Though he’s essentially tied with Trump in Florida polls now, Trump’s campaign says that will change amid a planned saturation ad campaign designed to boil the campaign down to a choice between a conservative and a socialist.
“We’re ready to dump it all on Bernie. But not yet,” said a top Trump campaign official, who was not authorized to discuss internal strategy publicly.
Polls show Bloomberg, prior to the Wednesday debate, was leading in Florida matchups against primary rivals as well as Trump. In the primary, Bloomberg led Biden 26-20 percent with Sanders at third with 13 percent, according to one survey of the primary by Ryan Tyson, the Republican pollster who conducted the new survey in Florida.
Sanders’ relatively low standing in Florida contrasts sharply with his top position in national polls and his results in the first three early states. And Sanders might not be so easy to beat as some forecast, Tyson said.
“The Republican Party was overtaken by populism in 2016, so it wouldn’t shock me to see the Democrat Party overtaken by a socialist this cycle,” Tyson said. “He’s got problems with Florida Hispanics but it’ll still be a close race here. It’s the nature of our state.”
In at least two South Florida congressional seats, Democrats are as concerned about a Sanders nomination as Republicans are rooting for it. Both Hispanic-heavy districts were won by Democrats in 2018 and now two Republicans are running to unseat them by making socialism a top messaging issue.
After the 60 Minutes interview, Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell wrote: “As the first South American immigrant member of Congress who proudly represents thousands of Cuban Americans, I find Senator Bernie Sanders’ comments on Castro’s Cuba absolutely unacceptable. … The Castro regime murdered and jailed dissidents, and caused unspeakable harm to too many South Florida families. To this day, it remains an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people, subverts the free press, and stifles a free society.”
Last month, when asked about Sanders’ positions and statements about Latin America, Mucarsel-Powell, who is neutral in the primary, declined to comment.
Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, who is neutral in the presidential primary, also made it clear that she sees Sanders as a problem if he leads the party ticket.
“A Sanders nomination would make it more difficult to win Florida,” Shalala said. “Could I still win with a Sanders nomination? Yes. Would it make it more complicated? Yes. … The majority of voters in the district are not socialist, whether they’re Latino or they’re white.”
Rep. Ted Deutch, another South Florida Democrat, has endorsed Bloomberg. He said Sanders will struggle with Jewish voters in Florida.
“It’s not just socialism. When it comes to Israel, a lot of people are really uncomfortable with the thought of using critical assistance to Israel as some sort of bargaining chip, some withholding aid as a threat to Israel,” Deutch said. “For a candidate who runs in Florida and talks to the pro-Israel community, when they hear a candidate saying maybe we ought to … withhold aid to Israel to make some sort of political statement, that’s something that’s going to concern a lot of people.”
Sanders has already drawn fire in Iowa and Nevada from a political group called Democratic Majority for Israel, and it’s eyeing Florida as well. The group’s strategist, prominent Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, wouldn’t discuss strategy but pointed out that Sanders got some of the smallest support among Jewish Democratic voters in a Pew poll last month. A new Siena College poll showed Trump doing better among Jewish New Yorkers than Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish family.
As he has with discussing socialism, Sanders points out there’s a nuance in his position on Israel. At a Nevada town hall Tuesday, he said he opposes the government there, not the nation.
“To be for the Israeli people and to be for peace in the Middle East does not mean that we have to support right-wing, racist governments that currently exist in Israel,” Sanders said, winning loud applause from the audience.
Sanders’ adviser Weaver said Jewish voters will be attracted to Sanders as a historical figure.
“We would hope that they would want to come out and see the first Jewish president elected in the United States of America,” Weaver said, adding that voters of all kinds will reject the “smears” that Sanders is anti-Israel or a property-seizing communist.
“People aren’t going to fall for this,” he said. “It’s red-baiting.”
But to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who represents a Central Florida battleground district, Sanders’ comments are “ill-informed & insulting to thousands of Floridians. Castro was a murderous dictator who oppressed his own people. His ‘literacy program’ wasn’t altruistic; it was a cynical effort to spread his dangerous philosophy & consolidate power.”
“Whether the subject is Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Israel or other foreign policy challenges,” Murphy, who backs Bloomberg, wrote on Twitter, “@SenSanders has consistently taken positions that are wrong on the merits and will alienate many Florida voters now and in the general election if he is nominated.”
Source: politico.com
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