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WASHINGTON (AP) --
Hillary Clinton has questioned Bernie Sanders' electability. She's criticized his plans for health care, foreign policy and Wall Street. And she's tagged him with flip-flopping on gun control.
None of it appears to be sticking, say some Democrats who have raised concerns that a months-long primary campaign could create lasting damage for their party.
While most believe Clinton will still capture the nomination, some say she is failing to respond effectively to Sanders, fueling both his primary rise and strengthening the Republican argument against her. Others say she got too late a start going after Sanders and is still not hitting him enough - eroding her lead in states that should be safe.
"They didn't take him seriously enough because they thought they had a gadfly," said John Morgan, a Florida attorney and Clinton donor. "The gadfly wasn't a gadfly - he was a lightning bug. And people have been following that lightning bug all over America."
Though Sanders has dismissed questions about Clinton's use of a private email account and server as secretary of state and how she responded to the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks, some Democrats say she needs a better response to his critique of her ties to Wall Street, which they argue reinforces months of Republican attacks on her character.
"The better she does, the more those stories seem to recede in the minds of voters," said Boston-based Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh. "Now, Benghazi seems to be back. Email seems to be back. A number of other things seem to be back."
Though the tightening nature of the race, particularly in Iowa, hasn't sparked widespread panic among her supporters quite yet, it's worrying some donors, as well as Bill Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, who shared her concerns at a meeting with supporters in New York this week, according to people close to the campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
Democratic donors, strategists and pollsters, including some aligned with Clinton, expressed their concerns in nearly two dozen interviews with The Associated Press.
Clinton has long struggled to connect with liberal activists, who have gained influence as the party has shifted left during President Barack Obama's two terms in office.
"Clinton's message has always been more effective for a general election audience than the primary activist base," said strategist Ben LaBolt, a former Obama campaign aide.
A focus group conducted by an unaffiliated Democratic strategist during the last debate found Clinton's message fell flat. Her attacks, according to a memo describing the event, backfired when Sanders reinforced his message in his responses.
"It is not about Senator Sanders. It is about his message," said Chris Kofinis, who conducted the group. "When you attack him, you're not actually addressing the problem."
Sanders released a gauzy, uplifting ad Thursday with images of his overflowing rallies over a soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel's "America." The wordless spot contrasts with a recent Clinton ad in New Hampshire about her experience and plans.
In recent days, Sanders has intensified his critique of Clinton with rhetoric that's edged toward breaking one of his core campaign pledges - no attacks.
"Without naming any names, Goldman Sachs also provides very, very generous speaking fees to some unnamed candidates," he said this week in Iowa, meaning her.
Republicans have tried to bolster Sanders, who they see as the more beatable general election opponent. The Republican National Committee jumped to the self-identified democratic socialist candidate's defense during the last debate and American Crossroads, a super PAC founded by Karl Rove, has an ad in Iowa highlighting Clinton's ties to Wall Street. "Does Iowa really want Wall Street in the White House?" the narrator asks.
During Sanders' rise in the summer, Clinton's campaign largely avoided criticizing Sanders out of fear that would alienate his liberal supporters who will be important to the Democratic nominee this fall. That hesitancy has changed in recent weeks.
"No one has laid a glove on Bernie," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a Clinton supporter who has warned about Sanders' electability. "We like Bernie and he's having a conversation we think is important so it's not an easy thing to do."
Recent preference polls suggest her lead in Iowa has evaporated and in New Hampshire, Sanders has opened up a significant edge.
Clinton and her team believe they can still win the Feb. 1 caucuses in Iowa, arguing that her broader support will help her pick up more delegates, due to the proportional nature of their allocation in the state.
They've long seen New Hampshire as a tougher race, given Sanders' decades of representing a neighboring state, but expect Clinton to be strong in South Carolina, Nevada and the Southern states that vote on March 1. The larger numbers of minority voters in the later contests benefit Clinton, who's consistently polled better among those groups.
Clinton also has an overwhelming advantage among the so-called "superdelegates" of party leaders and elected officials.
But even in Southern states, Democrats increasingly see a path for Sanders to cobble together a coalition of liberal whites, independents and younger black supporters who might minimize Clinton's advantage and allow him to pick up delegates.
"Sanders organizers seem to be making some headway," said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who says he's likely to endorse Clinton. "What I'm hearing more and more is that (black voters) are now open to hearing Bernie."
