further an outcome he prefers-- sane, moderate governance-- can feel perplexed.

But though the situation is complex, the answer actually is simple. Whatever the substantive case for either Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, and despite the flashes of electoral strength each has shown, neither is going to be the nominee. And despite what once seemed a possible, though unconventional, path to the nomination, it’s not going to be Mike Bloomberg either. So it’s Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. Which means, if you’re inclined toward American constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and a free economic order-- as well as a liberal world order anchored by the United States-- it’s Joe Biden.

And if you’re not, then it’s Bernie Sanders.

To be sure, there could be cases where, if you live in a particular congressional district with a particular distribution of the vote, you might-- if you had perfect advance knowledge-- engage in complex calculations that might make you think a vote for one of the other candidates would have more effect. But your calculations are as likely to be wrong as right. It’s much safer to vote your actual preference between the two candidates who have a realistic shot at the nomination, and who represent wildly different paths for the future: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

And that’s a simple choice.

There you go... if you call yourself a Democrat for some reason but you're really a Republican down deep, this is the day to make your stand and vote for one of the most conservative (and incompetent) Democrats to run for president since the Civil War. Oh... and guarantee Trump will be reelected after an policy-free campaign based on who lies more, whose family is more repulsive and corrupt, who is likely to be more quickly incapacitated for senility... and nothing at all about the American people.

Today Is A Very Important Day In America

On Sunday, Selma "Bloody Sunday" veteran, John Lewis (D-GA) unexpectedtly showed up at the annual commemorative march and delivered an impassioned plea to voters to use the ballot box as "a nonviolent instrument or tool to redeem the soul of America." Is America still redeemable after just 3 years of Trump and the ascendancy of Trumpism? At around the same time, The Atlantic was preparing to published author George Packer's deeply disturbing opus, on how Trump is winning his war on American institutions, "destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will." Ironically, Trump is turning out to be not just the least progressive president in history, but also the least conservative. Oh, yeah-- and a pusillanimous GOP filled with spineless and desperate career politicians, has allowed him to redefine what conservative means in the context of American politics.

Packer began by pointing out that when Señor Trumpanzee "came into office, there was a sense that he would be outmatched by the vast government he had just inherited. The new president was impetuous, bottomlessly ignorant, almost chemically inattentive, while the bureaucrats were seasoned, shrewd, protective of themselves and their institutions. They knew where the levers of power lay and how to use them or prevent the president from doing so. Trump’s White House was chaotic and vicious, unlike anything in American history, but it didn’t really matter as long as “the adults” were there to wait out the president’s impulses and deflect his worst ideas and discreetly pocket destructive orders lying around on his desk. After three years, the adults have all left the room-- saying just about nothing on their way out to alert the country to the peril-- while Trump is still there." This is exactly what many Trump voters wanted.

James Baker, the former general counsel of the FBI, and a target of Trump’s rage against the state, acknowledges that many government officials, not excluding himself, went into the administration convinced “that they are either smarter than the president, or that they can hold their own against the president, or that they can protect the institution against the president because they understand the rules and regulations and how it’s supposed to work, and that they will be able to defend the institution that they love or served in previously against what they perceive to be, I will say neutrally, the inappropriate actions of the president. And I think they are fooling themselves. They’re fooling themselves. He’s light-years ahead of them.”

The adults were too sophisticated to see Trump’s special political talents-- his instinct for every adversary’s weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power. They also failed to appreciate the advanced decay of the Republican Party, which by 2016 was far gone in a nihilistic pursuit of power at all costs. They didn’t grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump’s contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency. Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman’s agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts. None of this was clear to the political class until Trump became president.

But the adults’ greatest miscalculation was to overestimate themselves-- particularly in believing that other Americans saw them as selfless public servants, their stature derived from a high-minded commitment to the good of the nation.

