According to 538, Bloomberg's strategy to focus on Super Tuesday might be starting to pay dividends, as he is gaining ground in those states (and later ones), to the point that he's passed Mayor Pete for 4th place in their national polling averages.
How is he doing this? Money. Bloomberg has already spent $90.6 million on ad buys in Super Tuesday states, which is more than four times what Steyer has spent so far, and nearly fourteen times what the rest of the field combined have spent. In nine of those states, only the billionaires have spent a dime, and of those nine, Steyer's spending is nominal at best in all but California (for example, Steyer has spent $169K in Texas, compared to Bloomberg's $24.1M.
Conventional wisdom says a handful of candidates other than Bloomberg (current weather patterns suggests Biden and Sanders) will come out of the early states with the momentum and the media coverage, but also with relatively few actual delegates. Bloomberg is hoping those folks will run into a wall of Bloomberg support stretching from California to Massachusetts.
Bloomberg appears to be running in the same "lane" as Biden and Buttigieg. If his novel strategy works, he might set himself up as the establishment candidate against whichever of the two liberals ends up top progressive dog coming out of February.
How is he doing this? Money. Bloomberg has already spent $90.6 million on ad buys in Super Tuesday states, which is more than four times what Steyer has spent so far, and nearly fourteen times what the rest of the field combined have spent. In nine of those states, only the billionaires have spent a dime, and of those nine, Steyer's spending is nominal at best in all but California (for example, Steyer has spent $169K in Texas, compared to Bloomberg's $24.1M.
Conventional wisdom says a handful of candidates other than Bloomberg (current weather patterns suggests Biden and Sanders) will come out of the early states with the momentum and the media coverage, but also with relatively few actual delegates. Bloomberg is hoping those folks will run into a wall of Bloomberg support stretching from California to Massachusetts.
Bloomberg appears to be running in the same "lane" as Biden and Buttigieg. If his novel strategy works, he might set himself up as the establishment candidate against whichever of the two liberals ends up top progressive dog coming out of February.