The Other McCain

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Steyer, Buttigieg Finally Admit Failure

Posted on | March 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Steyer, Buttigieg Finally Admit Failure

The latest quitter in the Democratic primary campaign:

Pete Buttigieg, who rose from relative obscurity as an Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday.
The decision by the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency — and among the youngest ever — came just a day after a leading rival, Joe Biden, scored a resounding victory in South Carolina. That sparked new pressure on the party’s moderate wing to coalesce behind the former vice president.
“The truth is the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy if not for our cause,” Buttigieg, 38, told supporters in South Bend, Indiana. “We must recognize that at this point in the race, the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and country together.”
He didn’t endorse any of his former rivals, though he and Biden traded voicemails on Sunday. Buttigieg has spent the past several weeks warning that nominating progressive leader Bernie Sanders to take on President Donald Trump would be risky.
Buttigieg on Sunday called on supporters to ensure that a Democrat wins the White House in November and that the party’s success carries over to down-ballot races for House and Senate. During previous debates, Buttigieg said Sanders could threaten Democratic seats in Congress.

Through the end of January, Buttigieg’s campaign had collected nearly $83 million in donations, and he got a total of 28 delegates, so he paid roughly $3 million per delegate. As pathetic as that is, however, it’s not nearly as pathetic as billionaire Tom Steyer’s campaign:

With the results in from South Carolina, a strong case can be made that Tom Steyer has just concluded the worst campaign in the history of presidential politics.
Steyer, the California-based founder of Farallon Capital and the co-founder of Onecalifornia Bank and Beneficial State Bank, became a household name — at least among those households with MSNBC — by being the single largest funder of efforts to impeach President Trump. After telling reporters in January 2019 that he would not seek the presidency, Steyer exercised his prerogative to change his mind and declared his candidacy in July.
According to the FEC, Steyer has spent $253,718,074 through January 31, 2020. All but $3,555,597 was from his own pocket. Pre-Bloomberg, a quarter billion dollars for the first four primaries is a staggering amount. But the incredible lack of return on that investment is even more eye-popping, especially for someone whose campaign’s sole justification was his supposed business acumen. . . .
Since the Steyer campaign spent $253 million through January, it’s safe to assume another $30 or so million for February, when television buys were at their highest, so let’s call it $280 million.
His seventh-place finish in Iowa netted him 3,061 votes on the first alignment and zero delegates.
His sixth-place finish in New Hampshire netted him 10,727 votes and zero delegates.
In Nevada, Steyer spent $13.55 million on television ads — more than twice as much as the other five candidates combined. His 9,503 first-alignment votes were sixth most and again failed to capture a single delegate.
When the Leap Day primary in South Carolina finally arrived, it looked like Steyer’s last chance to eke out a return on his huge investment.
With 99% of the total counted, Steyer will finish in third place with 59,814 votes, less than a quarter as many as the state’s winner, Joe Biden. At 11.4% of the statewide vote, he will leave South Carolina — and the presidential campaign — without a single delegate. In South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, he came a couple hundred votes short of the 15% threshold required to earn a delegate, finishing with 14.55%.
So $280 million for 83,000 votes comes to an astonishing $3,373 per vote. His $280 million for zero delegates is without precedent.

And these people thought they were qualified to run the country.




 

Category: Democrats

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