When Trump came to power, he believed that the regime was his, property he’d rightfully acquired, and that the 2 million civilians working under him, most of them in obscurity, owed him their total loyalty. He harbored a deep suspicion that some of them were plotting in secret to destroy him. He had to bring them to heel before he could be secure in his power. This wouldn’t be easy-- the permanent government had defied other leaders and outlasted them. In his inexperience and rashness-- the very qualities his supporters loved-- he made early mistakes. He placed unreliable or inept commissars in charge of the bureaucracy, and it kept running on its own.

But a simple intuition had propelled Trump throughout his life: Human beings are weak. They have their illusions, appetites, vanities, fears. They can be cowed, corrupted, or crushed. A government is composed of human beings. This was the flaw in the brilliant design of the Framers, and Trump learned how to exploit it. The wreckage began to pile up. He needed only a few years to warp his administration into a tool for his own benefit. If he’s given a few more years, the damage to American democracy will be irreversible.

And that was just the intro. May I suggest you go the The Atlantic to read the body of Packer's brilliant essay. You may not share the visions of conservatives like William Barr, Erica Newland, Andrew McCabe and Mike Pompeo but the light Packer shines on them is one you will probably find elucidating. I couldn't result including this swampy tale though:

There’s always been corruption in Washington, and everywhere that power can be found, but it became institutionalized starting in the late 1970s and early ’80s, with the rise of the lobbying industry. The corruption that overtook the capital during that time was pecuniary and mostly legal, a matter of norm-breaking-- of people’s willingness to do what wasn’t done. Robert Kaiser, a former Washington Post editor and the author of the 2010 book So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, locates an early warning sign in Gerald Ford’s readiness to “sign up for every nasty piece of work that everybody offered him to cash in on being an ex-president.” Cashing in-- once known as selling out-- became a common path out of government, and then back in and out again. “There was a taboo structure,” Kaiser told me. “You don’t go from a senior Justice Department position to a senior partner in Lloyd Cutler’s law firm and then go back. It was a one-way trip. That taboo is no more.”





Former members of Congress and their aides cashed in as lobbyists. Retired military officers cashed in with defense contractors. Justice Department officials cashed in at high-paying law firms. Former diplomats cashed in by representing foreign interests as lobbyists or public-relations strategists. A few years high up in the Justice Department could translate into tens of millions of dollars in the private sector. Obscure aides on Capitol Hill became millionaires. Trent Lott abandoned his Senate seat early in order to get ahead of new restrictions on how soon he could start his career as a lobbyist. Ex-presidents gave six-figure speeches and signed eight-figure book deals.

...The swamp had been pooling between the Potomac and the Anacostia for three or four decades when Trump arrived in Washington, vowing to drain it. The slogan became one of his most potent. Fred Wertheimer, the president of the nonprofit Democracy 21 and an activist for good government since the Nixon presidency, says of Trump: “He was ahead of a lot of national politicians when he saw that the country sees Washington as rigged against them, as corrupted by money, as a lobbyist’s game—which is a game he played his whole life, until he ran against it. People wanted someone to take this on.” By then the federal government’s immune system had been badly compromised. Trump, in the name of a radical cure, set out to spread a devastating infection.

To Trump and his supporters, the swamp was full of scheming conspirators in drab D.C. office wear, coup plotters hidden in plain sight at desks, in lunchrooms, and on jogging paths around the federal capital: the deep state. A former Republican congressional aide named Mike Lofgren had introduced the phrase into the political bloodstream with an essay in 2014 and a book two years later. Lofgren meant the nexus of corporations, banks, and defense contractors that had gained so much financial and political control—sources of Washington’s corruption. But conservatives at Breitbart News, Fox News, and elsewhere began applying the term to career officials in law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, whom they accused of being Democratic partisans in cahoots with the liberal media first to prevent and then to undo Trump’s election. Like fake news and corruption, Trump reverse-engineered deep state into a weapon against his enemies, real or perceived.

The moment Trump entered the White House, he embarked on a colossal struggle with his own bureaucracy. He had to crush it or else it would destroy him. His aggrieved and predatory cortex impelled him to look for an official to hang out in public as a warning for others who might think of crossing him. Trump found one who had been nameless and faceless throughout his career.

