Bloomberg Would Require All New Cars To Be Electric: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- The Democratic National Committee announced the rules to qualify for the next presidential debate in New Hampshire on Feb. 7.

The six candidates who participated in the January debate in Iowa on Tuesday -- Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer -- have already made the cut for the forum at St. Anselm College outside Manchester hosted by ABC News, WMUR-TV and Apple News.

To qualify under the new criteria, candidates must either meet polling and donor thresholds or have emerged from the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses with at least one pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

The new rules require candidates to have 5% in four national polls approved by the DNC, or 7% in two early-state polls from New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. They must also have contributions from 225,000 donors.

Candidates have until the night of Feb. 6 to qualify. The New Hampshire primary is on Feb. 10.

Sanders Leads in Emerson Poll of New Hampshire (3:27 p.m.)

Bernie Sanders maintains his top spot in New Hampshire, less than a month before voters will cast their ballots in the first primary state, according to an Emerson College poll.

Sanders is at 23%, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 18% and Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, both at 14%. The numbers were only slightly changed from an Emerson poll in November, and the order of the top four candidates remained the same. Sanders dropped 3 percentage points from the last poll and Buttigieg fell 4. Warren and Biden didn’t change.

The biggest movement was for Amy Klobuchar, who had 10% support against 2% in November. Andrew Yang had 6%, followed by Tulsi Gabbard at 5% and Tom Steyer at 4%.

Spencer Kimball, polling director for Emerson College, said even though Sanders is the front-runner, many of his supporters doubt he’ll be the ultimate winner of the state. “It appears his supporters are doubting that he will be the actual nominee, with only 49% expecting him to win the nomination,” Kimball said in a statement. “On the flip side, Joe Biden supporters are confident, with 87% thinking he will be the nominee.”

The poll published Thursday was conducted Jan. 13-16 and had a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points. -- Emma Kinery

Biden Is Endorsed by Henry Cisneros (2:59 p.m.)

He’s the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, a former secretary of Housing and Urban Development and a high-profile Latino politician endorsing a 2020 candidate.

No, not Julián Castro.

With Castro on the campaign trail with Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden is counter punching by announcing the endorsement of Henry Cisneros, who has almost the same political biography.

Their career paths track so closely, you might even call Cisneros Castro’s doppelgänger, if Castro didn’t already have a twin. Cisneros was mayor of San Antonio in the 1980s, a position Castro held from 2009 to 2014. Cisneros served as HUD secretary under former President Bill Clinton while Castro had the job under Barack Obama.

Biden also informally got the nod from another former HUD secretary, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, back in January of 2019. -- Ryan Teague Beckwith

Bloomberg Would Require All Electric Vehicles (11:11 a.m.)

Michael Bloomberg would require all new vehicles sold by 2035 to be electric with 15% of new trucks and buses pollution-free by 2030 as part of a plan to replace gas-powered vehicles and reduce emissions.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate released a plan Friday addressing emissions from transportation -- now the largest source of carbon pollution -- that includes setting a national zero-emissions standard and offering rebates to help low- and moderate-income families buy electric vehicles or get vouchers for using transit.

Bloomberg’s campaign didn’t say how much the initiative would cost or how it would be funded. It also didn’t provide funding details for other elements of his plan such as building more electric-vehicle charging stations, increasing investment in public transit and jump-starting high-speed rail.

Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. -- Mark Niquette

COMING UP:

The Democratic presidential candidates will debate again in New Hampshire on Feb. 7.

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3. The New Hampshire primary is Feb. 11. Nevada holds its caucuses on Feb. 22 and South Carolina has a primary on Feb. 29.

(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

--With assistance from Mark Niquette and Ryan Teague Beckwith.

To contact the reporter on this story: Max Berley in Washington at mberley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Ros Krasny

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