2020 Daily Trail Markers: Super PAC supporting Biden is spending big in Iowa
Unite the Country, an independent political action committee supporting Joe Biden, is on pace to outspend his campaign in Iowa with just a week to go before the Iowa caucuses. The super PAC, which is able to collect unlimited donations, has purchased or reserved more than $4.5 million on broadcast and cable advertisements through Monday, when the Iowa caucuses take place.
According to CBS News campaign reporters Adam Brewster and Bo Erickson, the Biden campaign is on pace to spend a little less than that, about $4.2 million on television and radio advertisements so far, according to Kantar/CMAG data.
Other major candidates, like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have forsworn and repeatedly criticized super PACs on the campaign trail. They object to the fact that the groups are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate with a campaign. Individual donations to political candidates are capped at $2,800 per election (primary and general elections are considered separate).
Biden had initially opposed super PACs, but dropped his opposition in the fall. Just in the week leading up to the Iowa caucuses, Unite the Country is on pace to spend about $800,000 on advertisements compared to about $467,000 by Biden's campaign. That would put him on similar footing in ad time with Sanders and Warren. This week, Sanders is on track to spend $1.3 million, Warren has placed $1.1 million in ad buys, Amy Klobuchar has so far booked $383,000 in ad buys and entrepreneur Andrew Yang has purchased $188,014 on the airwaves.
The spending from the pro-Biden super PAC comes as polls have shown an incredibly tight race in Iowa with just a week left until the caucuses. The latest CBS News Battleground Tracker showed Sanders leading Iowa with 26%. He was followed by Biden (25%), Buttigieg (22%), Warren (15%) and Klobuchar (7%).
It's not immediately clear how much Buttigieg will be spending in the final week on TV in Iowa.
Businessman Tom Steyer, who has spent $15.8 million on advertisements in Iowa, has reserved $920,000 worth of air time in the final week in Iowa. The richest guy in the race, Mike Bloomberg, has dwarfed the field in ad spending, dropping more than $270 million on ads so far, but he's skipping the early states and focusing his attention on the states that vote on March 3, known as Super Tuesday.
Biden ignored questions from CBS News in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Monday about the super PAC spending in Iowa. He dropped his vocal criticism against super PACs after the Trump campaign pledged to spend millions of dollars against Biden's primary candidacy.
"If that was happening to any other candidate, there would be Democrats responding the same way...to take on Trump," Biden told CBS News at the time. "I have done nothing — nothing — to cooperate with [the super PAC]," Biden said and pledged that if he's elected, he would try to move toward public funding of elections.
Unite the Country was established in October by several longtime Biden allies and on Friday faces its first required disclosure of its donors, according to Federal Election Commission rules. "It's going to take more than a special-interest funded TV ad to win the caucus," Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir told CBS News. "Nothing will fundamentally change for the working class if candidates continue to solicit funds from millionaires and billionaires into SuperPACs." The Biden campaign has not responded to CBS News' request for comment.
Iowa voter Barb Dietz, 75, said even though she doesn't like the idea of super PACs, she likes the ads Unite the Country is broadcasting in Iowa. Dietz argued that it's unfair for Biden to have to weather the negative Trump campaign ads and at the same time compete with the self-funded campaigns of Biden's billionaire rivals, Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses will begin the presidential nominating process next Monday. The state's complex rules require candidates to have at least 15% support in most rooms to win delegates, meaning some people will end up supporting their second-choice candidate.
FROM THE CANDIDATES
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Amy Klobuchar is jetting to Iowa tonight, becoming the first senator to squeeze in a trip to the state on the day of the impeachment trial. CBS News campaign reporter Adam Brewster says Klobuchar's campaign announced she'll be holding an event in Council Bluffs.
But she'll have to be back in Washington, D.C. tomorrow when the impeachment trial resumes. Klobuchar's campaign rolled out two new advertisements set to air leading up to caucus day. "99," comes with a simple message: "Iowa, it's time to choose." It features quotes from Klobuchar's endorsements in the Quad-City Times and The New York Times and references her trips to all 99 Iowa counties.
In the other ad, "It's About You," Klobuchar tells Iowans "We have a president who thinks everything is about him. His tweets, his golf courses, his ego. But I think the job is about you…I'll be a president and a commander-in-chief who restores decency to the White House and gets things done for you."
STATE-BY-STATE
CALIFORNIA
The Southern California labor group that nearly derailed December's Democratic presidential debate has announced a double endorsement: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. CBS News campaign reporter Alex Tin says the announcement comes as UNITE HERE says the international union will sit out a 2020 presidential endorsement, leaving union locals free to pick their own favorites. The announcement could provide a boost for both Sanders and Warren as early voting kicks off in California. A Los Angeles Times poll today showed Sanders leading in the Super Tuesday contest, ahead of Warren and Joe Biden.
IOWA
Last night Drake University in Des Moines held its mock caucus, an event aimed at teaching students how the caucus process works. One-hundred and eight-six students attended the event.
After the first round of alignment, only the Buttigieg and Warren campaigns hit the minimum 15% support threshold to remain viable. That left many students with a few options: join one of those two groups, persuade their classmates to join their group in hopes of hitting the 15% mark, join a candidate who was able to grow their group to hit that mark, or go home.
