Warren debate performance gives her a lift

The Democratic presidential candidates ganged up on debate newcomer Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday night, but none more so than Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who desperately needed a spark for her campaign.

After a disappointing fourth-place finish in New Hampshire near her home turf, Warren came out fast and kept charging during the two-hour debate on NBC. Her campaign claims she raised $7 million online in the first hour of the debate, her best fundraising hour of the campaign.

“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against — a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’” Warren said. “And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump; I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

She also made it clear that supporting Bloomberg, a billionaire and the former mayor of New York City, would be a big mistake. “Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

As the Globe‘s Renée Graham put it, “Warren went after Bloomberg with such ferocity and precision that the former mayor looked as if he’d just been stopped, thrown up against a wall, and frisked outside his tony New York townhouse.”

Warren led the pack in speaking for almost 17 minutes of the two-hour debate, with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar close behind. But unlike Warren, Klobuchar lacked a breakthrough moment (or, in Warren’s case, a series of them).

At one point, Bloomberg said his company, Bloomberg LP, had no tolerance for “the kind of behavior the #MeToo movement has exposed.” But he got a reality check from Warren when she noted the mayor had women sign non-disclosure agreements for sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Saying the women were being “muzzled,” Warren called on Bloomberg to release them from those contracts. “None of them accuse me of doing anything,” Bloomberg said to boos, “other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told.” Some estimates say there are around 64 women bound by those agreements, which date back several decades.

The other person on stage sounding the call against the wealthy — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — didn’t miss much, even if he wasn’t the night’s shining star. First off, he probably won’t lose many votes to Warren as long as her focus remains on centrists. Second, he remains the leader in the polls, coming in almost 9 percentage points higher than the second-place contestants Joe Biden and Bloomberg.

Bloomberg was on the defense throughout the Las Vegas debate, having to explain and apologize for stringent policing policies during his tenure as New York’s mayor that disproportionately impacted black and brown locals. Candidates also attacked him for switching parties so often, and his recent funding of Republican candidates.

Whether the infectious energy Warren displayed will translate to votes remains to be seen. On Twitter, she’s got memes, she’s got hashtags, she’s got the “trending,” something that was definitely not happening a week ago, when she was barely in the conversation.

Warren’s polling at 14 percent nationally, according to yesterday’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. That’s statistically tied with Biden, Bloomberg, and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Ahead of Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, Sanders leads with 35 percent, according to pollster Data for Progress, with Warren, Buttigieg, and Biden at 16, 15, and 14 percent. Considering that the two men in that clump had a lackluster performance on Wednesday night, it could be fair to say Warren has a shot to come in second in Nevada, and widen her margin of support.

But beware the specter of Bloomberg. With $64 billion to his name, and a bulging (and growing) staff paid big bucks, he could easily take this, even with the drama tied to his name and his uneven performance on Wednesday night.

Bloomberg made some attempts to hold off Sanders. In one heated exchange that got some applause, Bloomberg accused Sanders of being the “best-known socialist in the country who happens to be a millionaire with three houses.” Sanders responded that he has a home in Vermont, a second in DC, and a small summer place like lots of other Vermonters.

President Trump was watching, and wasn’t impressed with Bloomberg. “Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones,” Trump tweeted.

SARAH BETANCOURT

 

BEACON HILL

Ludlow Rep. Thomas Petrolati, who has served in the House since 1987, won’t run for reelection. (MassLive) Revere Rep. RoseLee Vincent also will not run again. (State House News Service)

Rep. David Nangle of Lowell, facing federal charges that he used campaign funds for personal expenses and won passage of legislation to help a contractor who helped him, steps down from his leadership positions in the House. (State House News)

The father of a slain woman, Amanda Dabrowski, campaigns for new law extending labor protections for domestic violence victims. (Telegram & Gazette)

The Molly Bish cold case inspires a bill to expand DNA use. (State House News Service)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

The Washington Post has a, well, deep dive, on Boston’s efforts to get out in front of rising sea levels.

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office ruled that the Weston select board violated the state’s Open Meeting Law in 2018 deliberations it carried out over a proposed 40B affordable housing project. (Boston Globe)

Meetings are planned in Western Mass. on crumbling concrete foundations. (MassLive)

ELECTIONS

Rivals welcomed an ill-prepared Michael Bloomberg to the Democratic debate stage in Las Vegas with an all-out pummelling and also took lots of shots at Bernie Sanders, now the clear front-runner in national polls. (Washington Post) Politico’s headline summed up succinctly the billionaire blow-in’s performance: “Bloomberg bombs in debate debut.” MassLive reports that Elizabeth Warren and Bloomberg sparred in particular over non-disclosure agreements and stop-and-frisk policies. (MassLive)

A super PAC with ties to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker jumps into two GOP primary races for legislative seats, backing one Republican over another. (CommonWealth)

Former governor Bill Weld tells the Springfield Republican editorial board that he believes he can beat the Democrats, if he can get past President Trump in the primary. (MassLive)

IMMIGRATION

Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Boston office, explains the thinking behind the agency’s decision to bring in specially trained agents to pursue undocumented immigrants with criminal records. (WBUR)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Struggling homeowners sue Blue Hub Capital for predatory lending practices. (Telegram & Gazette)

Daniel Forte of the Massachusetts Bankers Association and Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association say Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal for “modernizing” sales tax collections will hurt small businesses. (Gloucester Daily Times)

EDUCATION

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded  its outlook for Simmons University to negative as the school embarks on an ambitious building campaign. (Boston Globe)

Caroline Kennedy and former Reagan administration official Ken Duberstein, with whom she is close, both quit an advisory board to the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, reportedly because of differences with Kennedy School dean Douglas Elmendorf. (Washington Post)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Brockton city councilors voted to take an official stance opposing a recent decision by the VA Boston Healthcare System to eliminate detox unit beds on its local campus by consolidating the substance abuse services with an existing psychiatric care unit. (The Enterprise)

TRANSPORTATION 

Plans are inching ahead for commuter ferry service between East Boston and downtown Boston. (Boston Globe)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The company hired to monitor the contracting process for the state’s second offshore wind procurement says there were strong concerns about whether the winning bidder, Mayflower Wind, would be able to complete its project. The report is heavily redacted, so the exact nature of those concerns is unclear. (CommonWealth)

Close to 300 people pack a hearing room in Lee to protest an environmental settlement with General Electric that calls for a PCB landfill in town. (Berkshire Eagle)

Climate activists are upping their pressure on Harvard University to divest its endowment holdings in fossil fuel companies. (Boston Globe)

More than a dozen activists were arrested, including two who chained themselves to equipment, at the construction site of a natural-gas compressor station in Weymouth. (Patriot Ledger)

MARIJUANA

Cambridge halts opening of any new recreational marijuana stores as lawsuit continues. (Boston Business Journal)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The Department of Correction tries to turn the tables on a prisoner suing the agency for assault and civil rights violations by accusing the inmate of assaulting corrections officers. (CommonWealth)

The Boston Immigration and Customs Enforcement office said it arrested two immigrants as part of its crackdown on those in the country illegally who are wanted on serious criminal charges. (Boston Herald)

Governor’s Council members criticize Baker-Polito judicial nominees as patronage appointments. (Eagle-Tribune)

Police issue warrants for teenagers allegedly involved in stealing two Lamborghinis from a Herb Chambers dealership in Wayland. (MetroWest Daily News)

A Northampton father recants his earlier confession that he injected Liquid-Plumr into his daughter. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)