Several campaign aides for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden floated a potential alliance plan to Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s team ahead of the Iowa caucuses, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Ms. Klobuchar’s team rebuffed them and apparently didn’t see it as a “serious overture” — though it does illustrate the up-for-grabs nature of the contest ahead of the Feb. 3 caucuses.
There is a “viability” threshold for candidates in the Iowa caucuses, which is 15% in most precincts. Supporters of candidates who don’t hit the threshold have the opportunity to pick another candidate after the first “alignment” or tally.
The discussion was about the campaigns encouraging their supporters to back one another in precincts where one of them falls short of the 15% threshold.
Ms. Klobuchar has been on the rise in some recent polling, though she is still short of hitting 15% in Iowa in public surveys on the race.
She and Mr. Biden are likely to be competing for more moderate voters, and some Democrats are warily eyeing Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders’ rise in the polls, fearful of the prospects of nominating an avowed “democratic socialist” to run against President Trump in the general election.
As Mr. Trump was gathering momentum in the 2016 GOP primary, the campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and now-former Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced an alliance in April of that year where each candidate would avoid campaigning in certain states to try to stop Mr. Trump.
But the apparent agreement quickly devolved into a mess once the candidates themselves declined to encourage their supporters to back someone else.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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