Hillary Clinton’s stumbles fuel Democratic critics

The Democratic Party’s anybody-but-Hillary wing is fired up.

A string of damaging stories about Hillary Clinton’s activities as Secretary of State – including the new controversy surrounding her email habits – are giving fresh ammo to Clinton skeptics who have grown resigned lately to the idea of a Democratic coronation instead of a genuine, competitive primary.

Now, those Democrats clamoring for a Clinton alternative are once again speaking up about the need for a primary that will, at the very least, serve as a vetting process and prepare Clinton for the general election.

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things: his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother are former Presidents.

PHOTO: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has created a political committee that will help him travel and raise money while he considers a 2016 bid. Additionally, billionaire businessman David Koch said in a private gathering in Manhattan this month that he wants Walker to be the next president, but he doesn't plan to back anyone in the primaries.

PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is establishing a committee to formally explore a White House bid. "If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction," he said in a news release provided to CNN on Monday, May 18.

PHOTO: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has said the United States needs a "political revolution" of working-class Americans looking to take back control of the government from billionaires. He first announced the run in an email to supporters early on the morning of Thursday, April 30.

PHOTO: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

On March 2, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced the launch of an exploratory committee. The move will allow him to raise money that could eventually be transferred to an official presidential campaign and indicates he is on track with stated plans to formally announce a bid in May.

PHOTO: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has said he'll make a decision about a presidential run sometime soon. A potential bid could focus on Graham's foreign policy stance.

PHOTO: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid Sunday, April 12, through a video message on social media. She continues to be considered the overwhelming front-runner among possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.

PHOTO: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Sen. Marco Rubio announced his bid for the 2016 presidency on Monday, April 13, a day after Hillary Clinton, with a rally in Florida. He's a Republican rising star from Florida who swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects.

PHOTO: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Lincoln Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat former governor and senator of Rhode Island, said he's running for president on Thursday, April 16, as a Democrat, but his spokeswoman said the campaign is still in the presidential exploratory committee stages.

PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia, is entertaining a 2016 presidential run. In January, he told NPR that his party has not focused on white, working-class voters in past elections.

PHOTO: Steve Helber/

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President."

PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has started a series of town halls in New Hampshire to test the presidential waters, becoming more comfortable talking about national issues and staking out positions on hot topic debates.

PHOTO: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's keeping his "options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.

PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Sen. Rand Paul officially announced his presidential bid on Tuesday, April 7, at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky. The tea party favorite probably will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation and his assertion that the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.

PHOTO: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential bid on Monday, March 23, in a speech at Liberty University. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.

PHOTO: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Democrat Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary.

PHOTO: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Republican Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation that he might mount a second White House bid.

PHOTO: Stewart F. House/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina.

PHOTO: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates

Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton's run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State.

PHOTO: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Prev Next

“The closer we get to 2016, the more the electorate pays attention, which we’re now seeing with foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation and in Hillary’s undisclosed emails,” said Boyd Brown, a Democratic National Committee member and former state legislator from South Carolina. “These are problems that raise real leadership and transparency concerns, concerns that can be addressed in caucuses and primaries, but would go ignored in a coronation process.”

READ: Don’t ask Dems in Congress about Hillary Clinton’s emails

In conversations with grassroots Democrats around the country and in key nominating states, there is renewed concern that Clinton is saddled with too much baggage and dubious political instincts that could sink her against the GOP nominee if the kinks are not worked out in a contested primary.

Congressional committee subpoenas Clinton emails

“The Democratic base that isn’t wedded to her is nervous about it,” said Deborah Arnie Arnesen, a progressive radio host in Concord, New Hampshire. “It makes her more vulnerable. What is this anointed candidate getting us? A much more flawed candidate than we thought. And Republicans now have material they never thought they would have.”

’Nervous’

“We need to litigate this in a primary so that she will better at it, or it will be the Republicans who will be doing it for her,” she added.

The latest round of bad press began last week when the Washington Post reported on foreign government contributions made to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation while she was serving as Secretary of State, including one donation from the Algerian government that may have violated the Obama administration’s ethics policy.

This week, the New York Times broke the news that Clinton exclusively used a private email account to do business at the State Department, allowing her to skirt federal record-keeping practices. The revelation also raised security concerns, though State Department officials said nothing classified passed through her account.

Heated debate over Clinton's emails, 'double standard'

And late Wednesday, Clinton sought to realign herself on the side of transparency, tweeting that she wants “the public to see my email.”

“I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible,” Clinton tweeted.

But that doesn’t mean they’ll be released anytime soon. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement Thursday that the review process will take “some time” because of the volume of emails to sift through.

READ: Hillary Clinton’s emails: What you need to know

Clinton supporters have pushed back against the media and Republicans, waving off the stories as yet another Twitter-fueled much-ado-about-nothing that has little resonance with the typical voter beyond Washington.

“Voters do not give a sh-t about what email Hillary used,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, a longtime Clinton ally and CNN contributor. “They don’t even give a fart.”

