Why the Iowa caucus fiasco probably helps Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg made what seemed like a head-scratching choice last November to skip the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada and focus instead on states that vote in March.
Candidates have tried (and failed) with that strategy before but it seems like it could be a very good decision this time around given the mess coming out of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.
Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, Ky., and one of Bloomberg’s national co-chairs, said Bloomberg is demonstrating “a new way to run a Democratic primary and win."
"When you think about the numbers, the first four states only represent 4% of the delegates,” Fischer told Yahoo Finance’s “On the Move.” “Mike follows the numbers, the data, so we go to where the electoral votes are.”
The argument against skipping the early states had been that the winners of Iowa and other states would have unstoppable momentum. The eventual winner of Iowa will almost surely come away with a muddled victory at best.
Bloomberg, who entered the race in November, has been focusing his campaign efforts on the so-called Super Tuesday states, which include California, Colorado, Texas and others, and takes place on March 3.
Compass Point Director of Policy Research Isaac Boltansky said Bloomberg was one of his “winners” from caucus night. President Trump, who spent Tuesday morning gloating about the Democrats’ disarray, was another winner. The only winner, according to Boltanksy, who was actually competing in the Iowa Democratic caucus was former Vice President Joe Biden – as the chaos overshadows Biden’s weak showing.
Still an uphill fight for the former New York Mayor
Bloomberg still faces a steep climb to become the Democratic nominee. He’s quickly built a national campaign and risen quickly in the polls but still sits in fourth place, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polling.
“What we're gratified about is people want to learn more about Mike right now,” Fischer said. “That's one of the things we found early on was people knew him as a businessman but they didn't know him so well as a three-term mayor of New York, and bringing New York back to greatness, and of course, his philanthropy work.”
Bloomberg is campaigning on issues like his work on gun regulations. But he faces questions, especially from younger voters, for aspects of his record like his support of stop-and-frisk policing tactics in New York City.
One unadulterated success: ‘getting underneath the president's skin’
The Bloomberg campaign has succeeded in one area: taking on Trump directly and getting a response. He has trolled the president repeatedly about his qualifications and even his billionaire status.
A recent speech in Texas was just one example. “Do we really want a general election between two New York billionaires?” Bloomberg asked the crowd before delivering the punchline: “To which I say, who’s the other one?!”
The campaign has also released a barrage of television ads aimed at Trump. On Tuesday, a new ad came out that, according to the campaign, “preemptively fact-checks the upcoming State of the Union address.”
The president has responded. He tweeted about Bloomberg eight times this year, according to trumptwitterarchive.com, comparable to how much Twitter attention he’s given to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden has gotten more mentions from Trump’s Twitter account largely as a result of the impeachment trial and his son Hunter.
Bloomberg is "just telling the truth," Fischer said. "It does appear to be getting underneath the president's skin because he knows that he does not want to face Mike – and Mike can take him down."
Ben Werschkul is a producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
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