Sanders, Bloomberg test different paths to a California win

One is spending millions of dollars flooding airwaves from Los Angeles to Sacramento, highlighting his tenure as mayor of nation’s largest city and commitment to key Democratic causes. or has hired 80 staff members to kck on doors, organize volunteers and promote his mess of political revolution in at least seven langus.

two Democratic presidential candidates are putting as many resources into fight for California as Michael Bloomberg, billionaire businessman and former New York mayor, and Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator. Sanders is marshaling his passionate volunteers to win biggest prize of presidential primary season, while Bloomberg arrives with a virtually unlimited checkbook after a late entry in race.

For w, y’re deploying different strategies. Bloomberg is focused on television vertising, long viewed as best way to reach voters in state that is home to 40 million people, while Sanders is focused on door-to-door campaigning on ground. But y each have resources and plans to do both, and earlier than most of ir rivals. As Bloomberg spokesman Jason Schechter put it: “California is extremely important to Mike.”

Bloomberg, who entered race last month, is bypassing first four voting states and anchoring his strategy to California and or Super Tuesday states, hoping a strong showing will carry him to top of field. Sanders, meanwhile, has a grassroots infrastructure in place from four years ago and is treating California as importantly as earlier contests like Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s vowing to win race.

Bloomberg, though, will t be one of seven candidates who will gar Thursday in Los Angeles for sixth and final debate of 2019. He is unable to qualify for contests because he is t accepting campaign donations. Sanders will be onst alongside former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Kloubchar, businessman Andrew Yang and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer. Steyer will be only Californian on st after Sen. Kamala Harris suspended her campaign, opening a scramble for her home-state dors and support.

California moved its primary up to March in 2020, from June in 2016, in an effort to have more sway over minating process. However, it’s possible that candidate emerges from California with a decisive win because of maze of rules used to divvy up state’s haul of 495 delegates, far more than any or state.

Still, trajectory of race in California, where roughly 14 million voters will be eligible to participate in Democratic primary, largely mirrors what’s happening nationally. Polls from Public Policy Institute of California and CNN in vember and December, respectively, show Biden, Warren and Sanders ahe of rest of field. Buttigieg, who has reached front-runner status in Iowa and New Hampshire, remains in single digits.

Although California sends out mail-in ballots for early voting on Feb. 3, same day as Iowa caucuses, millions of voters will t cast ballots immediately and may be heavily influenced by what happens in earlier voting contests. “I would t underestimate ability of somebody breaking out in Iowa or New Hampshire,” said John Emerson, who heed Bill Clinton’s 1992 California campaign.

Whoever les pack in early states “will look like a winner,” said Emerson. That was echoed by longtime Democratic National Committee member Bob Mulholland. “By end of February, it could be Michael Bloomberg and two ors standing,” Mulholland said. To win, Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Bloomberg, a moderate, are largely appealing to different slices of electorate. Sanders’ campaign sees its major fight t with Bloomberg but with Biden, as y both target older, white working-class voters and people of color.

Former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said she doesn’t think Bloomberg’s big spending will pay off. re’s a history of wealthy, big-spending candidates falling short in California, including former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who spent a record $178 million in her failed bid to become goverr in 2010, much of it from her personal fortune.

“I don’t think Californians in general support someone trying to buy ir way in,” she said, though she ded Bloomberg and Steyer are “fine on issues.”

Beyond Sanders and Bloomberg, top national candidates are only ones putting significant investments into California. Lower polling candidates such as Klobuchar and Yang have paid staff on ground, though y are working to mobilize volunteers. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who didn’t qualify for debate, has fundraising staff in California and plans to hire organizers in January, a campaign spokeswoman said.

Buttigieg has traveled to California regularly to attend high-dollar fundraisers with stars of Hollywood and tech industry, but has only more recently been coupling that with public events. His campaign sees an opportunity for him to do well in state’s Central Valley, an agricultural region that y believe will respond to Buttigieg’s Midwestern roots. Still, Buttigieg’s troubles with nwhite voters could hurt him in California, a majority-mirity state.

Warren’s campaign has opened several offices in California and has four dozen staff members on ground, and Biden plans to open offices soon. But ne of or campaigns has anunced plans to begin vertising on television.

Sanders, meanwhile, has been drawing on well of support he built in 2016 to fuel his campaign second time around. He has won endorsement of prominent unions, including powerful National Nurses United, and is fighting to ensure that Lati voters and young people cast ballots.

Bloomberg’s vertising blitz is intended to tell mayor’s story to West Coast voters who might t kw much about him — and before any rivals have a chance to define him. It’s an early step in a campaign that will also blend in tritional retail campaigning by candidate and a vast effort to identify and contact voters and get m to polls, an investment campaign predicts will be largest in state’s history.

Bloomberg also intends to mine for votes in areas outside big, heavily Democratic urban centers that are often overlooked in presidential contests, including Central Valley and one-time Republican stronghold of Orange County.

re will be multiple field offices and a mix of paid staff and volunteers “doing everything from phone banking to kcking on doors,” Schechter, spokesman, said.

Last week, Bloomberg me his first candidate visit to California, where he highlighted one of his centerpiece issues at a talk on climate change in San Francisco with former Gov. Jerry Brown. He also received endorsement of 29-year-old Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, who h planned to support Harris.

Both Bloomberg, a former Republican and former independent, and Sanders, an independent senator, could benefit from votes among state’s 5.4 million independent voters, who are permitted to vote in state’s Democratic presidential primary.