Power brokers

But if regular voters aren’t paying attention, the Democratic power brokers who hold sway over the nomination process in key states — the legislators, local party chairmen and plugged-in activists — most definitely are. The questions some of them are raising are less about the specifics of the stories and more about the long-established narratives they feed: That the secretive Clintons, enabled by unquestioning loyalists, play by their own rules.

“The questions relating to Hillary are more about, are we tired of the same old thing?” asked one prominent Democratic state Senator in South Carolina who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s time to turn the page and find something that will appeal to voters in South Carolina. People just don’t relate to these national stars like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi or whatever.”

The critical voices in the Democratic Party should not be confused for the majority view. Many Democrats are siding with Clinton through the e-mail flap, underscoring her broad popularity within the party and her undisputed frontrunner status. Recent polls of Iowa Democrats have put Clinton’s lead over her closest potential rival, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, at anywhere from 40 to 56 points.

“This stuff feels kind of petty to me,” said Cindy Pollard, a Clinton backer and vice-chairman of the Jasper County Democrats in Iowa. “Like, this is all they got?”

New fuel

But the stories have given new fuel to stalwart Clinton skeptics who, anxious about the prospect of a nominee who hasn’t been challenged seriously in the national political arena since her ill-fated 2008 campaign, have been demanding other prominent Democrats to join the 2016 race and not give Clinton a free ride.

Some of her critics are unabashed anti-Wall Street progressives who have urged Warren to join the fray. Some are younger Democrats who see the Clintons as emblems of the past, and others are simply skeptical of Clinton’s ability to stir the passions of the Democratic base.

READ: Benghazi committee going after Clinton emails

Whatever their motivations, the Anybody-But-Hillary voices have been happy over the last several years to prop up potential rivals and feed reporters quotes about the importance of a Democratic nomination fight instead of a free walk to the nomination for Clinton.

But in recent months, with Warren looking unlikely to run and Clinton lining up blue chip talent for her nascent campaign staff, the critics have lowered their voices and braced for the coming reality of Clinton-as-nominee, even if potential contenders like Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders make a run.

Until this week.

While many Democrats are still reluctant to publicly criticize the Clintons — “Everybody is kind of afraid right now to say anything,” one of Iowa’s most well-connected Democratic organizers told CNN when asked about the new controversies — others are less likely to pull punches.

In New York, Zephyr Teachout, who challenged New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from the left in last year’s Democratic Primary, chided Clinton in the New York Daily News over the e-mail flap.

“She shouldn’t have done it,” Teachout said. “She should come forward and give a press availability on it. Just as a matter of leadership, she should address it directly … This is why we need a primary, to force debate both about policy and leadership style.”

Dick Harpootlian, a former South Carolina party chairman and supporter of Vice President Joe Biden, said the e-mail story is yet another Clinton scandal to throw on the pile.

’Always another shoe to drop’

“There’s always another shoe to drop with Hillary,” Harpootlian told the Washington Post. “Do we nominate her not knowing what’s in those e-mails? If the e-mails were just her and her family and friends canoodling about fashion and what they’re going to do next week, that’s one thing. But the fact that she’s already turned e-mails to the Benghazi committee because she was doing official business on it means she’s going to die by 1,000 cuts on this one.”

Brown, the DNC member, said that party leaders in his state are feeling “shaky” about Clinton.

“Folks are remembering why they pushed back in 2008, and a candidate with the right message and retail politics could pick the lock Clinton thinks she has on the party faithful,” Brown said.

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Jim Webb: "I look forward to listening and talking with more people in the coming months as I decide whether or not to run."

PHOTO: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Joe Biden: "That's a family personal decision that I'm going to make sometime at the end of the summer."

PHOTO: JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Martin O'Malley: "I've been very encouraged as I travel around the country by a number of people who repeat again and again and again their desire for getting things done again as a country and also for new leadership to get those things done."

PHOTO: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Elizabeth Warren: "I'm not running for president....I don't get who writes these headlines or what they're about. I think there's just kind of a pundit world out there."

PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Jerry Brown: "If no one runs and [everyone] says we'll have an absent Democratic nominee, would I rule that out? I mean, that would be a little silly, wouldn't it?"

PHOTO: Justin Sullivan/Getty

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee is a one-time Republican, turned independent, now Democrat and is exploring a run for the presidency. On Hillary Clinton, he told CNN "... anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not be president and certainly should not be leading the Democratic Party."

PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Bernie Sanders: "I haven't made up my final decision and I've got to say a lot of my strongest supporters say, 'Bernie, you've gotta stay out of the damn Democratic Party, run as an Independent."

PHOTO: Win McNamee/Getty

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Kirsten Gillibrand: The New York senator has said she'll support Hillary Clinton "110 percent."

PHOTO: Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Andrew Cuomo (in 2014): "I'm focusing on running for governor. And then I'm going to focus on being the best governor I can be."

PHOTO: Getty Images

Photos: Alternatives to Hillary Clinton 2016

Brian Schweitzer: When asked by Time if he would be a better candidate for president than Clinton: "Well, I think so, of course. I think I have a background and a resume that isn't just in government."

PHOTO: Alex Wong/ Getty

Prev Next