General relief at Michael Bloomberg's fan party, Tuesday February 25 in Denver, Colorado. The former New York mayor was less aphasic during the Democratic candidates' debate than when he first appeared on February 19 in Las Vegas, Nevada. "Last week was brutal, comments Uriel Berrum, 26, director of the billionaire’s digital campaign and founder of a start-up promoting Latinos in politics. This time, we have a lot more content to retweet. "
The evening is held in one of the trendy locations of Five Points, a neighborhood where "Anglos" avoided venturing ten years ago. A gay bar with TV screens fixed on the exposed bricks. "This is the start of a comeback", exults Janette Sadik-Khan, the former New York City mayor's transportation commissioner, an urban planner who has successfully created bike paths and pedestrian spaces on Broadway. "The competition will soon come down to a duel: Michael Bloomberg against Bernie Sanders", says ex-mayor of Miami (Florida) Manny Diaz, who is also on tour in support of "Mike 2020".
Leaving late in the campaign, absent from the first ballot, Michael Bloomberg bet on Super Tuesday on Tuesday, March 3 – fourteen states concerned, including Colorado – to impose itself as the appeal of the moderates: the anti-Bernie Sanders.
The State of the Rockies is not the richest in delegates (67 against 415 in California), but it has a high proportion (40%) of independents, those voters who declare no preference when registering on the lists election. The technocrat-billionaire hopes to illustrate his strategy of gathering in the center. "Mike Bloomberg does not think that it is by promising a revolution that we will win states like Florida, Wisconsin or Colorado", says Curtis Hubbard, a local political veteran recruited by the billionaire.
Voters quartered
In 2016, "Bernie" was ahead of Hillary Clinton, but this year, Colorado swapped its caucuses for a primary open to independents. The senator from Vermont is given the winner, but behind him the landscape is more difficult to decipher. As elsewhere, voters are torn apart.
Steve Kapner had voted for Sanders in the 2016 caucuses. Retired from education, with sparkling eyes, he is hardly afraid of socialism: his mother, of Polish origin, was an admirer of the very progressive vice-president of Roosevelt , Henry Wallace. In ordinary times, he would not even have considered the candidacy of a billionaire as "Not very charismatic" than Michael Bloomberg. But this year, it is re-examining its priorities. "Winning is the most important, he believes. Bernie made two mistakes: declaring himself socialist and proposing a Medicare for All plan that eliminates private insurance. Unless he agrees to change it, I don't think he can win. "