...In his fourth year in power, Trump has largely succeeded in making the executive branch work on his personal behalf. He hasn’t done it by figuring out how to operate the bureaucratic levers of power, or by installing leaders with a vision of policy that he shares, or by channeling a popular groundswell into government action. He’s done it by punishing perceived enemies, co‑opting craven allies, and driving out career officials of competence and integrity. The result is a thin layer of political loyalists on top of a cowed bureaucracy.

Justice and State were obvious targets for Trump, but the rest of the executive branch is being similarly, if more quietly, bent to his will. One of every 14 political appointees in the Trump administration is a lobbyist; they largely run domestic policy. Trump’s biggest donors now have easy access to agency heads and to the president himself, as they swell his reelection coffers. In the last quarter of 2019, while being impeached, Trump raised nearly $50 million. His corruption of power, unprecedented in recent American history, only compounds the money corruption that first created the swamp.

Within the federal government, career officials are weighing outside job opportunities against their pension plans and their commitment to their oaths. More than 1,000 scientists have left the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, and other agencies, according to the Washington Post. Almost 80 percent of employees at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture have quit. The Labor Department has made deep cuts in the number of safety inspectors, and worker deaths nationwide have increased dramatically, while recalls of unsafe consumer products have dropped off. When passing laws and changing regulations prove onerous, the Trump administration simply guts the government of expertise so that basic functions wither away, the well-connected feed on the remains, and the survivors keep their heads down, until the day comes when they face the same choice as McCabe and Yovanovitch: do Trump’s dirty work or be destroyed.

Four years is an emergency. Eight years is a permanent condition. “Things can hold together to the end of the first term, but after that, things fall apart,” Malinowski said. “People start leaving in droves. It’s one thing to commit four years of your life to the institution in the hope that you can be there for its restoration. It’s another to commit eight years. I can’t even wrap my head around what that would be like.”

And this, my friends, is precisely why today is so important-- so important to cast a ballot for Bernie and so important to nominate candidates like Mike Siegel (TX-10), Cristina Ramirez (Sen-TX), Cenk Uygur (CA-25), Liam O'Mara (CA-42)... instead of conservatives in contested races in Texas and California so that they can go on to November and defeat Trmpist bootlickerss like Michael McCaul, John Cornyn, Steve Knight (or Mike Garcia) and Ken Calvert. Bernie can beat Trump and Bernie needs a progressive Congress so he can beat conservatives of both parties who oppose the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free state colleges, and the rest of the platform they're running on-- rather than on a platform that doesn't go beyond the kind of personal careerism that always-- not sometimes-- leads to corruption. Mike Siegel told me late yesterday that "We are in the fight of our lives, and not everyone realizes it. Conservatives in the Democratic party are punching left instead of closing ranks to defeat an authoritarian regime. Here in the Texas 10th, I'm fending off two corporate-backed challengers who only showed an interest in this race after my 2018 campaign turned it from 'safe Republican' to 'battleground district.' One challenger takes money from private prisons and the corporate forces that are starving Texas municipal governments; the other received $360,000 in outside spending from an anti-Green New Deal super PAC. We are going to beat them anyway, because this campaign is fighting for the needs of the many and has earned the love and support of the people. We need more of this, in Texas and across the country: campaigns that fight for our communities, that fight on issues that matter in people's lives. I'm honored to have the support of Blue America and progressives across the country, who see how winning this race in Texas-- and sending home one of the most powerful Republicans in DC-- would have enormous positive repercussions for the politics of this nation."

Liam O'Mara, the Riverside County, California progressive candidate and history professor, sees it much the same way. "Corruption and subservience to corporate interests is a bipartisan problem, though obviously worse on the GOP side. But if we are to get a Congress that serves the needs of the people again, we need to get that corporate money out! I'm tired of having Representatives who ought to be wearing NASCAR jackets with their sponsors' names. All those other great progressive issues-- Medicare, global warming, education, etc.-- depend on breaking the grip of the oligarchs who currently choose our leaders. We can do better. If we start by electing a clean Congress, we can pass comprehensive legislation that ends the tyranny of Big Money in American politics. But that means we all need to step up. I know you get a lot of money-asks, but if we do this right, it won't have to stay this way! A progressive Congress can pass public financing for elections, but we can only get a progressive Congress with your support. Please donate whatever you can, and know that fixing our campaign finance system will be a top priority."

