Sanders previously panned DNC Chairwoman
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who appoints all
of the committee members, for failing to
include enough of his supporters on an
initial list. But the latest statement notes
that Wasserman Schultz allocated the
campaign's seats "proportionally according
to the current vote tally."
Along
with West and Ellison, Sanders supporters on
the committee are author Bill McKibben, Arab
American Institute head James Zogby
and Native American activist Deborah
Parker.
Clinton loyalists on the committee
are Ambassador Wendy Sherman, former Clinton
staffer and current Center for American
Progress head Neera Tanden, Ohio Rep. Alicia
Reece, environmentalist Carol Browner,
Illinois Rep. Luis Gutiérrez and union
head Paul Booth.
The
remaining four members were chosen by
Wasserman Schultz.
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has
endorsed Clinton, will lead the committee
and called Sanders's outsized role on the
platform "pretty unusual" for a candidate
that likely will not be the party's nominee
during a Monday interview on MSNBC.
And
California Rep. Barbara Lee, the only member
of Congress to vote against the war in
Afghanistan, will also sit on the committee.
She has not endorsed either candidate.
Former Rep. Howard Berman and
philanthropist and former CEO of
Claire's Stores Bonnie Schaefer were
also appointed.
Clinton's almost 300 pledged delegate lead
has made her nomination likely, but Sanders
has not given up the fight and has said he'd
fight to the convention floor.
His
selections foreshadow the possibility of a
fight over some major tenents of the
platform, including minimum wage and the
relationship in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
“We
believe that we will have the representation
on the platform drafting committee to create
a Democratic platform that reflects the
views of millions of our supporters who want
the party to address the needs of working
families in this country and not just Wall
Street, the drug companies, the fossil fuel
industry and other powerful special
interests," Sanders said in a statement
released by the campaign.
Zogby
is likely the most controversial of Sanders'
picks thanks to his activist work on behalf
of
pro-Palestinian causes. He's repeatedly
criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who himself hasn't always been
the favorite of pro-Israel Democrats, and
he's compared the "plight of the
Palestinians" to the Holocaust in a 2010
column for The Huffington Post.
While
Sanders, the most successful Jewish
presidential candidate in American history,
supports Israel, his views on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict don't mesh with
that of the party's establishment.
He's
argued that Israel took "disproportionate"
actions against the Palestinians in the 2014
conflict and has called on Israel to pull
back on settlement building and trade
restrictions.
Zogby
is not the only name that potentially
telegraphs potential platform fights by
Sanders' supporters.
Ellison, the first Muslim elected to
Congresss and the head of
the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is a
co-author of legislation meant to raise the
minimum wage to $15. Clinton and other
members of the Democratic establishment,
including President Obama, back a $12
minimum wage.
