From the website of the Vermont Progressive Party progressiveparty.org:
BURLINGTON, VT— Earlier today Progressive elected officials publicly endorsed Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.
“We’re endorsing Bernie because we fundamentally believe our national debate needs to change,” said Progressive House Caucus Leader Rep. Chris Pearson (Chittenden 6-4). “Bernie puts the concerns of working families and the serious issue of climate change front and center in that debate. I doubt most Americans have heard a serious political voice like his before: it’s refreshing and I think our country is ready for it.”
Sen. Anthony Pollina (Washington Co.) has known and worked with Bernie since the late 1980s, and said he hopes that people around the country will come to know what Vermonters already know about him: “Bernie really means what he says. It’s a rare thing to have a politician who’s so consistently committed to doing the right thing for people.”
The release lists numerous elected officials affiliated with the Vermont Progressive Party who are backing Bernie Sanders for President, including the State Auditor, 9 state legislators and the Progressive members of the Burlington City Council.
The release also notes that the State Committee of the Vermont Progressive Party will vote on endorsing a candidate for President at its next meeting, September 19, 2015.
He’s consistently refused to become a member, even though as Gene correctly notes he was instrumental in their founding and has a long history of close involvement with the VPP.
It is a pity imo that Sanders isn’t using his sole national campaign to help create a national Progressive Party.
[img src=”insert url of image here”] Change the square brackets to angle brackets (above the comma and period on the same keys on my keyboard). Or see http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_images.asp for a quick tutorial, or check out source code on other posts (CTRL + U). I’ll do it this time, but please learn; it’s not very hard.
I cut and pasted the headline from the VPP release. It seems appropriate to leave the release headline as they want it.
I don’t know how to post images, so you can do it if you want.
Please don’t post headlines in ALL CAPS and please include an image. I would also recommend including Party after Progressive, otherwise the headline doesn’t really look like it belongs on IPR if you don’t read the article, and more people read headlines than articles.
Bernie Sanders helped to found the Progressive Coalition when he ran for Mayor of Burlington. The Progressive Coalition has since become the Vermont Progressive Party, and it has continued to support Bernie Sanders in his campaigns for Congress and U.S. Senate.
By contrast, Governor Peter Shumlin, Sen. Patrick Leahy, former Governor Howard Dean and other Vermont Democrats have endorsed Hilary Clinton for President in 2016.