Who's Going To Win Tomorrow?

Last week, Danny Goldberg-- author, former chairman of Warner Bros Records, former manager of Nirvana-- penned an article for The Nation, In California Before the Democratic Primary, 'Nobody Knows Anything'. He was talking about Hollywood and the Biz. "Political Hollywood," he wrote, "reflects a national divide among Democrats that is as much generational as it is ideological. The son of a prominent TV show runner recently sent a widely circulated e-mail to his “moderate” parents explaining why he and his friends are campaigning for Sanders-- whose celebrity supporters include Cardi B, John Cusack, Ariana Grande, Emily Ratajkowski, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Tim Robbins, Steve Skrovan, The Strokes, and Vampire Weekend. On the Sunday before the primary, Sanders is appearing at the Los Angeles Convention Center with Public Enemy, Sarah Silverman, and Dick Van Dyke... The Vermont senator’s lead in California polls is causing angst among many more traditional Democrats, some who believe the debatable theory that Sanders was partially responsible for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, and many who are worried about his electability."

On Saturday, Status Quo Joe won among elderly, conservative rural African-Americans. But Bernie is leading among African American voters nationally. Maddow, who is an excellent reporter on PutinGate and knows absolutely nothing at all-- and never had-- about American electoral politics, announced on Saturday that "If anybody knows anything about winning the Democratic nomination and about what it takes for a Democratic nominee to win a general election, it is black voters. And if Sen. Sanders continues to underperform systematically with black voters, and if we see him get shellacked-- not just beaten but shellacked tonight in South Carolina-- because of his performance with black voters, that’s an existential question about that nomination." Do you still watch her show? I turn MSNBC off as soon as Chris Hayes is finished. Three of The Intercept sharpest reporters, Nausicaa Renner, Aída Chávez and Akela Lacy burst Maddow's balloon, noting that "Last week, the Reuters-Ipsos poll found Sanders besting Biden by three points nationally among black voters-- certainly a relevant data point when considering whether Sanders can win among black voters... the Hill/HarrisX poll had Sanders up nine. A Morning Consult survey recently found Sanders beating Biden by five among all black primary voters, and thumping him by a 3-1 margin among black voters under 45. In other words, the national picture does not exactly portend a shellacking among black voters-- important context that was kept from MSNBC viewers, who would be left to conclude that the same minority-voter problem that hobbled Sanders’s campaign in 2016 remains a major obstacle. It simply isn’t true."

A handful of commentators, including former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a vituperative opponent of Sanders, acknowledged that South Carolina’s results may not necessarily translate into victory for Biden nationwide. “Unfortunately,” said McCaskill on MSNBC, “there aren’t a lot of Jim Clyburns.” Clyburn, an iconic civil rights leader and the uncontested party leader in South Carolina, as well as the number three Democrat in the House, endorsed Biden last week, giving his campaign the kind of boost that can’t be replicated elsewhere. (McCaskill now works for a dark-money group with links to a project opposing Medicare for All, a major plank of Sanders’s campaign.)

There are other reasons to suspect that Biden’s campaign won’t be able to sustain its high note after South Carolina. The state is one of the demographically oldest. According to CNN exit polls, six percent of voters were between the ages of 17 and 24, and five percent were between the ages of 25 and 29. Around 28 percent of voters in South Carolina were under age 45, compared to 45 percent in Iowa, 35 percent in New Hampshire, and 36 percent in Nevada.

What’s more, Biden spent an enormous proportion of his resources in South Carolina, which he hasn’t done in Super Tuesday states or beyond, and is running low on cash.

