Bloomberg Wants Biden, Buttigieg And Others To Bail, So He Can Take On Sanders — One On One

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign team wants the rest of his Democratic opponents to drop out of the presidential race so he can take on Sen. Bernie Sanders, man to man.

Sanders will become unstoppable if former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t bow out, Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg’s top strategist, told Axios Wednesday. The self-avowed Democratic socialist will have too many delegates after Super Tuesday if the race does not winnow down, he explained.

“The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo — with Biden, Pete and Amy in the race on Super Tuesday — Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome,” Sheekey said. Bloomberg has not yet appeared in a debate or participated in a caucus or primary this election season.

He added: “I don’t think many people understand the dire circumstances here.” Sheekey was remarking about the current state of the campaign after receiving a State of the State memo Monday from Bloomberg’s senior adviser Mitch Stewart and states director Dan Kanninen.

Stewart and Kanninen’s memo suggests that Biden and the other candidates risk propelling “Sanders to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead by siphoning votes away from [Bloomberg].” Bloomberg, a former Republican, is pulling out all the stops to wipe out his Democratic opponents.

Sanders leads the field in Nevada with 25% of the vote, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal Feb. 14 poll published Friday.

Sanders is also doing well in California. He is polling at 32% among likely Democratic voters in the Golden State ahead of the state’s March 3 contest, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey published Wednesday. He is 18 percentage points ahead of Biden.