Dozens of students wandered around frantically as they searched for where they would ultimately pledge their support. "I hate this," yelled one student who originally backed Klobuchar as she struggled to figure out who her new candidate would be. Some students remained loyal to their candidate, even as their group wasn't growing, in hopes that they would hit that 15% mark.
Ultimately, 33 students decided to leave rather than support a different candidate. Of course, nothing was really on the line last night, but CBS News campaign reporter Adam Brewster says it's a reminder that some diehard supporters may choose to head for the exits rather than backing a candidate who isn't their top choice. In the end, Warren won the mock caucus with 87 people supporting her, compared to 66 for Buttigieg.
CONGRESSIONAL COVERAGE
IN THE HOUSE
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the latest candidates of its "Red To Blue" program, or promising Democrats who are challenging Republican incumbents or are running for historically red open seats. The program looks to support these candidates with organizing and fundraising support to build their campaigns and is the latest move by the House Democratic campaign arm to signal their offense.
Some of these candidates are running in districts that Democrats barely lost in 2018, such as Betsy Dirksen Londrigan in Illinois' 13th district and Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas' 23rd district, which was previously represented by Republican Will Hurd before he announced his retirement.
Representatives Pete Aguilar of California, Lisa Rochester of Delaware and Donald McEachin of Virginia will co-chair the program alongside DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos of Illinois.
"The strength of our candidates matters, and these 12 local leaders have shown they have what it takes to win the trust of their voters and earn their votes. For that reason, I am proud to add them to our battle-tested Red to Blue program," Bustos said in a statement.
One of the Red To Blue candidates, Christy Smith, is running in former-Representative Katie Hill's California district. One of Smith's Democratic primary opponents, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, criticized the DCCC's backing of Smith and called her a conservative.
"The last time the DCCC made the decision to back a white conservative over a progressive person of color they got party-switching Rep. Jeff Van Drew," he said in a statement. "By explicitly picking one wing of the party over the other, the DCCC continues to divide the electorate and erode party unity." Smith closely outraised Uygur in fourth quarter fundraising and has gotten endorsed by well-known California Democrats, like Governor Gavin Newsom, as well as by organizations like Planned Parenthood and the National Education Association.
The strong fourth quarter numbers released so far by incumbent House Democrats are giving the Democratic campaign arm some reassurance that the millions spent by GOP outside groups about impeachment are not hurting their fundraising efforts, says CBS News political unit broadcast associate Aaron Navarro.
The House Majority PAC, which works to keep the Democratic majority in the House, announced Tuesday that it has raised $41 million in 2019, more than three times the amount raised in 2017, the last off-year. Comparatively, its Republican counterparts at the Congressional Leadership Fund raised $32.6 million, also an off-year improvement. The American Action Network, another outside Republican group, brought in more than $35 million.
DOWN BALLOT
Tonight's runoff election in Texas' House District 28 is the first test of how competitive the state is for both the presidential race and of the efforts to flip the state house Democrat ahead of 2021 redistricting. Former-presidential candidate Cory Booker Tweeted his support for Democrat Eliz Markowitz on Tuesday, joining other former and active presidential candidates like Beto O'Rourke, Julian Castro, Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden. Markowitz was the lead vote getter in the November primaries with 39%, but the thought among Republicans is that the base will consolidate and back Republican Gary Gates.
This Fort Bend and Houston-suburb seat has been held by a Republican for decades, but after Republican John Zerwas announced he'd be leaving, state and national Democrats are hoping to build on the changing demographics and claim the seat.
Fort Bend County Democrats Chair Cynthia Ginyard said she is excited to have Markowitz running in the seat, and that a Democrat win will show "the tide has changed." "It will send a message that it will be the pivot point. Remember, we have never been a player in that seat," she said. However, she said redistricting has not been as big of a factor for Fort Bend voters in this race, but that the fight for that will really begin in the March primaries. "Once we get this out of the way today, then yes we will be driving that message very hard," she told CBS News political unit broadcast associate Aaron Navarro.
MONEY MATTERS
CASH DASH
Senate Campaigns are releasing Q4 numbers ahead of the filing deadline on Friday, and Democratic candidates continue to post big numbers according to CBS News political unit associate producer Eleanor Watson. In Maine, Sara Gideon's campaign announced she raised $3.5 million in the fourth quarter, half a million more than in the last fundraising quarter. Gideon has received the endorsement of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in her bid to unseat Senator Susan Collins. In Texas, M.J. Hegar's campaign announced she raised $1.1 million in her bid to unseat Republican incumbent John Cornyn. The DSCC endorsed Hegar in December in the primary against at least five other primary candidates.
IMPEACHMENT
WITNESS LIST
Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, who is facing reelection later this year, did not commit to voting either way on witnesses in the impeachment trial in response to a question from CBS News.
"At this point, you know, we're in the middle of trial. I continue to listen to the arguments and will continue to do this during the question period that we have coming forward," Gardner said.
CBS News political unit associate producer Eleanor Watson notes that Gardner is among the most vulnerable senators and is under scrutiny for his handling of the trial. In 2016, Clinton won Colorado by five percentage points, and in 2018 the state trended blue. Democratic candidate Jason Crow defeated incumbent Republican Mike Coffman for a seat in the U.S. House, and Jared Polis won the governor's race by over 10 percentage points to become the first openly gay governor in the country.