Bloomberg Picks Texas To Make His Stand

About 3 weeks ago, independent polling firm SSRS did a survey of Texas voters for CNN. Texas isn’t a blue state but it will be part of Super Tuesday on March 3, so-- like California-- will play an outsized role in determining who the Democratic nominee will be. The horse race question elicited these results:

• Status Quo Joe- 35%
• Bernie- 15%
• Elizabeth- 13%
• Mayo Pete- 9%
• Bloomberg- 5%
• Castro- 3%
• Yang- 3%
• Booker- 2%
• Steyer- 2%

None of the other candidates were polling above 1%. The general ignorance on the candidates’ policy positions was astounding and even horrifying. It’s clear that Texas Democrats haven’t started paying much attention yet. And they may not. They’re barely prioritizing issues at all and 58% say it’s all about perceived "electability." They just want Trump defeated and don't seem all that invested in what comes after that--  fertile ground, at least for now, for the dismal B-team candidates-- Biden, Buttigieg and Bloomberg.

When SSRS included Democrats, Republicans and independents, they found that 50% of Texans disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job and only 42% approved. But when it came to one on one match-ups, Trump beats each Democratic candidate, although Status Quo Joe comes closest-- Trump leads by just one point: 48-47%.

I’m hearing the Bernie campaign isn’t on the ground yet but I noticed on Saturday that The Eagle was reporting that Bloomberg, perhaps seeing an opening among low-info conservative Dems, is ramping up his efforts there, "with plans to build a state operation that his campaign says will be unrivaled by anyone else in the primary field." They plan to open a Texas headquarters in Houston and 16 field offices throughout the rest of the state-- spread across the Houston area, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Austin, East Texas, the San Antonio area, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen and the Killeen area-- between now and the March 3 primary.

Yesterday Bloomberg made his second trip to the state since launching his campaign, visiting blue-trending Fort Bend County south of Houston and met with community leaders and elected officials and attended a block walk for state House candidate Eliz Markowitz.

Warren and Biden already have state directors and are starting to build state organizations, although most campaigns haven't prioritized Texas, which is both immense, immensely expensive for media (so no problem for Bloomberg) and generally out of sync with Democrats in the rest of the country (also no problem for Bloomberg, who is also generally out of sync with Democrats in the rest of the country).

Heidi Sloan, an Austin-based Democratic Socialist, always has an interest and insightful perspective to share on this kind of thing. So I asked her what she thinks. "Bloomberg," she said, "is a billionaire who thinks he can buy his way into the presidency, and his campaign was recently caught using prison labor to make campaign calls (he claimed not to know and cancelled the contract with the independent contractor he was using, but that shows how careless his campaign is about labor and shows a very feeble commitment to labor rights). In our district, because we have been organizing for Bernie Sanders as strongly as we have been, I don't believe Bloomberg stands much of a chance here. Our main competition will be Elizabeth Warren in Austin I expect."