March 28, 2016

Clinton Campaign Expects to Have Nomination Locked Up Next Month

The campaign’s chief strategist says Clinton’s delegate lead is “nearly insurmountable.”

Carolyn Kaster/AP

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A month from now, the Clinton campaign thinks it will have all but won the Democratic presidential nomination.

On a conference call with reporters Monday, Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Joel Benenson, said the former secretary of state will have expanded her delegate lead enough by the end of April to be the clear winner of the primary contest over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Benenson predicted that the upcoming Wisconsin primary, on April 5, would be close. But after that, Clinton is expecting victories in the delegate-rich states of New York on April 19 and Pennsylvania on April 26.

“The truth is, after April 26, there just simply is not enough real estate left for Sen. Sanders to close the commanding lead that we’ve built,” Benenson said. “We expect to come out of that day with a pledged and total delegate lead that will make clear who the nominee will be, and that it’s going to be Hillary Clinton.”

Benenson’s comments came shortly after Sanders’ campaign held a call of its own to argue that the senator has a path to overtake Clinton’s delegate lead and win the nomination.

With 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, Clinton currently leads Sanders 1,243 to 975 among pledged delegates and 469 to 29 among the 712 superdelegates who are free to back the candidate of their choosing. Benenson did acknowledge Monday that Clinton may not reach a majority of delegates through pledged delegates alone, but argued that superdelegates are a part of the Democratic Party’s nominating process and have been for decades. As of now, Benenson said, Clinton has already amassed a “nearly insurmountable pledged delegate lead.”

Benenson also took issue with the Sanders campaign’s claim that the senator will be a stronger candidate in the general election against the eventual Republican nominee. On its call Monday, the Sanders campaign pointed out that in general election match-up polls, Sanders performs better than Clinton against Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.

“She is winning in most of the general election swing states we’ve competed in,” Benenson said. “She’s won in 9 of 12 states that were decided by single digits in the 2012 election.” Those include Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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