...While MSNBC more or less omitted the forward-looking picture of the race, Fox News was more sanguine about Biden’s chances. Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, played down what the win could mean for Biden in other states. Only one of the 14 races Biden will compete in on Super Tuesday have a demography similar to South Carolina: Alabama. “If he cannot win anywhere without huge numbers of African American votes, the upcoming battlefield is not favorable to him still,” Fleischer said.

So back to our question, who's going to win tomorrow? I'd bet on Bernie-- big. Let's look at the state polls via RealClearPolitics:

California- 415 delegates

• Bernie- 34.3%
• Elizabeth- 17.3%
• Biden- 13.0%
• Bloomberg- 10.5%
• Mayo Pete- 9.5%
• Klobuchar- 5.3%
• Tulsi- 1.3%

Texas- 228 delegates

• Bernie- 29.7%
• Biden- 20.8%
• Bloomberg- 18.0%
• Elizabeth- 12.7%
• Mayo Pete- 7.5%
• Klobuchar- 3.8%
• Tulsi- 0.7%

North Carolina- 110 delegates

• Biden- 25.6%
• Bernie- 23.4%
• Bloomberg- 16.0%
• Elizabeth- 11.0%
• Mayo Pete- 6.8%
• Klobuchar- 5.0%
• Tulsi- 1.0%

Virginia- 99 delegates

• Bernie- 25.0%
• Bloomberg- 19.5%
• Biden- 18.5%
• Mayo Pete- 11.5%
• Elizabeth- 11.0%
• Klobuchar- 7.0%
• Tulsi- 1.0%

Massachusetts- 91 delegates

• Bernie- 24.7%
• Elizabeth- 20.7%
• Mayo Pete- 13.3%
• Bloomberg- 11.7%
• Biden- 10.7%
• Klobuchar- 6.0%
• Tulsi- 2.0%

Minnesota- 75 delegates

• Klobuchar- 29%
• Bernie- 23%
• Elizabeth- 11%
• Biden- 8%
• Bloomberg- 3%
• Mayo Pete- 3%
• Tulsi- 1%

Colorado- 67 delegates

• Bernie- 30.5%
• Elizabeth- 17.5%
• Mayo Pete- 13.0%
• Bloomberg- 12.5%
• Biden- 10.5%
• Klobuchar- 6.0%
• Tulsi- 1.0%

Oklahoma- 37 delegates

• Biden- 21%
• Bloomberg- 20%
• Bernie- 13%
• Mayo Pete- 10%
• Elizabeth- 9%
• Klobuchar- 7%
• Tulsi- 0%

Arkansas- 31 delegates

• Bloomberg- 20%
• Biden- 19%
• Bernie- 16%
• Mayo Pete- 16%
• Elizabeth- 9%
• Klobuchar- 5%
• Tulsi- 0%

Utah- 29 delegates

• Bernie- 27.5%
• Elizabeth- 14.5%
• Bloomberg- 14.5%
• Mayo Pete- 11.5%
• Biden- 9.0%
• Klobuchar- 3.5%
• Tulsi- 0%

Maine- 24 delegates

• Bernie- 25%
• Mayo Pete- 16%
• Bloomberg- 14%
• Biden- 12%
• Elizabeth- 9%
• Klobuchar- 4%
• Tulsi- 3%

Vermont- 16 delegates

• Bernie- 51%
• Mayo Pete- 13%
• Elizabeth- 9%
• Bloomberg- 7%
• Biden- 5%
• Klobuchar- 4%
• Tulsi- 1%

There is no available public polling for Tennessee (64), Alabama (52), Democrats Abroad (13) and American Samoa (6), though Biden is presumed to be leading significantly in Alabama and very tightly in Tennessee, while Bernie is likely to win in American Samoa and among Americans Abroad. Although Bloomberg spent incredible amounts of money for Super Tuesday, he isn't expected to win any states but will gather delegates in Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. So the money is working to some extent and there are Democrats stupid enough to be brainwashed by advertising.

These are the number of delegates each candidate has won so far, the day before Super Tuesday.