Warren Narrows Gap With Biden in Poll: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren is gaining ground on Joe Biden and has pulled ahead of Bernie Sanders with the help of a groundswell of enthusiasm among liberal Democrats, a poll released Tuesday shows.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of national Democratic primary voters is the first major survey since last week’s debate in Houston, which featured a smaller field of 10 candidates. Biden leads with 31%, with Warren at 25% and Sanders, who was in third place at 14%.

Warren has gained six points in the poll since July. Much of that support comes at the expense of Kamala Harris. who is down 8 points since July. She now has 5% support and has dropped to fifth place behind Pete Buttigieg, who had 7%.

Among liberal Democrats, Warren leads with 36% -- 17 points higher than either Biden or Sanders. And she has an edge in voter excitement: 35% of respondents say they’re enthusiastic about her, compared with 25% for Sanders and 23% for Biden.

The poll was conducted Sept. 13-16 and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Steyer Richer Than Disclosure Form Can Show (3:00 p.m.)

Billionaire Tom Steyer, who’s used his personal fortune to campaign for the Democratic debate in October, couldn’t disclose most of the holdings that make his candidacy possible.

Steyer listed investments worth $50 million or more in five funds, including ones managed by Bishop Rock Capital LP, Hellman & Friedman LLC and his old firm, Farallon Capital Management LLC, in a filing to the Federal Election Commission.

But the financial disclosure, a requirement for candidates seeking federal office, did not include the funds’ underlying assets, either because of confidentiality agreements required by the funds or because they could not be determined. Steyer pledged to divest those assets if elected.

He said his holdings were worth between $611 million and $1.4 billion, but the latter number understates his wealth. Candidates disclose the value of their assets in broad ranges, with the highest bracket set at $50 million or more. Bloomberg estimates Steyer’s net worth at $3.1 billion.

The equities Steyer held included Union Pacific Corp, The Progressive Corp, Comcast Corp and EcoLab Inc, the 16-page disclosure shows, with holdings in all four each worth at least $5 million. Unlike then-candidate Donald Trump, who listed outstanding loan balances of at least $315 million on his disclosure, Steyer showed no debts on his filing.

De Blasio Gets no Love in New York (1:50 p.m.)

Bill de Blasio shouldn’t count on a home-field advantage in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A Siena College poll released Tuesday showed the New York City mayor had less than 1% support in his own state.

The poll is another blow to de Blasio’s candidacy, which has been mocked by the city’s tabloids. The New York Daily News found he had only worked an average of 4.1 hours a work day in May.

He said in early September that he would drop out of the race if he didn’t qualify for the October debate.

Joe Biden led the pack among New York voters in the poll at 22%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 17% and Bernie Sanders with 15%.

The poll of 798 New York State registered voters was conducted Sept. 8-12 and had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. -- Emma Kinery

Harris, Warren Demand Investigation of Kavanaugh (11:47 a.m.)

Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation of recent allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Tuesday, Harris suggested the Democratic-led committee use an outside task force so it won’t siphon resources for any impeachment inquiries into President Donald Trump.

The letter came two days after Harris, a presidential candidate, argued that Kavanaugh “must be impeached” and accused him of having lied to the U.S. Senate during his confirmation and “put on the Court through a sham process.”

Warren said in New York that a new inquiry is warranted because Kavanaugh was confirmed only “after the FBI had done a hurry-up job and the whole nomination was crammed down the throats of both Congress and the United States.” -- Sahil Kapur

Buttigieg Maps Plan to Blunt Weather Disasters (8:55 AM)

Pete Buttigieg unveiled his plan to beef up U.S. disaster preparedness and response on Tuesday, pledging to create a new insurance program to deal with an increasing number of catastrophic weather events and to establish a disaster commission during his first 100 days if elected president.
“In my eight years as mayor of South Bend, we’ve experienced a 500-year flood and a 1,000-year flood,” the Democratic candidate said in announcing the proposal on medium.com. “They happened within 18 months of each other. Floods like this should occur once in a lifetime, but with climate change, what was once rare has become routine.”

Buttigieg laid out three objectives: improving coordination between the federal and local governments; encouraging communities to fortify infrastructure and make other adaptations aimed at saving money and lives; and improving post-disaster relief efforts.

Under his plan, a Disaster Commission would be established to bring together federal, state, local and tribal officials along with volunteer organizations to streamline preparedness and recovery processes -- all overseen by a senior White House official.

In addition, a Buttigieg administration would set up a National Catastrophic Extreme Weather insurance program aimed at balancing risk with the private sector and reducing the need for emergency federal appropriations. An income-dependent exchange would also be created for families to purchase government-subsidized catastrophic insurance.

COMING UP

The United Food and Commercial Workers union will host forums with Democratic presidential candidates on Sept. 29 and Oct. 13. Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have confirmed they will attend.

--With assistance from Elizabeth Wasserman, Sahil Kapur, Emma Kinery and Bill Allison.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.net

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

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