Members of the Nebraska Democratic Party’s caucuses are outraged after swarming bands of white. male, Jane Kleeb / Bernie Sanders supporters (aka “Bernie Bros”) voted in their own people at the state convention in Kearney over the weekend.

According to those there,

“…the NDP has different caucus groups like the “NDP Latino Caucus” or the “NDP Black Caucus”, etc. and a group of Bernie Sanders supporters,who are also backing Jane Kleeb, went with a block of mostly white Bernie supporters to each caucus and ousted all of the caucus leaders. Latino, Black, Women, LGBT, Veterans, etc.”

While the local newspapers have chosen to ignore the story — after a half dozen or more stories about the arrival of new chair Jane Kleeb — the social media outrage by rank-and-file Democrats has been telling.

On Twitter:

More detailed description of Bernie supporters bullying Democrats distorting democracy & taking over a Latino Caucus pic.twitter.com/6Y6nUsUHsl — RiotWomenn (@RiotWomennn) June 19, 2016

On Facebook:

They came into the Latino caucus and disrespected us and disrespected our extremely dedicated chairwoman, Marta. So disrespectful, and racist. Those Anglos have never, and will never do anything for the benefit of our community. FYI they also swarmed the Black caucus with at least two members in full support of this but i squashed that ish real quick, I didn’t win any spot I ran for but I don’t need no stinking title to be an activist! They also tried the same thing at the womens and veterans caucus! the disrespect and white privilege on displayed this weekend was unreal! This is a mess and they wonder why people of color did not vote for Sanders. This type of privileged attitude is not acceptable and not democratic. Shameful, disrespectful and even racist (ya know that privileged superiority that some of us white folk don’t think we have) but there it lurks. Please reflect on what you’ve done-any of you who participated in “swarming caucuses” that were not your identity. It was a travesty what happened at state convention this weekend and what is worse is that some people of color were complicit in what went down in the caucuses and the state party leader elections. I helped to create all the caucuses and unless the Latino Caucus changed their bylaws those white folks couldn’t legally vote! I have already called on Black and Brown people to not give a single Dime to the NDP or the DCDP and to give directly to candidates!

And then a direct challenge to Jane Kleeb:

It is a real shame that some party folks and the new chair refuse to admit that Bernie Folks bum rush the caucuses and their reasoning is that all the executive officers all reflect the demographic of the constituency caucuses. They ran slates and they voted where they couldn’t vote! This wasn’t transparent nor democratic !

So how did new Democrat Chair Jane Kleeb respond?

With a denial.

“This is a rumor.”



Jane eliminates a national female, African American spokesperson

And then another strange development from the NDP Convention:

Symone Sanders, Bernie Sanders’ national press secretary, Creighton grad and Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Chuck Hassebrook’s 2014 press secretary, was scheduled to come to Kearney to speak on behalf of Hassebrook in his campaign to be new chairman — against Jane Kleeb.

Reportedly, Jane Kleeb and national environmental extremist Bill McKibbin pulled all the strings they had in Sanders’ national campaign and stopped Symone Sanders from coming to Kearney.

As one party activist said, “Quite a way to start by silencing a woman of color and ousting all the people who established the minority caucuses.”

More lies?

These reports come on the heels of the breathless stories that Nebraska Democrats are “rejecting” superdelegates to the national convention. Kleeb thumped her chest and cried, “we punched above our weight”

Oh, is that right?

Let’s just read the fine print there, Democrat delegates:

“The nonbinding measure…urges current superdelegates to base their votes at next month’s Democratic National Convention on the results of Nebraska’s March 5 presidential caucus.”

So, in other words, Nebraska superdelegates can continue to do whatever the hell they want, and ignore the Nebraska caucuses or primary or whatever else they’ve got.

So, in summary…

• Jane Kleeb formed a “unity” ticket to oust all of the sitting Democrat leadership.

• Jane said she wasn’t ready to be Chair, so she was running as vice-chair.

• Said “unity” ticket fell apart, and Jane ran for chair.

• Jane personally prevented a national speaker, on behalf of her opponent, from addressing the convention.

• Jane was elected with just 55% support of the party delegates.

• Jane immediately instituted a putsch against her political enemies within the party.

• Jane announced non-binding resolution as some sort of national victory.

So there you have it state Democrats!

Your new leader!

All this being said, let’s always remember how Jane really feels about the Nebraska online world:

MORE information

Hey Democrats, Leavenworth St. realizes that you can’t find this news in the Omaha World-Herald or from the Lincoln Journal-Star (nary a mention from Kleeb cheerleader Don Walton). And you sure as heck ain’t gonna hear about it on whatever the NDP uses as a website.

So that’s why you should follow @LeavenworthSt on the Twitter, and Like Leavenworth St. on The Facebook (and/or subscribe for email updates, up top on the right). Because this is the one place where you can read the talk of Nebraska politics, without your news being filtered by the new commissar.

(You’re welcome.)

(And more post to come after lunch…)