DNC expands Sanders’ say on party platform

It’s increasingly unlikely that Sen. Bernie Sanders will become the Democratic party’s nominee, but he is leaning on the party apparatus to enshrine the progressive issues that have anchored his presidential campaign.

The senator from Vermont made a modest step toward that goal as the Democratic National Committee agreed to give him five of fifteen seats on an influential committee in charge of codifying the party’s platform. Sanders’ choices, which include several activists, show an effort to push the Democrats farther to the left ahead of the nominating convention this July.

The deal gives frontrunner Hillary Clinton control over six seats on the drafting committee and chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz four seats, and was worked out this month, according to the Washington Post.

Sanders had lobbied Wasserman Schultz, whom he has accused in recent weeks of undercutting his candidacy, to give him and Clinton seven seats each on the drafting committee and provide more equal representation on other committees as well. The DNC technically allows the chair to pick all members of the drafting committee.

"I believe the composition of the standing committees must reflect the relative support that has been received by both campaigns," Sanders wrote in a letter May 6. "If the process is set up to produce an unfair, one-sided result, we are prepared to mobilize our delegates to force as many votes as necessary to amend the platform and rules on the floor of the convention."

The DNC and Sanders’s campaign reached a compromise after weeks of negotiations, the Post reported, and Clinton and Sanders each submitted about a dozen names for consideration.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 3:26 PM with the headline "DNC expands Sanders’ say on party platform."