PHILADELPHIA: Bernie Sanders, the upstart White House hopeful who's stirred the passions of liberals around the country, made a final appeal for support here Monday ahead of five primaries that could render his already narrow path to the Democratic nomination virtually nonexistent.
"If you come out to vote tomorrow and drag your friends and your aunts and your uncles and your co-workers, we're going to win here in Pennsylvania," Sanders declared at a rally at Drexel University where he was greeted with boisterous cheers by a crowd of more than 3,000 people as he promised to fight a "rigged economy" and take on a "corrupt" campaign finance system.
Sanders's rosy outlook aside, polling in recent days suggests the senator from Vermont could emerge with a victory or two on Tuesday -- or be shut out in all five states by the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Besides Pennsylvania, voters go to the polls in Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
After a winning streak that started in late March, Sanders's momentum appears to have stalled considerably after Clinton's decisive victory in New York. Given a sizable deficit in the delegate count, Sanders needs to not only be winning states, but winning them big, to catch Clinton -- a proposition that will be severely tested Tuesday.
Sanders has vowed to stay in the race through the final contests in June, and he showed no signs Monday of shrinking from the fight, with the hope of scoring some upsets. His rally here was his third of a day that began in New Haven, Connecticut, and also took him to Pittsburgh.
In recent days, Sanders has dialed back his criticism of Clinton at some rallies, only to ramp it back up during his next appearance.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 1,800 at a riverside park in Hartford, Connecticut, on Monday morning, he chided the former secretary of state, as he often does, for delivering paid speeches to Wall Street firms behind closed doors during the run-up to her presidential bid.
And Sanders aggressively laid out several issues on which they differ, telling the crowd, for example, that she wants to raise the minimum wage to $12.
"Not me!" Sanders said. "I want 15 bucks in 50 states in this country."
He cited other differences on fracking, expanding Social Security and taxing carbon as a strategy to curb the pollution contributing to climate change.
While in Hartford, Sanders also took aim at the state's Democratic governor -- a Clinton supporter -- for recent cuts to mental health services.
Sanders knocked Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy for a recent package of budget cuts that included cut in funding for mental health services.
"Now I don't want to get too involved in local government here in Connecticut, but I understand that your governor has been cutting mental health treatment," Sanders said, eliciting a round of boos.
"We need to revolutionize mental health treatment in this country," Sanders said. "We need more treatment, more counselors, and I would hope very much the governor will rethink the wisdom of cutting mental health workers in the state of Connecticut."
Last month, Malloy announced a nearly $7.2 million cut in funding for Connecticut's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services as part of a wide-ranging package of mid-year budget reductions to address a projected state deficit.
Despite his long odds, Sanders has showed in recent days that he can still turn out mega-crowds for his rallies.
More than 14,000 people gathered in a downtown park in New Haven, Conn., for a Sanders rally on Sunday night, according to park officials, just hours after more than 7,000 people streamed to an outdoor event in Providence, Rhode Island.
While there was no shortage of enthusiasm, some supporters acknowledged a sinking feeling that the end could be near.
"At this point, I'm a little scared," said Cayley Dittmer, a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, who turned out to see Sanders at an afternoon rally Monday in a school gymnasium that drew about 800 people.
"I don't want Hillary to win," said Dittmer, 20, who is majoring in ecology. "Bernie is real. He's part of the people. Hillary is not."
At Sanders's rally in Hartford, he was introduced by Jim Dean, the chairman of Democracy for America, a progressive grass-roots advocacy group that endorsed Sanders months ago.
Dean, the brother of former Vermont governor Howard Dean, thanks Sanders for having made the election about the issues that all Americans,, and all of us, really care about."
He ticked off economic justice, political reform and racial justice.
"That's what this is about, and that wouldn't be talked about right now if wasn't for all us, so we've got to keep this thing going, right?" Dean said.
Clinton's big win in New York last week seems to have give her a boost in Pennsylvania, the state with the largest trove of 189 delegates on Tuesday. Sanders aides initially thought they could win there but are now facing polls showing Clinton with a double-digit lead.
Sanders has been running strongest in Rhode Island, which has only 24 delegates at stake on Tuesday. Because Democratic delegates are awarded proportionately, a win in Rhode Island would likely only yield Sanders a pick up of a couple of delegates.
The large crowds that turned out for Sanders on Sunday seem to have boosted the campaign's spirits about its prospects in Connecticut, which has 55 delegates in play. But a win in Maryland -- with 95 delegates, the second biggest prize on Tuesday -- is probably out of reach.
Meanwhile, only 21 delegates are at stake in Delaware, the other state on the calendar.
Throughout the race, Sanders has performed far better in states that allow independent voters to participate in their Democratic primaries. Only one of the five on the calendar on Tuesday -- Rhode Island -- falls into that category.
Clinton has routinely outpaced Sanders among registered Democrats, while Sanders -- who ran as an independent throughout his political career until now -- cleans up with unaffiliated voters.
Despite his insistence that he remains in the race to win it, in recent interviews Sanders has been willing to engage in more speculation about what happens if he loses than ever before.
During an appearance on a town hall hosted by MSNBC on Monday night, he was asked what he could do to bring his supporters on board to support Clinton.
"We're not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or anybody else what you should do," Sanders said.
If Clinton does win, he said, it would be "incumbent upon her" to reach out to "millions of people who right now do not believe in establishment politics or establishment economics who have serious misgivings about candidates who have received millions of dollars from Wall Street and other special interests."
His remarks echoed those on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday, when Sanders said he would do all he can to prevent a "right-wing Republican" from becoming president, but that he would have to hear more from Clinton if he is going to make an "enthusiastic case" for her.
"If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, she is going to have to make the case to the American people, not just to my supporters, but all Americans, that she is prepared to stand up to the billionaire class, she is prepared to fight for health care for all Americans, that she is prepared to pass paid family and medical leave, make sure that college is affordable for the young people in this country," Sanders said.
Sanders's push to get more of his voters to the polls in Pennsylvania produced an awkward moment on Monday.
At the end of his rally in Pittsburgh, he reminded the crowd of the "very important" primary coming up there on Tuesday.
"As I understand it, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have same-day registration in Pennsylvania," Sanders said.
He was met with a chorus of "no's" from residents of a state where the deadline had passed a month ago. Sanders was likely thinking about Connecticut, the state he visited earlier in the day, where he does stand to benefit from new voters showing up on Election Day.
Washington Post
