Sanders Works His Base, Campaigns in Lawrence

Democrat Bernie Sanders took a walk down the streets of Lawrence Thursday afternoon.

Democrat Bernie Sanders campaignedThursday night in Lawrence, an area he hopes leads him to victory Saturday in the Kansas Democratic caucuses.

“And I think if all of you, and your friends and your co-workers come out on Saturday, we’re going to have a pretty good victory here in Kansas,” Sanders told a crowd of several thousand people on the grounds of the Douglas County Fairgrounds on the east side of Lawrence.

The region is clearly important to the Sanders campaign. It was Sanders’ second stop in the region in eight days.

Last week, Sanders campaigned in Kansas City, Missouri.

Besides the Saturday caucuses in Kansas, the Missouri presidential primary is March 15th.

Sanders is trailing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by a large margin when the so-called “Super delegates” the elected officials and party leaders who have pledged to Clinton, are counted.

Sanders had an answer for that.

“Let me refer you to many, many national polls that have me beating Donald Trump, and beating him badly,” he said and the crowd responded with a long and throaty roar of approval.

Sanders touched on several of the issues that have helped bring his campaign into the headlines.

He spoke of a need for an improved foreign policy, so the mistakes, as he called them, of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be repeated.

He promised to increase Social Security benefits.

And he promised to reform healthcare.

While praising Obamacare, sanders says more people would be covered by a single-payer Medicare plan.

Sanders says he would pay for the expansions he is proposing by more taxes on the ultra-rich and new taxes on what he calls, “Wall Street speculation”.

Sanders also brought a Kansas connection to his signature call for major campaign finance reform. He cited the Wichita businessmen, the Koch brothers.

“The Koch brothers, the second wealthiest family in America and a few of their billionaire friends, will spend an estimated 900-million dollars in this campaign trying to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful,” Sanders said.