Unconventional methods

Daily Point

President of the United States of South Carolina?

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — In both national polls of likely Democratic voters and narrower polls of any state other than South Carolina, Tom Steyer’s numbers would have to significantly rise to even be considered a legitimate blip. But in the Palmetto State, the billionaire businessman has polled nearly as high as Sen. Bernie Sanders in some surveys and is at 14 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average in the state.

How has Steyer done it? With a ton of spending focused largely on a big and specific community, black voters, that he and his team say has been too often taken for granted by Democrats.

Why has Steyer focused such a huge effort on one state when he’s made almost none of the headway he’d traditionally need in others to win?

He said he’s doing it to become president, via a convoluted path perhaps only he can see.

Will his polling numbers in South Carolina translate to success at the ballot box Saturday? That’s why they play the game — to find out. Click here for more about how Steyer can affect Saturday's results.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Bishop’s wisdom

With the 2020 race swinging into gear in New York’s 1st Congressional District, The Point had coffee with the last Democrat to win that Suffolk seat, former Rep. Tim Bishop. 

Bishop has not endorsed a primary candidate, but he offered two observations from his own experience in Congress from 2003 to 2015. 

“The key to any race in New York 1 is Brookhaven,” Bishop said over breakfast in Patchogue on Thursday. That’s partly due to Brookhaven being home to a large chunk of the vote, and also because it has a “mix of communities,” pockets of voters from both parties. 

He said his performance in Brookhaven tended to be “pretty close” to the final margin in the district, win or lose. In 2014, for example, Rep. Lee Zeldin beat Bishop in the town by around 10 percent and the district by close to 9. The successful candidate this year “simply has to carry Brookhaven,” Bishop said.  

Bishop also talked about what he sees as a rightward shift in the district that began after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama — one that affected his own fortunes. 

Before the election, Bishop said, his polling showed that his favorables outranked his unfavorables by a margin of about 4 to 1. Within a few months of the election of the nation’s first black president, Bishop's favorables were down drastically and remained there until he lost to Zeldin. 

Obama started with an economic stimulus policy, part of an agenda Bishop said was “right.” But voters seemed to quickly sour on the president even in a district that supported Obama the year before. 

“I think that sort of swing to the center-right has remained in place," Bishop said. 

Bishop didn’t speculate on what all this history means for the future, but it paints a complicated picture for Democrats depending on how the rest of the year turns. Perry Gershon, the Democrats’ 2018 candidate, lost Brookhaven last cycle, and no matter who’s the Democratic nominee, Zeldin’s home is within its confines. More local Democratic candidates have had success in Suffolk, like County Executive Steve Bellone. But the party is waiting for a pronounced shift away from President Donald Trump here, which is likely crucial for its chances to topple Zeldin, who has tied his fortunes to the president.

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Don't panic

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Final Point

They’re with him

Former President Barack Obama made a rare jump into the 2020 Democratic primary this week, denouncing a misleading ad that uses his out-of-context voice to criticize former Vice President Joe Biden. 

Some Democrats might wish Obama would do more, beyond the kind of neutral fundraising emails like one sent out in his name from the party on Thursday. Subject line: “My announcement regarding party unity.”

In lieu of an endorsement, candidates are trying to grab the Obama mantle on their own: from Biden constantly alluding to his old running mate to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a former Republican who did not endorse a presidential candidate in 2008, running ads featuring Obama’s praise in an endorsement-like fashion. 

Locally, there’s Suffolk County Legislature candidate Jason Richberg, who got the Democratic nod in the March special election for the seat vacated by Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory.

“Working to elect President Obama inspired my career in public service, where I fight every day for a safer, cleaner, and more responsible Suffolk County,” said a flyer Richberg is circulating. 

Richberg wasn’t an Obama alumnus, but he said that in 2008 he worked on a voter registration campaign in Ohio, a state Obama won by a slim margin. 

Richberg said it was more than an in-and-out job. He was a student at Wilberforce University, a historically black institution in an area where a burned wooden cross marked “KKK” had been found in 1997. He became a fellow for Young People For, a program of the People for the American Way Foundation, where he helped organize a program to get students and others registered and to the polls. 

Richberg described the Obama win and the voting fight as part of his drive to get into politics. That included sending emails to Democrats to see how he could get involved. He said he had even “pestered” Suffolk Democratic leader Rich Schaffer on that front (years before Schaffer helped give Richberg the Democratic county legislative nomination). 

By 2010, he got his first political job working for Gregory, a fulfillment of his political drive and a moment which he said “transformed” his life. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano