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Buttigieg Makes First TV Ad Buy of His 2020 Bid: Campaign Update

Buttigieg Says ‘Blast Off’ Momentum Is Fleeting: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg has booked his first television time of the 2020 campaign, reserving spots on Iowa cable systems starting Saturday.

Buttigieg Makes First TV Ad Buy of His 2020 Bid: Campaign Update

Buttigieg is spending $87,110 for ads to run on CNN and MSNBC, according to Advertising Analytics, which tracks political commercials. His campaign has also spent small amounts of money on radio ads in the state. The bulk of the time was purchased in the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines markets.

The openly gay South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s poll numbers have remained stuck in single digits, but he was the top fundraiser among Democratic presidential campaigns in the second quarter, with $24.8 million. The campaign has focused heavily on Iowa, where it opened 20 offices in 20 days and has nearly 100 organizers.

Progressive Group Will Wait to Give 2020 Nod (5:48 p.m.)

Don’t expect Democracy for America, a progressive grassroots group, to pick an early champion in the Democratic nomination fight between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

In the last cycle, the group endorsed Sanders in December 2015, two months before the first nominating contest. For 2020, it is likely to wait until some of the early primaries are over, said Democracy for America Chairman Charles Chamberlain.

Buttigieg Makes First TV Ad Buy of His 2020 Bid: Campaign Update

The group won’t survey its 1 million members on who to endorse before a clear consensus on the progressive candidate has emerged. Chamberlain said that probably won’t happen until after the “Super Tuesday” primaries on March 3, when voters in 14 states including California and North Carolina hit the ballot boxes.

“That’s when I think we’re going to have a lot more clarity in the race,” he said. “It’s more likely we’ll have a consensus candidate at that time.”

Sanders led in a July survey of the group’s members, with 32.2% support. Warren had 25.8%, Senator Kamala Harris of California got 11.8%, and former Vice President Joe Biden got 9.5%. -- Laura Litvan

Warren Questions Pence’s Stay at Trump Hotel (3:40 p.m.)

Senator Elizabeth Warren has written to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, seeking information on Vice President Mike Pence’s stay at a property belonging to President Donald Trump during an official visit to Ireland this week.

Warren said the incident was “another example of what appears to be open corruption in this administration.” She asked about the costs associated with Pence’s trip, whether the State Department reviewed his plans, and whether it was aware of a “suggestion” by the president for Pence to stay at the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Doonbeg.

“This is only the latest instance in which government officials, companies or special interest groups have patronized the president’s hotels -- enriching the president and his family in numerous cases, with taxpayer funds,” Warren wrote in a letter dated Sept. 4.

Trump on Wednesday said he never spoke to Pence about staying at the golf resort, contradicting a comment from the vice president’s chief of staff. Pence stayed in Doonbeg Monday and Tuesday, and met with Ireland’s top officials in Dublin, about 125 miles away.

Trump has been criticized for failing to take steps to divest his properties, most recently after he suggested that the 2020 Group of Seven summit of world leaders, which will be hosted by the U.S., should be held at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. -- Sahil Kapur

Trump PAC Wants to Face Sanders, Warren in 2020 (1:00 p.m.)

The chairwoman of President Donald Trump’s super-PAC said she wants to see Trump face off against Democrats Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren in the general election.

“I would like to see either Bernie or Warren. It’s such a clear division of: Are you going way left, or are you going to stay with the president?” Linda McMahon, who chairs America First Action, said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg.

Buttigieg Makes First TV Ad Buy of His 2020 Bid: Campaign Update

She said the two would offer voters the sharpest contrast to Trump on the direction of the economy and the country, arguing that the president is “not extreme right, he’s moderate right.”

McMahon, a former executive for World Wrestling Entertainment, ran the Small Business Administration under Trump before stepping down in April to chair the super-PAC.

“What we’ve seen is Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders splitting that ultra-left side. And which one of them is going to ultimately coalesce that and would be a better candidate to see on stage with the president? That remains to be seen,” she said. -- Sahil Kapur

Pete Buttigieg says ‘blast off’ momentum is fleeting (9:08 am)

Peter Buttigieg says he’s not concerned about flattening poll numbers as his campaign focuses on its ground game and courting black voters.

It’s not realistic “to expect we would have continued in blast off mode forever,” the South Bend, Indiana, mayor told MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe” program Thursday. Buttigieg, who has struggled to break into the top tier of presidential hopefuls despite impressive fundraising, said his campaign is “now more of a level phase where we’re building out the ground game.”

Buttigieg Makes First TV Ad Buy of His 2020 Bid: Campaign Update

The campaign opened 20 offices in 20 days in Iowa and staffed up nearly 100 organizers in the first state to hold a presidential caucuses in February 2020.

Buttigieg, whose campaign raised almost $25 million in the second quarter, has been polling in the single digits although a recent Quinnipiac poll found he would beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup 49%-40%.

Buttigieg said that black voters are crucial to his chances to become the nominee. “In order to win and in order to deserve to win, of being able to earn the support of black voters, which is especially challenging, I think, when you’re newer on the scene,” he said. -- Caitlin Webber

COMING UP

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with most of the other Democratic candidates, are expected to attend the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention in Manchester on Saturday, Sept. 7.

Ten candidates will face off in the third Democratic debate on Sept. 12 in Houston. It will be the first time Biden and Warren share a debate stage. Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Sanders and Andrew Yang will also participate.

--With assistance from Caitlin Webber, Sahil Kapur and Laura Litvan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net

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

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