And caucuses scheduled in March and April in states like Maine, Colorado and Wyoming could favor Sanders.
"Nobody ever stops running for president, they just run out of money," said former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Clinton fundraiser. "Bernie has enough money for a long time."
Health authorities have added eight tropical destinations to a travel alert about an illness linked with a severe birth defect and spread by mosquitoes.
The updated alert issued Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brings the total to 22 destinations, most in Latin America and the Caribbean, where there have been outbreaks of the Zika virus.
The new locations are Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Guyana; Cape Verde, off the coast of western Africa; and Samoa in the South Pacific.
Last week's alert included Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.
The CDC says pregnant women should consider postponing trips to these destinations because the virus has been linked with microcephaly. Affected newborns have unusually small heads and abnormal brain development.
All travelers to these areas are advised to take precautions, including using repellent and wearing long sleeves and long pants, to avoid mosquito bites.
Zika illness can cause fever, rash and joint pain but most people infected by mosquito bites don't show symptoms. There's no specific treatment; infected people aren't contagious.
The CDC says people who do develop symptoms should tell their doctors where and when they traveled.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) --
A teenager raped by an Oklahoma City cop on the front porch of her mother's home says she doesn't know how to react when she sees law officers now, even though the man who attacked her is going to prison for the rest of his life.
An Oklahoma judge sentenced former patrolman Daniel Holtzclaw to 263 years in prison Thursday and ordered the terms be served consecutively, meaning the former college football star will never again be free.
"Every time I see the police, I don't even know what to do," the teenager, now 18, told Oklahoma County District Judge Timothy Henderson at Holtzclaw's sentencing hearing. "I don't ever go outside, and when I do I'm terrified."
Another victim - a grandmother in her 50s whose 2014 complaint triggered a police investigation - said her life has been changed forever.
"The stress of the case and fear of being sexually assaulted again has caused an increase in my blood pressure," Jannie Ligons said. "I so desperately want my life back."
The Associated Press does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent and is not naming the teenager, but Ligons spoke publicly about the case and agreed to be identified.
Jurors last month convicted Holtzclaw on 18 counts, including four first-degree rape counts as well as forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, procuring lewd exhibition and second-degree rape. Prosecutors said since the sentences will be served one after another, Henderson essentially imposed a life sentence. Jurors acquitted Holtzclaw on 18 other counts.
Holtzclaw has maintained his innocence, and his lawyer Scott Adams said he intends to appeal.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said Holtzclaw was not a law officer who committed crimes, but rather "a rapist who masqueraded as a law enforcement officer."
"If he was a true law enforcement officer, he would have upheld his duty to protect those citizens rather than victimize them," Prater said.
An Associated Press examination last year found that about 1,000 officers in the U.S. lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.
Those figures, too, are likely an undercount, because not every state has a process to ban problem officers from law enforcement. In states that do decertify officers, reporting requirements vary, but the AP's findings suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent complaints against law officers.
Holtzclaw's case drew attention among civil rights activists. All of the victims were black; the jury appeared to be all-white; and Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese and the son of a longtime Enid, Oklahoma, police officer. Several African-American leaders in Oklahoma City attended the trial and were present for Thursday's sentencing.
Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney representing several of the women in planned civil litigation against the city, said the convictions and sentence should send a message to the rest of the country that victimization of black women won't be tolerated.
"Every one of these women, from the 17-year-old teenager to the 57-year-old grandmother, ... they survived a horrific experience," Crump said. "Hopefully, this is an example for the rest of America to follow, right here in Oklahoma. We stopped a serial rapist with a badge when everyone else had doubt."
During the monthlong trial, 13 women testified against Holtzclaw, and several said he stopped them, checked them for outstanding warrants or drug paraphernalia, and then forced himself on them.
Holtzclaw's attorney had described the former high school and college football star from Enid and Eastern Michigan University as a model officer whose attempts to help the drug addicts and prostitutes he came in contact with were distorted. Adams also attacked the credibility of some of the women, who had arrest records and histories of drug abuse, noting that many didn't come forward until police had already identified them as possible victims after launching their investigation.
Thursday's hearing was delayed by a few hours as Holtzclaw and attorneys met with the judge over the defense's request for a new trial or evidentiary hearing, but after hearing testimony from another officer, Henderson rejected the request and moved on to witness statements.