WASHINGTON (AFP) -
US
states Alaska, Hawaii and Washington take their turn voting Saturday in
the Democratic presidential nominating contest, with Hillary Clinton
unlikely to deliver a knockout blow against resilient rival Bernie
Sanders.
The trio of western caucuses marks a chance for Vermont
Senator Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, to chisel away
at Clinton's formidable lead in the delegate count.
Sanders gave a
rousing rendition of his standard stump speech late Friday in Seattle,
Washington, just hours ahead of the caucus there, inveighing against
police brutality, a too-low minimum wage, and soaring student debt and
other ills.
"Real change historically always takes place from the
bottom on up when millions of people come together," Sanders said to
applause and cheers from the crowd in Seattle's Safeco baseball stadium.
"We need a political revolution!"
But
even if the insurgent candidate makes a clean sweep of Saturday's
votes, he still has a steep climb to get within striking distance of
Clinton.
She has a commanding lead in the delegate race with 1711,
including super-delegates who are un-elected by voters, compared to 952
for Sanders, according to a CNN count.
To win the Democratic nomination, 2,383 delegates are needed.
On the campaign trail, the former secretary of state has already shifted her focus toward November's general election.
Clinton
delivered a somber counterterrorism speech Wednesday in the aftermath
of deadly attacks in Brussels, using it as an opportunity to launch
vigorous assaults on Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and
warn that their "reckless" foreign policies would harm US interests.
"We need to rely on what actually works," she said, "not bluster that alienates our partners and doesn't make us any safer."
Clinton
has a commanding lead in the delegate race: 1711, including
super-delegates who are un-elected by voters, compared to 951 for
Sanders, according to a CNN count.
But Sanders has refused to
throw in the towel, repeatedly stressing that his grassroots campaign is
heading all the way to the nominating convention in Philadelphia in
July.
Washington is Saturday's biggest prize with 101 pledged
delegates up for grabs. When Sanders brought his message of "political
revolution" to a Seattle, Washington arena last Sunday, an estimated
17,000 people showed up.
The Pacific island state of Hawaii, birthplace of President Barack Obama, has 25 delegates at stake. Remote Alaska has 16.
There
has been little reliable polling in the three states, but at least in
Washington Sanders can take comfort in previous results.
Hillary's
husband Bill Clinton placed fourth in Washington in the 1992
nominations race, while Democrats there overwhelmingly backed Obama over
Hillary Clinton in 2008.
- Narrowing the gap -
Saturday's
three contests are caucuses, essentially neighborhood meetings where
voters can discuss political platforms and debate the merits of the
candidates.
Since they generally require voters to show up in
person rather than mailing primary ballots, the format favors Sanders,
whose supporters have consistently shown more grass-roots enthusiasm.
His
campaign pointed to a new poll released Thursday that shows Clinton,
who entered the race as the Democrats' overwhelming favorite, deadlocked
with Sanders.
A Bloomberg Politics national poll found Sanders
actually inching ahead of Clinton, 49 to 48 percent, among Democrats who
voted or are likely to vote in the nominating contests.
A series
of recent polls has shown Sanders consistently doing better than Clinton
against Republicans Trump, Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Millennials
and first-time voters have been flocking to Sanders's message of
economic equality, universal health care, and his call to reduce the
influence of billionaires on the campaign finance system.
"They're
seeing almost all new income and wealth going to the top one percent,"
Sanders told online program The Young Turks late Wednesday.
"And
no matter whether you're a conservative or a progressive, you know what?
You think that sucks, you think that's not what American democracy is
about," he added. "And I find a lot of people are coming together on
that."
But the delegate math still dramatically favors Clinton.
According to RealClearPolitics poll averages, in the remaining states
with the three largest delegate allocations -- California, New York and
Pennsylvania -- Clinton's lead Sanders by nine points, 34 points and 28
points respectively.
by Michael Mathes
© 2016 AFP
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