Clinton, Sanders Continue Southern California Campaign Blitz

At a rally Tuesday near Disneyland, Sanders was critical of the theme park's corporate parent

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are wrapping up a Southern California campaign swing Wednesday ahead of the run-up to the California primary next month.

Clinton spoke at an Orange County "organizing event" at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 324 in Buena Park before heading north for a rally in Salinas. She also will appear on the "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" broadcast Wednesday after a guest appearance taped Tuesday.

Sanders was at a midday rally in Cathedral City in Riverside County, then returned to Los Angeles County for a late-afternoon event at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster. This will be the fourth consecutive day Sanders has campaigned in Los Angeles or Orange counties in advance of the June 7 California primary.

At his rally Tuesday at the Anaheim Convention Center, adjacent to Disneyland, Vermont Sen. Sanders was critical of the theme park's corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co.

"Anybody here work for Disney?" he asked the crowd. "Anybody here making a living wage who works for Disney? Let us be clear, the $7.25 federal minimum wage is not a living wage, it is a starvation wage.

"I believe we should raise that starvation wage in every state in this country to $15 an hour. Life would be a little bit different for some of the employees here working for Disney if the minimum wage here was $15."

California's minimum wage is $10 an hour but will increase to $15 an hour by 2022 under legislation approved earlier this year.

Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown responded to Sanders' criticism.

"Mr. Sanders clearly doesn't have his facts right," Brown said. "The Disneyland Resort generates more than $5.7 billion annually for the local economy, and as the area's largest employer has added more than 11,000 jobs over the last decade, a 65 percent increase.

"These numbers don't take into account our $1 billion expansion to add a 'Star Wars'-themed land, which will create thousands of additional jobs across multiple sectors."

Wednesday marks the third consecutive day Clinton has been in Los Angeles or Orange counties. She spoke at fundraisers in Holmby Hills and Hancock Park on Monday, then held events Tuesday in South Los Angeles, Commerce and Riverside.

The former Secretary of State, coming off a win Tuesday in the Washington primary, told a crowd in Commerce Tuesday that she has a plan for job creation.

"We've got to get incomes rising," Clinton said. "We've got to get more good jobs. And here's how we're going to do it: We're going to do it by investing -- investing in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy. Because some country is going be the clean-energy superpower. It's going to be either Germany, China or us. I want it to be us."

The Sanders campaign released a new television commercial Tuesday that will run in California ahead of its June 7 primary election.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump spoke at a rally Wednesday in Anaheim

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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