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Bernie Sanders Loses Additional High-Level Campaign Staffers

Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders / AP
May 17, 2016

The Bernie Sanders campaign has lost additional high-level staffers within the last week as California’s crucial June primary inches closer.

The Vermont senator’s director of technology along with three of the four original members of his senior leadership team in the sunshine state have left the campaign, Politico reported Tuesday.

Zach Schneider, who worked as the technology director, left Friday after spending six months with the campaign. He told Politico his responsibilities dropped off after an in-house, grassroots text messaging program he helped create called "Text For Bernie" was slashed from the campaign.

Just days earlier, California Operations Director Paul Betancourt and Constituency Outreach Director Masha Mendieta were released last week after California state director Michael Ceraso left the campaign.  Politico noted that this leaves just one member of Sanders' senior leadership team in California where 548 delegates are up for grabs June 7.

The Sanders camp has declared the state crucial to stopping the momentum of his opponent Hillary Clinton.

The departures arrived three weeks after Sanders fired hundreds of staffers from his campaign as fundraising continues to slow.

Clinton remains nearly 10 points ahead of the self-described Democratic socialist in California polls, according to an average of eight polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.