The 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are introduced during a presidential debate Sept. 26, 2016.
The 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are introduced during a presidential debate Sept. 26, 2016. Credit: AP file


From her criticism of Bernie Sanders to being the target of a defamation lawsuit filed by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is smack in the middle of the 2020 campaign spotlight this week.

But does Clinton’s harsh remarks hurt or help her targets?

If getting attention is the game, then taking a shot from Clinton is good for business.

“I think this probably might help Bernie a bit, in that some of his 2016 support came from Democratic primary voters who for whatever reason simply wanted an alternative to Clinton. So her criticizing him might remind them of that and nudge them toward Sanders and not someone like fellow Sen. Elizabeth Warren,” said Christopher Galdieri, a professor of politics at Saint Anselm College.

Earlier this week, the former first lady and senator from New York who later served as U.S. secretary of state under President Barack Obama reopened wounds from her bitter 2016 primary clash with Sanders, the independent and populist lawmaker from Vermont who’s making his second-straight bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that ran on Tuesday, Clinton said, “nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.”

And on Wednesday, Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit against Clinton in which she accused the former secretary of state of trying to “destroy” her reputation by suggesting in a October interview that the congresswoman from Hawaii was a “Russian asset.”

Clinton’s jabs at Gabbard are certainly giving the congresswoman more attention with primary closing in.

“The idea of a massive defamation lawsuit seems more like a bid for attention than one for electoral support,” Galdieri noted.

‘Poll’ position

With less than three weeks to go until New Hampshire holds the first primary in the presidential nominating calendar, Sanders is either pulling away from the rest of the Democratic presidential field – or it’s an extremely close contest for bragging rights in the Granite State.

Those are the takeaways from two very different public opinion polls released this week in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary race.

Sanders stood at 29% support among likely Democratic primary voters in the Granite State according to a MassINC Polling Group survey for WBUR that was released Thursday. Sanders nearly doubled his support from the previous WBUR poll conducted in December, when he stood at 15%.

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg registered at 17%, basically unchanged from December, with former Vice President Joe Biden at 14%, down three percentage points from last month. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts stood at 13%, also basically unchanged from December.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota grabbed 6% support, with Gabbard and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang each at 5%, and billionaire environmental and progressive advocate Tom Steyer at 2%. No other candidate tested topped 1%.

“I wouldn’t take these numbers to the bank,” MassINC Polling Group President Steve Koczela said. “But you’ve got to be feeling pretty good about where you stand right at this moment if you’re the Sanders campaign.”

The numbers tell a very different story in a survey released Tuesday by Suffolk University for the Boston Globe. That poll indicates a much closer contest in New Hampshire, with Sanders at 16% and Biden at 15%. Sanders’s one percentage point edge is well within the survey’s sampling error.

Buttigieg stood at 12% in the poll, with Warren at 10%. Warren’s dropped four points since Suffolk’s last poll, which was conducted in November.

Yang landed at 6% support in the Suffolk survey, with Klobuchar and Gabbard each at 5%, Steyer at 3%, and everyone else sampled in the poll at one percent or less.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of those questioned in the survey said they’re undecided. And nearly half indicated they might change their mind on whom they’re backing before the Feb. 11 primary. Only 5% in the MassINC poll said they were unsure of whom they were backing.

Patrick pushes back

Democratic presidential candidate and former two-term Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick – who’s hovering around 1% support in the latest surveys in the New Hampshire primary, discounted the surveys.

“We have a funny way of giving undue weight to polling and to punditry,” he said.

Patrick was a very long-shot when he first ran for Massachusetts governor in 2006 but won the contest.

“If the polls had been so, I would have never been governor the first or the second time,” he quipped.

Patrick, in an interview with the Monitor and NHTalkRadio.com, also pointed to polling in the days ahead of the 2016 presidential election that suggested a victory by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over GOP nominee Donald Trump.

“I am asking folks not to wait for permission from polls or from pundits,” he emphasized before urging potential voters “to come out, have a look, get engaged.”

If anything, Granite Staters like to make up their own minds, he said.

“I think there are a lot of people in New Hampshire who are going to ignore the polls in the end,” he said. “They’re going to focus in real hard on both the character of the candidates and the character of the country.”

Patrick, who declared his candidacy in mid-November and who’s campaigned in New Hampshire virtually every week the past two months, highlighted that he’s been out meeting with voters, shaking hands and listening to what people have to say.

“If you don’t think we have enough staff, volunteer. If you don’t think we have enough money, contribute,” he said. “This is the people’s campaign. It belongs to others, not just me.”

And pointing to his time steering Massachusetts, he said he is a candidate with a proven track record of success.

“I think folks understand that the difference between me and the other very good candidates is that they have ideas and I have results,” he said. “We have delivered on health care in Massachusetts, 99% of our residents have insurance. We have delivered on climate change. We have a national model.”