As of January 29, Republican oligarch Michael Bloomberg-- who is spending a million dollars a day on Facebook ads alone and who has the largest paid campaign staff in American history-- had spent $24,090,200 on TV ads in Texas. The only other presidential candidate who had spent any money at all before the 29th on TV ads was Tom Steyer, who spent $168,970.Early yesterday, the brand new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll was released to much media fanfare. Bloomberg's $24 million had done him some good-- as he is ahead of two of his rivals for the conservative lane: Mayo Pete and Klobuchar.
• Bernie- 24% (up 12)• Status Quo Joe- 22% (down 1)• Elizabeth- 15% (down 3)• Mini Mike- 10%• Mayo Pete- 7% (up 1)• Klobuchar- 3% (up 1)
Ross Ramsey, writing up the results for Tribune readers, began by emphasizing that Bernie "has doubled his support among Democratic voters in Texas and now leads the race for that party’s presidential nomination in Texas... While Biden’s support was static, Sanders was surging in Texas, and Bloomberg was rising on the strength of millions of his own money spent on advertising after a late start."Super Tuesday, March 3rd, will be dominated by California and Texas. Why? These are the pledged delegates controlled by each Super Tuesday state:
• Alabama- 52• Arkansas- 31• California- 415• Colorado- 67• Maine- 24• Massachusetts- 91• Minnesota- 75• North Carolina- 110• Oklahoma- 37• Tennessee- 64• Texas- 228• Utah- 29• Vermont- 16• Virginia- 99
There are also 13 pledged delates up for grabs from Democrats Abroad on Super Tuesday. Asked if they have a favorable opinion of the Democratic candidates, Bernie and Elizabeth were out front (69%) each followed by Status Quo Joe (62%) and Mayo (51%). Bloomberg and Klobuchar are in bad shape, just 48% favorable for the oligarch and 46% favorable for the employee abuser. Bloomberg also has the most unfavorables-- 26% with Biden having the second most unfavorables (25%).
“It’s not so much that Biden has collapsed as that he has been exposed,” said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin. “He had superior name recognition in a crowded field. The question was whether he would build on that.”A slight majority of all Texas voters-- 52%-- said they would not vote to reelect President Donald Trump in November. Republicans remain solidly in his corner: 90% said they would vote to reelect Trump, including 80% who said they “definitely” would do so. Democrats feel just as strongly: 93% said they would not vote for the president’s reelection, including 88% who would “definitely not” vote for him. Independent voters were against reelection, but less so: 38% said they would vote to reelect Trump, while 62% said they would vote against him.
I suspect that if Trump loses Texas in November, we won't he hearing any more talk about any of his spawn running for anything again.