Sanders campaign begins laying off staff

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Bernie Sanders’ campaign started letting hundreds of field staffers go on Wednesday, hours after five states in the Northeast voted and the Vermont senator fell further behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination, five people familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

 

It's not the campaign’s first round of departures, but it's by far the most significant, coming at a time when Sanders is signaling that he is looking to shape the Democratic platform at the party’s convention, but also insisting he will remain in the race until then.

 

Sanders trails Clinton by well over 300 delegates.

 

Staffers who were working in states that voted Tuesday were told by campaign manager Jeff Weaver to look elsewhere for work rather than continue on to the next voting states, according to people close to the campaign. The news comes as Sanders looks to spend more time in California, which is set to vote in June.

 

While Sanders appears set for a handful of wins in May, his path to the nomination appears all but closed off after he lost Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Connecticut on Tuesday night.

 

"We're 80 percent of the way through the caucuses and primaries and we make adjustments as we go along. This is a process that we’ve done before of right-sizing the campaign as we move through the calendar," said Sanders' campaign communications director Michael Briggs.

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The beginning of the end?