Differences vast between Sanders and Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders are waging very different presidential campaigns.

“Top down and bottom up,” is how Claremont Mckenna College political scientist Jack Pitney put it.

There are vast differences between the two candidates in background and politics: Sanders, a democratic socialist senator long registered as an independent; Bloomberg, a billionaire who has been a Republican, independent and Democrat. That’s reflected in the type of campaigns they are running as the Super Tuesday primaries on March 3 loom in California and more than a dozen other states.

Bloomberg has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an effective ground campaign and media blitz, and attracted top political talent across the country. His longtime support and financial backing of numerous organizations, particularly those dedicated to reducing gun violence and combating climate change, have paid political dividends.

His campaign almost daily announces new endorsements and last week released a list of more than 100 California officials now on board. They include members of Congress (San Diego Democrats Scott Peters and Juan Vargas among them), mayors (Serge Dedina of Imperial Beach, Mary Salas of Chula Vista and Rachel Vasquez of Lemon Grove) along with council members from cities big and small, and even a parks and recreation commissioner.

He has pledged to continue his big spending ways to help Democrats in November, even if he’s not the nominee. That hasn’t endeared him to all Democrats, but it may be why many seem willing to look past their disagreements with him on certain positions, his controversial actions as a businessman and mayor of New York City, and past contributions to Republican candidates.

While Bloomberg has attended relatively small campaign gatherings in California, Sanders has staged his signature large rallies, as he did at San Diego’s Waterfront Park last year. The Vermont senator has some notable endorsements in California, but the campaign doesn’t dwell on that. There are paid professionals, but the driving force is the people power of Bernie’s army.

His supporters display the passion of those who believe they are part of a movement, even a revolution. Bloomberg’s profligate spending has gained considerable attention, but Sanders’ fundraising operation has been killing it, and doing so with relatively small donations — a sign of true grassroots appeal.

Polls and results in Iowa and New Hampshire underscore the strength of Sanders’ following that was on display when he ran against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary.

That was essentially a one-on-one battle, certainly by the time it came to California, which was near the end of the primary season in June. Clinton won San Diego County with just over 51 percent of the vote — to nearly 48 percent for Sanders — while winning statewide 53 percent to 46 percent.

The dynamics are different this time around. The primary was moved up — voting has been under way for more than two weeks — and Sanders has a lot more competition.

Recent polls in California

have both Sanders and Bloomberg surging, though they don’t agree on where the latter ranks in the pack of contenders.

A Public Policy Institute of California survey showed Sanders is the choice of 32 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, with 14 percent for former Vice President Joe Biden, 13 percent for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 12 percent for Bloomberg, and 12 percent for Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. No one else had more than 5 percent support. In January, the PPIC poll had it a tight, three-way race between Sanders, Biden and Warren.

A Surveyusa poll had Sanders with 25 percent, Bloomberg at 21 percent, Biden at 15 percent, Buttigieg at 12 percent, Warren at 9 percent, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 6 percent and hedge fund philanthropist Tom Steyer with 3 percent. Both Sanders and Bloomberg did well across most ethnic groups, with Sanders the top choice of Latinos and Bloomberg the favorite among African Americans — a group that not long ago was seen as a mainstay for Biden.

Both polls were released Tuesday, the day before the first debate to include Bloomberg, who took a beating from the other candidates during the Las Vegas forum. The Nevada caucus will be held on Saturday. Then the playing field expands quickly. It’s easy to forget that so far only two small states with overwhelmingly white populations have weighed in, bellwethers though they may often be.

The South Carolina primary is Feb. 29, the Saturday before Super Tuesday. The sheer amount of ground to cover, particularly in states like California and Texas, could spell the end of candidates whose support and resources are flagging.

“California is to presidential campaigns what Russia is to armies,” Pitney said. “Its sheer size often leads to defeat.”

Campaigns always place a premium on vote-rich urban areas, but California’s primary rules reward candidates who also focus elsewhere, meaning regions in the Central Valley and beyond are getting attention. Delegates are not only won in the statewide vote, but through the vote within each of California’s 53 congressional districts.

Bloomberg is trying to frame the race now as a two-man contest between him and Sanders. He prescribes a moderate approach, for example, by advocating an expanded health care system with a public option, but not Medicare-for-all pushed by Sanders, which Bloomberg contends is too expensive. He further says he’s the one who can defeat President Donald Trump.

Those are tough arguments to make at the moment. His name has yet to appear on a ballot, and some polls show Sanders and other Democrats beating Trump in head-to-head match-ups. Further, the costs and benefits of Medicare-for-all are a matter of debate. A new study by topline universities concludes such a plan would save hundreds of billions of dollars and save tens of thousands of lives.

Sanders backers argue that his pursuit of social and economic justice has energized not just politically active progressives, but people who are not regular voters — expanding the Democratic base in a way other candidates can’t.

Perhaps we’ll see whether that vision or Bloomberg’s deep-pocketed pragmatism wins the day in a couple of weeks.

Or maybe we’ll find that it has, in fact, come down to a two-man race.