Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the clear frontrunner in Nevada headed into Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. But he’ll be sharing the spotlight with the new guy: Mike Bloomberg.
The billionaire former New York City mayor may well take some of the heat off Sanders: Bloomberg will be targeted by other candidates seeking to counter the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s spending on TV advertising.
Also on the debate stage tonight will be Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Elizabeth Warren (MA), former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg and former vice president Joe Biden.
The debate, scheduled to last two hours, begins at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT) at the Paris Theater on the Vegas Strip. It’s sponsored by NBC News and the Nevada Independent newspaper.
Nevada’s Democratic caucuses will be held on Saturday — but tens of thousands of votes have already been cast during four days of early voting.
“Sanders has led the pack in all recent polls of the state, and his momentum coming off strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire was evident on the ground during early voting,” the Nevada Independent reports.
Bloomberg is not on the Nevada ballot; he chose to skip the first four nomination contests, including Nevada, and concentrate on the huge numbers of delegates available in the 14 state primaries on Super Tuesday, Mar. 3.
But his poll numbers have been rising fast, thanks at least in part to his colossal spending on advertising. By qualifying for the Wednesday debate, Bloomberg, a former Republican, deliberately puts himself in the crosshairs.
“To his rivals, Bloomberg is engaged in a blatant attempt to buy the nomination,” says The Hill. “To his supporters, he is legitimately using his resources to make the case that he is the most electable candidate to take on President Trump in November.”
The New York Times calls Bloomberg’s record “a target-rich environment” for his rivals, citing his “remarks at the 2004 Republican convention; accusations of sexist comments; his advocacy of stop-and-frisk police tactics; his Wall Street ties.”
The Times contrasted Sanders — “a populist who rails against billionaires and Republicans” — with Bloomberg — “a billionaire and former Republican.”
“They are both 78,” the Times says. “But beyond that, they hail from opposite ideological ends of a Democratic Party that neither has closely adhered to.”
The Bloomberg and Sanders campaigns wrangled Wednesday over the candidates’ heart health.
In an interview, Sanders’ national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray said Bloomberg “has suffered heart attacks in the past.”
Bloomberg senior adviser Tim O’Brien retorted with a tweet, calling Gray’s claim “a Trumpy lie from the Sanders campaign, which rolls like Trump in many ways.”
Gray later admitted she “misspoke” in the interview, although there remained an element of truth in her comment: Bloomberg had a heart procedure, 20 years ago.
But the fact that Sanders suffered a heart attack just four months ago, briefly interrupting his campaigning may carry more weight with voters. Or, if the latest polls are accurate, maybe not.
As for the rest of the field, the Times notes that Bloomberg’s rise “has coincided with the decline” of Joe Biden, “who needs a big debate performance to recover from stinging losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.”
The debate “is also a chance for … Elizabeth Warren to regain her footing pre-Super Tuesday and for Pete Buttigieg to show he can speak to the concerns of a racially diverse electorate,” the Times says, pointing out that Amy Klobuchar’s “surge” in New Hampshire “showed just how much these television spectacles can matter.”
