By Matthew A. McIntosh / 04.27.2016
Mainstream media has jumped on news of Bernie Sanders laying off staff as a sign of distress while flippantly dismissing his actual reason for doing so. The New York Times quotes him providing the reason for the shift:
We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around the country. We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over. We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.
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We have had a very large staff, which was designed to deal with 50 states in this country; 40 of the states are now behind us. So we have had a great staff, great people.
This is good sense and strategic decision-making on the part of the Sanders campaign. Indeed, why retain staff in states where the primaries have ended when those resources and expenditures for them can be more wisely redirected to the final stretch?
The races in Indiana and California will financially well eclipse those in all five states yesterday, and he must allocate the historic contributions that breathe life into his campaign in the wisest ways possible.
Senator Sanders has made it clear that he is taking this political revolution all the way to the convention, and it won’t stop there. Even if he isn’t nominated, he intends to continue influencing the Democratic platform and mobilizing people behind real change.
The movement he created is larger than him, and he knows that. It would behoove the Democratic Party to recognize it as well.
So on to the “Final Fourteen”, Bernie. You’re not alone, let’s take this home.